Paralegals assist lawyers with administrative duties, researching and writing.
The American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE) and the American Bar Association (ABA) have created standards pertaining to the formal education of a paralegal. This education requires at least 60 hours of classroom study, some of which include instruction in professional ethics, legal research, knowledge and ability to draft legal documents, and written and oral communication skills.
Professional Ethics Activities
Paralegals are not regulated by the Rules of Professional Conduct and Guidelines; however, members of a paralegal association are required to follow the association's Code of Ethics, which are comparable to those which govern lawyers. Activities to ingrain a code of professional ethics into a paralegal student may include role playing activities where the instructor acting as a client asks the student a series of questions such as requesting legal advice, providing confidential information or asking to engage in other business that would be considered unethical under the code of ethics. Students would have to respond correctly in these situations to pass the activities.
Legal Research Activities
Legal research comprises a large part of a paralegal's responsibilities. Factual investigation pertaining to specific cases, research of state and local codes relating to a case and use of legal databases such as Lexis-Nexis are necessary for a paralegal to master. Activities to develop legal researching abilities include having the students do the necessary investigative research related to a fictional case to help prepare for various stages of that legal representation, such as for depositions and trial.
Drafting Legal Documents
The ability to read, identify and draft legal documents is necessary when becoming a paralegal. Introductory exercises in reading legal documents and identifying which type of document they are such as a correspondence or brief can help the student learn this skill. Intermediate and advanced activities may include creating fictional legal documents and having the instructor function as the lawyer by reviewing and amending the documents as necessary.
Written and Oral Communication Activities
Paralegals may have responsibilities which include correspondence with clients or opposing counsel and need to know communicate in a professional and confident manner. For written communication activities, the instructor can draft a document from a fictional client that the paralegal students must respond to. Students should be reminded of the code of ethics regulations before responding to the document. Instructors can evaluate the written responses in terms of professionalism, grammar and format. For oral exercises, the instructor can pair up all the students and have half of them act as opposing counsel and half as paralegals. Instructor should allow students to discuss pertinent matters regarding a fictional case in these specific roles. Instructor should have the students reverse roles after observing their performance.
Tags: legal documents, Activities Paralegals, American Association, code ethics, documents necessary, draft legal