University of Virginia Library

Pre-Paralegal

By DREW GARDNER

CD/Andy Groher

After spending three years
and several thousand dollars on
the sheepskin, there are
numerous career opportunities
open to the law student. One
of the most popular of these is
enlisting in the ranks of an
established law firm.

Now it is possible to serve
in that same firm, with certain
limitations, after three months
of training costing only seven
hundred dollars.

This is a new concept in the
legal profession. The concept
itself is in response to the need
for skilled, capable
"non-lawyers." The career
offered is that of "The
Lawyer's Assistant," and the
training is done by the
Institute for Paralegal Training.

Don't be misled by the
career title though; a Lawyer's
Assistant is by no means a legal
secretary. According to pre-law
advisor and third-year law
student Bob Strand, "Before
this concept, one was either a
lawyer or a secretary in a firm;
there was no middle ground.
What the law firms have finally
found out though is that you
don't need three years of law
school to do a lot of what
lawyers do."

This is where paralegal
graduates are valuable. With
their specialized training, they
do research and analysis work
that had previously been
handled exclusively by lawyers.
In fact, most lawyer's assistants
are assigned their own
secretary to free them to do
the work they've been trained
for.

Since it's founding in 1970,
the Institute for Paralegal
Training has had over 400 of
its graduates hired by law
firms, banks and corporations
throughout the country. They
offer, to the qualified college