Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries and Paralegals

However, in recent years, particularly in private law firms, there has been a trend toward calling legal secretaries by the title "legal assistant."

Legal secretaries perform a variety of administrative tasks, including word processing, filing and recordkeeping, taking phone messages, preparing client bills and assembling filings for the courts. Except on rare occasions, their time is not billed to clients.

Professional paralegal organizations have recently taken steps to clarify the situation. In a June 2006 survey, Legal Assistant Today published a survey in which 94 percent of its readers preferred the title paralegal to that of legal assistant. Many respondents felt that the paralegal title denoted a more professional and independent image than that of legal assistant. Many also echoed the confusion caused by too many legal secretaries and administrative assistants using the legal assistant title.

In 2004, the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) added the certification category Certified Paralegal (CP) to the Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) certification it established in 1976. It did so in response to the preferences of its members, as well as because term usage varied depending on geographic region. Since making the change, paralegals who pass NALA's certification exam and meet other certification requirements can use either distinction, although most prefer to call themselves certified paralegals.

So although it might sometimes cause some confusion, for most prospective legal assistants and paralegals the matter is simply a question of semantics. If you are unsure whether a training program or potential job is for paralegals or legal assistants, look more carefully at the program or job description.

If either concentrates on administrative tasks such as word processing, recordkeeping or court filing procedures, it is most likely for legal secretaries and not paralegals. However, if conducting legal research or drafting legal documents is mentioned, you can be sure that the school or employer is targeting paralegals.

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