How Do Paralegals Get Smart?

A paralegal is by nature bright and socially adept. She has mastered language skills, and can artfully feint and parry both verbally and in written form. He is a whiz at multi-tasking. Their deductive reasoning is unparalleled.

What makes paralegals so smart?

? Obviously, individuals can take credit where personal credit is due. Some legal assistants are gifted or quick learners. Others just plain work hard to achieve their goals, their noses to the grindstone.

? The second ingredient is higher education. Nobody ever got hurt by learning more.

? On-the-job experience, i.e., baptism by fire, completes the makeup of a paralegal?s brilliance.

We?ll leave gifted individuality out of the equation for now, although that might make an interesting separate article later. Somebody remind me! Moving right along to higher education: a college education is pretty much considered mandatory these days. An associate?s degree would be the minimum requirement for many jobs, and most career positions demand a bachelor?s degree. Highly specialized training in the fields of law, science and medicine, mean even more years in school.

Depending on how far a paralegal wants to go in his career, he may be able to fly on his own coat tails through an associate?s degree, or two years of higher education. This is particularly true if classes focus specifically on paralegal training. Many two-year paralegal degrees require a number of hours ?shadowing? a paralegal during work, and doing as many tasks as possible under the supervision of an attorney or paralegal. That actually combines bullets two and three, but let?s not get ahead of ourselves!

The last subpart is on-the-job experience. Once you?re to this point, you deserve a pat on the back. You?re hired! Now all you have to do is steadily improve your skills. How does a paralegal improve her skills? By rapt attention to the work of other paralegals, attention to details in general and the files assigned to her, and attending the needs of her assigned attorney. To stay current on changes in law and technology that affect her position as a paralegal, she attends seminars. In the midst of all that attention to attending, or is it attending to attention, he also joins paralegal associations and volunteers on committees.

We must not forget another way paralegals can be smart. Some of them get hired in various positions in a law office, get their degree either in person or by taking online classes, and with those ?gets,? got smart as they worked their way into a great paralegal position. Do you want to ?Get Smart??

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Laura McDonald is a paralegal. She is a member of NFPA (National Federation of Paralegal Associations). Laura is experienced in the areas of personal injury, civil litigation, family, environmental and corporate law, estate planning and bankruptcy. She works for Michael L. Hawkins & Associates, P.L.L.C., located in Frankfort, Kentucky. The firm's website is http://www.mlhlawky.com