A Message from the Dean What is a Legal Assistant? Program Overview What Makes Our Program Unique? Admissions

What Is a Legal Assistant?

A legal assistant or paralegal is one, who through experience or training, has acquired specialized skills to assist lawyers, legislators, and other public servants. In many states, most anyone can call himself a paralegal, even with a minimal level of skill and legal knowledge. Those within the legal profession, however, have high expectations of paralegals. (Recognizing these high expectations, California recently passed a law requiring certain minimum requirements for paralegals. See B&P Code Sec. 6450.)

As you might expect, those expectations depend on the type of law firm or government agency in which one is employed. Although there are still many general practitioners today, most attorneys develop an area of specialty such as personal injury, probate, family law, or insurance litigation. The attorney's paralegal will, of course, have responsibilities that relate to that specialty. For example, a paralegal who works for an attorney specializing in tax law may never see the inside of a courtroom, while a trial attorney's paralegal may spend weeks at trial organizing documents and exhibits.

The size of the law firm involved also has a significant effect on the responsibilities that can be expected. Generally, a paralegal employed by a sole practitioner will have some contact with clients while one who works at a large firm may never see a client but instead may work on a team of several attorneys and support staff.

Because of these variations in paralegal job descriptions, it is impossible to design a program that teaches everything that any paralegal must know. Instead, the Oak Brook College paralegal program attempts to offer an overview of the American legal system, a sampling of a wide variety of legal specialties, and basic practical skills.

Notwithstanding the differences noted above, there are some prerequisites that transcend every type of paralegal. A trained paralegal will develop important organizational skills with attention to detail. Every paralegal must understand basic legal concepts and how to communicate effectively. Finally, all paralegals must fully understand the ethical responsibilities imposed upon attorneys as "officers of the court" and the support staff that they employ. While a paralegal is not permitted to practice law, and thus may not represent parties in court or give legal advice, paralegals play an increasingly important role in legal services and government.

Our goal is that this course will lay a foundation of legal knowledge and skills. But the learning does not end at the completion of this course. Rather, this course will hopefully open doors of opportunity in the years ahead. With each opportunity will come specialized training, allowing you to build upon the foundation of legal understanding you gain through this course.