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Simply Law Jobs jobs carries 1000s of paralegal vacancies from the leading UK recruitment agencies and direct law firms.
The word ''Paralegal'' is a generic term which comes from the Latin "Para", which loosely means "to cover", so broadly speaking, a Paralegal is someone who 'covers' for a lawyer.
The National Association of Paralegals, defines a Paralegal as:
"a person qualified through education and training to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of the law and legal procedure and who is not a qualified solicitor or barrister. Paralegals may work for, or be retained by Solicitors within the legal profession or they may work within a legal environment within commerce, industry or the public sector or may practice as independent paralegal practitioners".
Within the legal profession, Solicitors have always relied upon their unadmitted support staff and could not operate effectively without them. Paralegals are important members of the legal team, playing key roles in the legal process. Their duties involve them working closely with Solicitors and Barristers and may take them from office to courtroom, from clients to conferences, from the law library to the negotiating table. The work that experienced Paralegals undertake is quite often virtually indistinguishable from that undertaken by the Solicitors who employ them.
By their very nature, Paralegals tend to specialise. If they start their career in a Solicitor's office in a particular field of law, be it civil litigation, matrimonial and domestic, conveyancing, criminal work, or whatever, they tend to stay in that particular field, and therefore become an expert in it.
Within commerce and industry many organisations need employees who have a broad knowledge of law and procedure together with an expertise applicable to their particular sector. Paralegals work in areas such as Financial Services, Insurance, Banking, Building Societies, the Retail Sector, Credit Control, Export, etc.
In the Public Sector are Government Departments, Local Authorities, Court and Tribunal Staff, Welfare, the Probation Service, Social Services, the Police and the like. In these areas a Paralegal qualification can be invaluable.
The Institute of Paralegals say - a 'Paralegal' is the term used to describe non-lawyers (i.e. people who are not qualified solicitors or barristers) who do legal work - regardless of their job title.
There are half-a-million paralegals in the UK, although most paralegals do not have that job title - they are referred to as administrators, managers, clerks, etc.
But regardless of job title, if you spend a significant amount of time applying, administering, interpreting, monitoring, enforcing or advising on the law then you may also be a legal professional - a paralegal.
We are an incorporated, wholly independent and not-for-profit professional body created to represent paralegals.
The UK government granted us institute status in early 2005. Our application for institute status was supported by the Law Society of England & Wales, the Bar Council, the Crown Prosecution Service, Citizens Advice and others.
Although we primarily represent paralegals in England and Wales, membership applications from other countries/jurisdictions are very welcome. We represent and assist:
Our role is to:
Their members work in most industries, sectors and professions.
A few examples of the many hundreds of occupations that require paralegal input are:
The Institutes job is to work closely with employers, government, other professional bodies and academe to define and promote the profession of paralegals across all industry and professional sectors.
Regardless of job title and area of practice, all paralegals have one thing in common - they are qualified through education, training and/or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of the legal system and legal concepts. Frequently, but not always, paralegals do work that might otherwise be performed by a solicitor or barrister.
