Paralegal

This course provides the fundamentals of legal writing. Students will work with state and federal legal materials including cases and statutes as well as different templates to become familiar with and practice developing legal analyses and communicating such analyses in memoranda, letters, contracts and discovery documents. Additional topics include a review of the federal and state court systems and an introduction to basic legal writing techniques.

This course provides students with a fundamental understanding of the rules/codes of professional conduct and ethics. Emphasis will be placed on students determining appropriate responses to ethical problems.

This course provides an overview of the basic concepts of employment law and legal issues arising in the modern workplace. It uses a hands-on approach in which students apply principles, theory, research and methods to various exercises and projects meant to simulate the work that a paralegal working on employment or labor law matters might expect.

This course provides a practical understanding of key laws and considerations of estate planning, administration and elder law. Topics covered include various estate planning techniques; trusts; wills; powers of attorney; planning for incapacity; and estate administration.

This course will discuss laws covering family relationships and responsibilities. Topics will include procedures covering issues of divorce, annulment, child custody, protection from abuse, child and spousal support, and adoption. Students will learn to prepare the required documents for divorce, custody, support guidelines and abuse.

This course provides an introduction to the principles of real property ownership, possession, disposition, and control. Topics covered include the different types of ownership and methods of transfer of interests in property, leasing, agreements, financing, title insurance, and document preparation. Students will learn the concepts and terminology necessary to assist lawyers in a typical real estate practice.

This course provides students with a practical understanding of the central principles of tort law, including intentional torts, negligence, negligence-based personal injury claims, vicarious liability, strict liability, products liability, malpractice and common defenses. Additional topics include the role of the attorney, paralegal and investigator within such lawsuits.

This course offers an overview of legal technologies used in today's law firms. It will discuss both cloud and server-based case management/law office management software and tools to assist with keeping and billing time, managing firm contacts, calendaring events and other related tasks.

The course provides an overview of the litigation process as shaped by federal court procedural rules. Students will learn the way civil litigation progresses through the judicial system from case inception to finish. Students will also learn how paralegals assist lawyers in case management from beginning to end. The course includes the basics of client interviewing, fact gathering, pleadings, discovery, settlements, arbitration, trial preparation and management, appeals, and alternative dispute resolutions.

This course provides an overview of the most common structures of business entities (corporations, partnerships, LLPs, LLCs, etc.) and the related legal privileges and obligations attached to each. It also introduces basic business financial principles and skills that can help a paralegal contribute to a corporate law practice.

This course provides an overview of the law governing legally enforceable contracts, including both common law principles and the Uniform Commercial Code. Additional topics covered include contract drafting, review, rules of interpretation, and ethics.

This course provides an overview of the formal criminal processes from arrest to sentencing. Students will learn the basic principles of criminal law, including the limitations on law enforcement authorities in their investigative duties.

The course provides an introduction to legal and fact research conducted by paralegals. Basic searching and navigation in electronic databases will be explored, including Boolean and Natural Language searching. This course will also teach how to assess and effectively use freely available government, business, and education-sites to retrieve documents and conduct law-related research. Ethical issues related to legal research will also be covered.

This course provides an introduction to the paralegal's role within the legal profession. Topics include paralegals and the American Legal System, the American Court System, substance of the law, an introduction to basic legal analysis and research concepts, and paralegals and the work world, structure and operation of federal and state governmental systems (including the judicial system), sources of law (common law, statutory, constitutional, etc.), the concept of precedent, the adversarial system, professional ethical standards and interviewing techniques.

The course offers an introduction to the basic computer applications used in the law office with a focus on information systems. It explores law office software such as time and billing, calendaring, and case management tools.