LawRae

  Summarize how the role of paralegals have developed over the years Illustrate the duties and challenges of the paralegals in their different practices Explain the intricacies involved in working with attorneys and law firms State the education qualification and licensing required in paralegal practices Paralegal = can perform substantial legal work, but ultimately works under attorney supervision. Attorney = possesses the full law license and ultimate professional authority/responsibility. Arizona LP = occupies an unusual space between those two, with independent authority within a defined scope. Now you can probably see why Arizona compared the LP concept to the nurse practitioner model. 😆 ---------------------------------------------- The National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) is a professional association of paralegals.  Jurisprudence is a system or body of law. In 1986, the ABA formally acknowledged the contribution of paralegals  In 1997, the ABA modified...

I found a new field that I am genuinely excited about. At 58 years old, I’m beginning a new journey into the legal profession. I’ve enrolled in a paralegal program, but I’ve also discovered something I didn’t even know existed until recently: Arizona’s Legal Paraprofessional profession. This is not simply another name for a paralegal. Arizona created a relatively new category of licensed legal professional called a Legal Paraprofessional, or LP . The Arizona Supreme Court actually compares the role to a nurse practitioner in the medical field. That comparison immediately made sense to me. A nurse practitioner isn’t a physician, but with the appropriate education and license, an NP can independently perform many services that people traditionally associate with doctors. Arizona has created something similar in law. Within the area of law in which they are licensed, Legal Paraprofessionals can do things that surprised the hell out of me when I first learned about them. They can provide c...