Legal Training: Paralegal 2.0

Contributed by Tess Britton

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By the All Criminal Justice Schools career research team –

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Paralegals: Training Beyond the Classroom

If you imagine paralegals as bleary-eyed bookworms wading through heavy tomes in a dark and dusty law library, you may be surprised. Like people in professions everywhere with tech-savvy training, paralegals are turning to Web 2.0 technologies to streamline their jobs and advance their careers.

In a profession driven by billable hours, paralegals know that time is money. Why scour legal journals and regulatory documents when your answers may just be a tweet away?

Paralegals today are using online resources and social networking as another way to keep pace with changes in the legal profession, finding a valuable resource for their ongoing training. Paralegal professional organizations now offer networking opportunities on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and Twitter is also becoming a popular tool. Paralegals are using Twitter to share links to helpful articles, learn about job opportunities, and enjoy "water cooler" camaraderie with their virtual colleagues.

Post Paralegal Training: Networking with Web 2.0 Technology

Even those more inclined to network face-to-face are beginning to use online resources to make professional connections.

California paralegals in the Bay Area are ahead of the curve. They found a resource in Meetup.com, an online networking site that brings people with shared interests together in the real world. Their Meetup group began in early 2008, and other similar paralegal Meetup groups are beginning to form in other cities and regions across the U.S.

The social web has given paralegals an easy way to find one other in the real world, where they are developing mentoring relationships, getting advice about different paralegal specialties, and forming study groups to offer one other support in their paralegal training. Paralegal school is not the end of a paralegal's education. Whether online or off, networking is the key to staying current in the changing legal profession. As technology and laws evolve, paralegals are adapting to the changes, using web technologies to step out of the law library and into the broader community of their professional colleagues.

Learn about training for paralegals and find a paralegal school on All Criminal Justice Schools, your source for paralegal career and education information.