Plenty of people have mulled over going into law at one point or another, but the reality of eight years of schooling is often out of reach. One career that puts you in the middle of all the action in a law office or legal department is as a paralegal. Paralegals are essential if a legal team is going to shine, and this career path is one of the quickest ways to be a part of a legal team without attending 8 years of college. It’s a secure career path, but before you jump into anything, having a clear idea about the day-to-day tasks of the job is important.
Details, details, details!
Paralegals have to be detail oriented. And when we say details, we mean it! When you ask a paralegal just how important the details are, they’ll tell you that if you miss a detail, it can mean a case. So it’s important to understand that if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t miss the little things, who is on time, and who can juggle a calendar full of overlapping deadlines, then this might be the career for you!
Paperwork
Paperwork is how a law office runs. Paralegals are responsible for most of the paperwork sent to clients and sent to the courts. They have to draft legal documents with precision, and mistakes are not an option. Good written communication is essential, too, since you’ll be writing plenty of correspondence with clients. Paralegals will also draft pleadings, the notice that a law office provides to a defendant to let them know they’re involved in a court case. You can see from that important work why it’s essential for anyone interested in a paralegal career to be able to make sure their writing is precise and they catch even the smallest mistakes.
One-on-one with Clients
Lawyers are busy. They’re in and out of the office, in and out of meetings, and in and out of the courts. With their busy schedules, which – by the way – paralegals often arrange, they don’t always have the time to spend enough time with clients. Depending on your role in the office, paralegals spend a lot of time working one-on-one with clients. They investigate the facts of the cases and spend time interviewing clients. Based on what they find, they then create written reports to update the attorneys in the office.
Research
A curious mind will help you excel in the paralegal field. You’ll be tasked with a lot of research about laws, but you’ll also be asked to find legal articles to support a case and stay up to date on various regulations. Because you’ll be a fact finder regarding some of the lawyers’ cases, you’ve got to have a great mind for making essential connections between ideas. Being able to understand what the lawyer needs with little direction and being able to make connections between the research and various cases means that your ability research is critical to a successful career as a paralegal.
Washington Technical Institute
If this work sounds like what you were made for, Washington Technical Institute’s fully online paralegal certificates can be completed in a matter of months, with daily start dates. Such flexible start dates make these programs unique and much more accessible for our students. An additional benefit of WTI’s programs is that we offer affordable pricing and monthly payments to help our students leave school without debt.
We offer an 8 month, 15 credit National Paralegal Certificate for individuals who want to investigate what paralegal work is all about; a 12 month, 33 credit Senior Paralegal Certificate for those who want to go a bit more in-depth with their studies and have more range for job opportunities; and a 16 month, 45 credit Master Paralegal Certificate for motivated students who want to get the most out of their training and take one of the national certification exams through paralegal associations like NALA or NALS.
Although our goal is to help our students graduate their programs with little to no debt, we also recognize that some students might need to utilize a loan for their educational investment. We are excited to announce our partnerships with Climb Credit or Ascent, student lending companies focused on financing career-building programs.
If you’re ready to enroll and start your training to enter a high-paying career without a college degree, you can register for your program online through our website. Still have questions about our programs? Feel free to call us at 800-371-5581 or text us at 952-465-3702. Our admissions specialists will be happy answer whatever questions you have.
