thumb|A paralegal in 2004, photo distributed by [[National Archives and Records Administration|NARA]]

A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant or paralegal specialist, is a legal professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with an admission to practice law. The market for paralegals is broad, including consultancies, companies that have legal departments or that perform legislative and regulatory compliance activities in areas such as environment, labor, intellectual property, zoning, and tax. Legal offices and public bodies also have many paralegals in support activities using other titles outside of the standard titles used in the profession. There is a diverse array of work experiences attainable within the paralegal (legal assistance) field, ranging between internship, entry-level, associate, junior, mid-senior, and senior level positions.

In the United States in 1967, the American Bar Association (ABA) endorsed the concept of the paralegal and, in 1968, established its first committee on legal assistants. In 2018, the ABA amended their definition of paralegal removing the reference to legal assistants. The current definition reads, "A paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training, or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible."

The exact nature of their work and limitations that the law places on the tasks that they are allowed to perform vary between nations and jurisdictions. Paralegals generally are not allowed to offer legal services independently in most jurisdictions. In some jurisdictions, paralegals can conduct their own business and provide services such as settlements, court filings, legal research and other auxiliary legal services. These tasks often have instructions from a solicitor attached.

Recently, some US and Canadian jurisdictions have created a new profession where experienced paralegals are being licensed, with or without attorney supervision, to allow limited scope of practice in high-need practice areas such as family law, bankruptcy and landlord-tenant law in an effort to combat the access-to-justice crisis. The education, experience, testing, and scope of practice requirements vary widely across the various jurisdictions. So too are the number of titles jurisdictions are using for these new practitioners, including Limited License Legal Technician, Licensed Paralegals, Licensed Paraprofessionals, Limited Licensed Paralegals, Limited License Paraprofessionals, Allied Legal Professionals, etc.

In the United States, a paralegal is protected from some forms of professional liability under the theory that paralegals are working as an enhancement of an attorney, who takes ultimate responsibility for the supervision of the paralegal's work and work product. Paralegals often have taken a prescribed series of courses in law and legal processes. Paralegals may analyze and summarize depositions, prepare and answer interrogatories, conduct document review, draft procedural motions and other routine briefs, perform legal research and analysis, legislative assistance (legislative research), draft research memos, and perform some administrative professional/quasi-secretarial or legal secretarial duties, as well as perform case and project management. Paralegals often handle drafting much of the paperwork in probate cases, divorce actions, bankruptcies, and investigations. Consumers of legal services are typically billed for the time paralegals spend on their cases. In the United States, they are not authorized by the government or other agency to offer legal services (including legal advice) except in some cases in Washington State (through LLLT designation) in the same way as lawyers, nor are they officers of the court, nor are they usually subject to government-sanctioned or court-sanctioned rules of conduct. In some jurisdictions (Ontario, Canada, for example) paralegals are licensed and regulated the same way that lawyers are and these licensed professionals may be permitted to provide legal services to the public and appear before certain lower courts and administrative tribunals.

Official definitions

Various professional organizations offer varying definitions of a paralegal.

  • From the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) [US]: "A paralegal is a person, qualified through education, training or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of legal concepts and is customarily, but not exclusively, performed by a lawyer. This person may be retained or employed by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency or other entity or may be authorized by administrative, statutory or court authority to perform this work. Substantive shall mean work requiring recognition, evaluation, organization, analysis, and communication of relevant facts and legal concepts."
  • From the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) [US]: "Legal Assistants (also known as paralegals) are a distinguishable group of persons who assist attorneys in the delivery of legal services. Through formal education, training and experience, Legal Assistants have knowledge and expertise regarding the legal system and substantive and procedural law which qualify them to do work of a legal nature under the supervision of an attorney." This is the NALA's former 1984 definition. In 2001, the organization adopted the American Bar Association's (ABA) definition of a paralegal/Legal Assistant.
  • From National Association of Legal Secretaries (NALS) [US]: "A Legal Assistant, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible."
  • From the American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE) [USA]: "Paralegals perform substantive and procedural legal work as authorized by law, which work, in the absence of the paralegal, would be performed by an attorney. Paralegals have knowledge of the law gained through education, or education and work experience, which qualifies them to perform legal work. Paralegals adhere to recognized ethical standards and rules of professional responsibility."
  • From the Institute of Paralegals [United Kingdom]: "A paralegal is a non-lawyer who does legal work that previously would have been done by a lawyer, or if done by a lawyer, would be charged for."
  • From the Paralegal Society of Ontario [Canada]: "A paralegal is an individual qualified through education or experience licensed to provide legal services to the general public in areas authorized by the Law Society of Upper Canada."
  • From the National Association of Licensed Paralegals [United Kingdom]: "A person who is educated and trained to perform legal tasks but who is not a qualified solicitor or barrister."

