Legal research and writing skills are critical in any law practice.
Currently, 31% of paralegals report conducting legal research on at
least a weekly basis. Additionally, 88% of working paralegals who
have been employed as paralegals for more than five years report an
increase in work that involves independent judgment, and 68% report
an increase in the level of sophistication of the work. These
statistics indicate that lawyers may be recognizing and utilizing
the skills of professional paralegals to a greater extent than ever
before; they certainly indicate that lawyers make use of the
critical thinking and analytic expertise of paralegals when these
skills are apparent and available. The two legal research seminars
described below are designed to help paralegals utilize a variety
of legal research tools and methodologies, to understand and
analyze what they find, and to communicate these findings
effectively to third parties.
This program will assist paralegals in performing more advanced
and sophisticated research through technology and will touch on
some particular areas of advanced research such as regulatory
research and legislative updating and history. A key element of
this session will be introducing paralegals to the community of
legal discourse through the discussion of how and why to analyze
cases and statutes and how to summarize research findings and
conclusions through writing a legal memorandum. In her discussion
of writing the legal memorandum, Professor Flaherty will explain
the IRAC method of legal analytic organization and her alternative
to IRAC, the TRAAC method.
If you intend to take a course for CLE credit, please make sure your state is listed in the "Accreditation" section to the upper right of the program description. Accreditation displayed is unique to the purchased program format (live conference, live webcast, on demand, podcast). Credit totals listed for live conferences are the maximum credits available. Credits issued will be based upon actual time in attendance. Credit totals for other formats are for complete programs. Partial credit is not available for any online or downloadable format.
West LegalEdcenter will not provide accreditation for states not listed.
This product is intended for individual use by the named purchaser. Group viewings for online programs may be arranged for five or more attorneys within the same organization prior to viewing by emailing west.wlec-sales@thomson.com.