Professional Paralegal (PP) – NALS

Professional Legal Secretary…the advanced certification for legal professionals (PLS)

Certified Paralegal (CP); Certified Legal Assistant (CLA)

Paralegal Advanced Competency Exam (PACE)

$108 new member (7)

($98/yr after)

$53 associate (8)

$19 student

$108 new member (7)

($98/yr after)

$53 associate (8)

$19 student

$99 new member – active (2)

$84 associate (3)

$40 student

$50 sustaining (4)

$85 new member (paralegal or paralegal supervisor)

$60 associate (5)

$50 student

$120 sustaining (6)

Education and/or Employment

(1) Have five years of experience performing paralegal/legal assistant duties.

(2) Be a graduate from an ABA approved Paralegal Program.

(3) Hold a Bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies.

(4) Be a graduate from an accredited paralegal program which consists of a minimum of 60 semester hours of which a minimum of 15 hours is substantive law.

(5) Hold a Bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field and have one year of experience performing paralegal/legal assistant duties.

(2) Bachelor’s degree in any field plus one year’s experience as a paralegal. Successful completion of at least 15 hours of substantive legal courses will be considered equivalent to one year’s experience as a paralegal.

(3) High school diploma or equivalent plus seven years’ experience as a paralegal under supervision of a member of the bar, plus evidence of a minimum of 20 hours of CLE within two-year period prior to exam date.

Part 2 – Legal Knowledge and Skills: Legal research, citations, legal terminology, the court system and ADR, and the legal skills of interviewing clients and witnesses, planning and conducting investigations,
and docketing

Part 3 – Ethics and Judgment: Ethical situations involving contact with clients, the public, coworkers, and subordinates; other ethical
considerations for the legal profession; decisionmaking and analytical ability; and ability to recognize priorities

Part 4 – All areas of substantive law, including administrative; business organizations and contracts; civil procedure and litigation; criminal; family; real property; torts; wills, trusts, and estates; admiralty and maritime; antitrust; bankruptcy; environmental; federal civil rights and employment discrimination; immigration; intellectual property; labor; oil and gas; pension and profit sharing; taxation; water; workers’ compensation

Part 2 – Office Procedures and Technology: records management, computer
information systems, equipment/ information services, office
procedures and practices, office accounting

Part 3 – Ethics and Judgment: Ethical situations involving contact with clients, the public, coworkers; ethical considerations for legal
profession; decisionmaking and analytical ability; ability to recognize
priorities

Part 4 – Legal Knowledge and Skills: Legal Knowledge: citations, legal
research, and the ability to prepare legal documents based on oral
instructions and materials; all areas of substantive law

Two essays required: (1) Communications (2) Judgement/Analytical Ability. Graded subjectively.

Domain II – Development of client legal matters

Domain III – Factual/legal research: obtain factual/legal information;
investigate/compile facts; inspect/evaluate evidence; ascertain/analyze legal authority.

Domain IV – Factual/legal writing

Domain V – Office Administration

Exam based on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Member

Nonmember

$250 (retake $50/section)

Site fees range from $34.50 to $49.50 depending on length of session.

Frequency

CLE
Required

Topics

75 hours (five hours legal ethics)

Minimum of 50 hours on substantive areas, minimum of 5 hours on ethics, and maximum of 20 hours on other areas. Substantive areas should include those that reflect the substantive nature of a paralegal’s
work, enhance a paralegal’s knowledge of the profession, update
knowledge of the law, or relate to the Professional Paralegal examination;
including, but not limited to, procedural and communications
skills, legal research and citations, and procedural and substantive
law.

75 hours

Education on PLS exam topics or teaching, lecturing, writing, earning college credit, earning other certifications

50 hours, including at least 5 hours of ethics

12 hours of CLE, including at least 1 hour of ethics.