A legal secretary is generally a secretary who has a basic understanding of legal terminology and the specific formatting required by a particular court or government agency. Legal secretaries are also typically responsible for keeping case files organized and indexed, often taking on the duties of a file clerk. Although legal secretaries may be trained to prepare some basic legal papers and letters, they generally have little or no knowledge of particular legal doctrines, statutes or regulations, and typically have no training or experience in conducting legal research or drafting legal documents, pleadings, motions, briefs or other court papers. On the other hand, a typical paralegal in the United States can perform all of these tasks under an attorney or law office. Paralegals bill for their time at a higher rate than legal secretaries.

In Canada the title Legal Secretary is outdated. The recognized title of that position is Legal Administrative Assistant, or Legal Assistant.

Education, training, and certification

Though not required in most jurisdictions, many paralegals have completed a formal paralegal education program. Formal paralegal education programs may result in a diploma, higher diploma, advanced diploma, vocational education, associate degree, bachelor's degree, master's degree, or graduate certificate programs in the academic discipline of legal management and paralegal studies, or a paralegal professional certificate of continuing education. Others may enter through adjacent fields of study such as bachelor's, academic minors, master's, or graduate certificate degree programs in criminology and the sociology of law, political science, public administration, legal studies, sociology, literature and creative writing, history, philosophy, other fields in the social sciences, humanities, and liberal arts, or proof of higher education in any field of study or academic discipline. Many paralegals have completed all of their training or obtained a higher education degree in an adjacent field before entering the profession, while some, mostly those of the Baby Boomers Generation and some older Gen Xers unlike many Millennials, Gen Zers, and younger Gen Xers, have only on-the-job training, entering with only a high school diploma and no formal higher education which was a common phenomenon during that time, with others later completing their education while working their way up from some administrative assistance or secretarial positions in law firms, in-house legal departments, or government agencies where depending on the type of work completed may or may not have required a bachelor's degree level of specialized knowledge in a given field. Many paralegals take Continuing Legal Education (CLE), Continuing Education Unit (CEU), or Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses to fulfill the requirements of their firm, employer, government-appointed regulatory body, association, or to obtain and maintain a professional certificate or license to practice.

Economics

Paralegals exist precisely because they are not lawyers and thus can do the work more cheaply.

  1. Set and collect fees for legal services

Beyond the five acts above, the paralegal can perform practically any other task, including legal research, legal writing, factual investigation, preparation of exhibits, and the day-to-day tasks of case management. The key is that attorneys are entirely responsible for the actions of their paralegals and, by signing and filing court documents drafted by paralegals (or law clerks), attorneys make those documents their own.

In the United States, the need for accredited qualifications and bar licensure limits the number of licensed attorneys. There are some tasks for which a bar license is unnecessary but some amount of legal training is helpful. To lower costs, businesses may choose to employ paralegals to undertake such tasks. Paralegal time is typically billed at only a fraction of what a lawyer charges, and thus to the paralegal has fallen those substantive and procedural tasks which are too complex for legal secretaries (whose time is not billed) but for which lawyers can no longer bill. This in turn makes lawyers more efficient by allowing them to concentrate solely on the substantive legal issues of the case, while paralegals have become the "case managers".

The growing demand of paralegal professionals at a rapid rate has resulted in schools and colleges catering to such education being established in many places. It has been found through a survey that currently 50,000 students are enrolled in paralegal education courses. The American Association for Paralegal Education (AAPE) itself has more than 450 members; 260 of them are ABA-approved. Seminars and events are being held by various institutes to help broaden the knowledge base of the paralegal service providers and the importance associated with it. Although the nation is experiencing a recession, the paralegal profession continues to grow. Law firms and legal departments are cutting costs and increasing access to legal services by hiring paralegals.

The United Kingdom has gone one step further. Much legal work by lawyers for the poorer elements of society is legally aided, or paid for by the state. As overall costs have risen due to more people than ever engaging with the law, the government has reduced such legal aid. As a result, the work has become uneconomic for many and they have ceased doing it. Paralegal advisory firms are stepping in to fill the gap.

The increased use of paralegals has slowed the rising cost of legal services and serves in some small measure (in combination with contingency fees and insurance) to keep the cost of legal services within the reach of the regular population. However, one commentator has warned that "our profession makes a serious error if it uses legal assistants only as economic tools."

Paralegal medical consultants

Some attorneys who practice in fields involving medical care have only a limited knowledge of healthcare and medical concepts and terminology. Therefore, legal medical consultants which are professional physicians, physician assistants, paramedics, nurses and respiratory therapists, have become fully trained as paralegals in the manner described above and assist behind the scenes on these cases, in addition to serving as expert witnesses from time to time.

By country

Australia

Australia has a distinct regime for the utilization of paralegals. According to one paralegal studies scholar: