<p>I applied for a job the other day as a legal assistant, I have an interview in a couple of days, but I've just learned that legal assistant and paralegal are synonyms. I've read also that some firms will train their paralegals in house but does that actually happen? What does the paralegal certificate actually involve? Legal assistant sounds like being a secretary, paralegal denotes some sort of professionalism in my mind. Does anyone know what this entails? Any help appreciated, I'd like to convince myself I'm the best girl for the job before I persuade them!</p>
<p>With the growing number of paralegals there has also been an increase in certificate programs as well as a desire within the field to require certificates. I have been a paralegal for 20 years (I'm a college grad, not certified) and this was an issue even back then. Whether to use the term paralegal or legal assistant has likewise been an ongoing issue in the field (many agree that legal asst sounds a lot like admin asst, aka secretary?) and the job responsibilities can vary widely depending on what area of law you are working in, where you work, whether a large or small firm or a corporation, large or small city, government etc. (what a trial paralegal does is very different from what a corporate paralegal does), and some individuals without a degree or certificate may start out with smaller firms as secretaries and "fall into" the position perhaps because the firm cannot afford both secretaries and paralegals. </p>
<p>However, many firms will hire paralegals without certificates, typically college grads, and often prefer to train them inhouse so that they learn the firm's particular procedures and methods. The fact that you have a degree is an indication to your ability to perform paralegal duties. And yes, its definitely different from being a secretary and can offer a wide variety of duties involving research, drafting pleadings and corporate documents, client contact, document management, working with automated databases, assisting at trials, etc. The main requirement across the board for paralegals is that they have strong analytical and organizational skills. Here's a link that provides a general overview of the field but there is a lot of information available on the internet if you want to do some googling.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos114.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos114.htm</a></p>