The Paralegal Program provides students with specialized legal training, enabling them to gather and analyze facts relevant to legal disputes, perform legal research, assist attorneys in drafting legal documents, and prepare witnesses and evidence for presentation during legal proceedings. Paralegals may not practice law. RCSJ's paralegal program has been ABA approved since 1998.
Program Goals
Program graduates will demonstrate the ability and skill to:
- Recognize ethical issues that arise in a legal work environment and apply rules of professional conduct to resolve them
- Apply specialized legal training to enable them to gather and analyze facts relevant to legal disputes
- Demonstrate oral and written skills, including drafting legal documents for attorney review
- Apply basic principles of legal research and analysis
- Utilize time-management skills, including prioritizing various tasks, to meet deadlines
- Demonstrate sensitivity in working with diverse groups of people
Transfer Credit for Legal Specialty Courses Transfer Credit for Legal Specialty Courses is limited to a maximum of five, 3-credit courses completed at another ABA-approved institution. Prior to acceptance of these transfer credits, a course description comparison and syllabus evaluation is made by the Program Coordinator to assure that the courses are comparable. If comparability is found, a recommendation is made to the Dean of Law and Justice for approval. Any legal Specialty (PLG) course taken prior to ABA approval (August 1998) must be taken again to qualify for the issuance of a Paralegal Program degree or certificate.
