by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
For reasons that aren’t exactly clear, Florida has far and away more paralegals than any other state.
For reasons that are more apparent, Florida Community College at Jacksonville is contributing more than its share to that number.
“The community colleges are well known by the general public for the efforts they put forth for students’ success,” said Elaine Puri, program director of the Legal Studies Institute, which oversees the education of paralegals. “We are better able to support students than others are.
“I don’t want to offend anybody, but we are more student-focused. The community college mission is to support student success. This campus certainly does that.”
About 300 students are enrolled in the Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) program in pursuit of a two-year associate’s degree. Many of those students are high school graduates; some have earned bachelor’s degrees in other fields and discovered they had a strong interest in the law.
“They bring a passion to the program,” said Puri. “It often comes from them having some sort of experience with the legal system, helping prepare a will or maybe something involved with family law.
“They got into it and developed a passion for getting the information together for their case.”
There are 254 legal assistant, or paralegal, programs in the United States. All have to be approved by the American Bar Association, which maintains stringent guidelines.
The program at FCCJ started in 1989 and was approved in 1997.
“It’s a rigorous approval process,” said Puri. “You have to have a very involved advisory committee. The institution has to put forth the financial resources you’ll need, the staffing and materials.
“The faculty has to meet ABA requirements for teaching, and the students have to take their courses in a certain sequence. We also have to be able to place our students in jobs.”
Some sections of the program, such as law courses, may be completed online. However, the ABA requires that students attend the legal specialty courses “so they’ll be able to interact with the faculty,” said Puri. “They want them to be able to ask questions.
“And statistics show that students at this point do better in the classroom.”
Students bring their ambition and administrative talents to the program. They’re encouraged to acquire — or improve — their keyboard and computer skills.
Along the way, they will learn a lot of new terminology, “which is almost a whole different language for a lot of people,” Puri said.
Even in the electronic age, the ABA requires schools to maintain a library of hard copy books.
“The ABA doesn’t go for the total electronic library yet,” said Puri. “They want students to be familiar with the old-fashioned way of doing research.
“Electronics is highly recommended additionally, but we always have to have hard-copy books. So we have a very extensive law library, which costs $30,000 a year to supplement, to keep it up to date.
“That requires a lot of commitment and financial resources from the college.”
It is easier, and certainly shorter, to explain what paralegals can’t do than what they can. They can’t practice law or give legal advice. Under the supervision of an attorney they do a lot of research and may perform specific duties “necessary in the effective delivery of legal services to the client,” said Puri.
“It really is in the client’s best interest for the paralegal to help prepare,” she added. “The paralegal’s bills are a lot less than the attorney’s. And having paralegals helps the attorneys.
“A lot of the corporate law departments like to have CLAs because they are certified, and they can legitimately bill against time. The CLA isn’t just another legal support person.”
Students are given every opportunity to shine on the CLA exam, the final hurdle to being certified. The FCCJ Legal Studies Institute and the Northeast Florida Paralegal Association co-sponsor a five-week review course to help them prepare for the rigorous two-day exam.
There is a career center at the school, but Puri handles the job placement for the majority of paralegals — primarily in Jacksonville but throughout the surrounding five-county area.
“The students get an extensive placement service,” she said. “I have excellent contacts in the legal community. We’re also able to get quite a few students into intern programs with local firms.”
Florida far and away has the greatest number (3,119) of the 12,000 paralegals in the country. Texas is second with 2,430.
And the popularity continues. The FCCJ program grew 30 percent last year, and classes are full for the spring term.
“We’ll try to open up an additional section if I run into a huge demand in that course,” said Puri. “Like I said, we’re here to meet the needs of the student. We want to help them any way possible.”