Specializing As A Paralegal

When you are first training to be a paralegal, all of your attention is normally focussed on making sure you are as attentive as possible in your classes, looking to get the best qualifications possible before starting in the job market. However, as your course comes to an end, it’s always a good idea to put some thought into the positions you plan to apply for in the future.

While all paralegals play a roughly similar role in the legal profession, what field you choose to specialisz in can make a difference to your working environment and day to day duties. To help you focus on the paralegal specialization that suits you best, we’ve highlighted five of the most common paralegal specialties and how that specialty affects the job role.

Common Paralegal Specialties To Consider

• Real estate paralegal – Real estate paralegals specialize in dealing with the huge amounts of paperwork that commonly accompany most real estate transactions. Their responsibilities include reviewing and filing documents, coordinating meetings and deadlines, and maintaining correspondence between all the various parties involved in the transaction.

• Litigation paralegal – Litigation paralegals work in any sector of the law where a legal action is being taken. Because of the adversarial nature of litigation, the work is often fast-paced and high pressure. Litigation paralegals often perform tasks that are widely associated with the criminal justice system, such as preparing for trial, overseeing discovery and interviewing witnesses.

• Immigration paralegal – Immigration paralegals can work for major law firms with a focus on immigration law, but can also be found providing pro-bono work for charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). One of the skills that usually sets immigration paralegals apart is fluency in more than one language, allowing them to communicate the complexities of immigration law with clients for whom English is a second language.

• Corporate paralegal – Corporate paralegals work for large corporations rather than individual clients. Their responsibilities include reviewing contracts, making sure the corporation operates within State and Federal regulations and composing internal regulation. By comparison to some other types of paralegals, corporate paralegals mostly work behind the scenes and do not regularly interact with individual clients or the courts.

• Family law paralegal – Family law paralegals often represent clients involved in custody disputes, drafting correspondence to clients, attorneys and the court. Preparing pleadings and sending files to opposing counsel. Because of the nature of family law there is often a strong level of emotion involved in dealing with clients.

Training For Your Chosen Specialism

Here at Northwest Career College, we run the top paralegal programs in Nevada, offering our students the skills and experience they need to successfully enter the field of paralegal work and position themselves to maximize their earnings. Our Paralegal instructors are seasoned attorneys and highly trained professionals who are able not only to teach you the law, but also to guide you through the many ways a paralegal integrates into a Las Vegas law practice.

We offer on-campus and online paralegal classes to accommodate your work and family schedule. Our Career Services team will work with you to help you find the best paralegal employment opportunity in Las Vegas, and their expertize in this area has given us a 100% success rate in job placement rate for paralegal graduates. Call us today at (702) 403-1592 to find out what our paralegal program can offer you.