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Paralegal Programs
According to the American Bar Association, a legal assistant or paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. If you are seeking a paralegal career, you can get practical information for drafting resumes and preparing for interviews, as well as job search strategies. There are resources that contain articles on a number of ethical and professional issues to provide you with diverse opinions on current issues in the paralegal profession.
Private law firms employed 7 out of 10 paralegals and legal assistants; most of the remainder worked for corporate legal departments and various levels of government. Employment for paralegals and legal assistants is projected to grow much faster than average for all occupations through 2014. Employers are trying to reduce costs and increase the availability and efficiency of legal services by hiring paralegals to perform tasks formerly carried out by lawyers (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics). In May 2004, full-time wage and salary paralegals and legal assistants had median annual earnings, including bonuses, of $39,130. The middle 50 percent earned between $31,040 and $49,950. The top 10 percent earned more than $61,390, while the bottom 10 percent earned less than $25,360 (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Become a paralegal through an online or study at home. A paralegal, who works under a lawyer's supervision, has many job duties, including drafting motions and subpoenas, document review, and filing papers in courts. Paralegals typically deal more with procedural law than with substantive law. Paralegals may work independently as freelancers and in private practice as well as directly under the employ of individuals or corporations. Freelance paralegals are rare and have been the subject of much controversy as in some cases they have crossed the line into the "unauthorized practice of law" (UPL) defined in state statutes as the practice of law without a license. The vast majority of paralegals work for law firms, solo-practitioner attorneys, the government, or in legal departments of large corporations, which are headed by in-house attorneys. Paralegals and legal assistants held about 224,000 jobs in 2004.