Total Credits Required for Degree: 62-63**
NOTE: The Paralegal Studies courses were formerly designated as PLAW.
*denotes legal specialty course
**A new college orientation requirement, completion of the one-credit ACDV 101 course, Transitioning to College, went into effect spring 2010. If you are a credit student who is new to college (meaning you have not successfully completed college coursework at another institution(s)), you are required to take ACDV 101 during your first semester at CCBC, thereby increasing the number of credits required for the degree to 63-64 credits. Students are required to provide an official transcript(s) to document successful completion of college coursework at another institution(s) in order for this requirement to be waived.
Program Description:
This American Bar Association-approved program provides students with the essential knowledge and skills to find employment as paralegals or legal assistants. According to the American Bar Association, “[a] legal assistant or paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training or work experience, who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.”
Graduates of this program will possess a knowledge of the jurisdiction and function of legislative, judicial, and administrative bodies; the structure of the court system; and the roles of attorneys and paralegals as they pertain to the legal system. They will be knowledgeable in the following fields: estate administration, personal injury law, civil litigation, contract law, and business organizations. They will possess the basic research and writing skills that apply to these fields. This combination of knowledge and skills will enable the graduate to fully assist the lawyer in the practice of law. Paralegals and other non-lawyers, however, are strictly prohibited from engaging in the practice of law themselves.
Transfer Credit Policy:
It is the policy of the Paralegal Studies program to accept legal specialty transfer credits from accredited institutions, subject to the following provisions.
First, degree and certificate seeking students must complete a minimum of 12 legal specialty credits at CCBC. For degree seeking students, the overall amount of transfer credits must also comply with the CCBC policy that a degree student must earn 31 credits in a program at CCBC or complete the final 15 credits of a curriculum at CCBC. For certificate seeking students, CCBC will accept a maximum of 16 legal specialty transfer credits. Consideration for transfer credit will only be given to courses in which the student earned a grade of “C” or better.
Second, students seeking to transfer legal specialty credits must meet with a Paralegal Studies Program Coordinator or the Department Chair. The student must provide an official transcript listing the legal specialty course, the date the course was taken, the grade earned, and the number of credits received for the course. Credits earned for prior learning or by examination will not be accepted for transfer of legal specialty credits. The student must also provide a catalog description and/or a course syllabus, which indicates the format in which the course was taken (accelerated, traditional, hybrid, on-line, independent study, etc.), and be able to discuss the goals and objectives completed during the course. For legal specialty courses completed on-line, transfer will also be subject to the student certifying that they have or will be completing a minimum of 10 credits of legal specialty coursework through traditional classroom instruction.
If it is determined that the course is sufficiently similar to a legal specialty course in the CCBC program and all of the foregoing requirements are met, the program coordinator will notify the CCBC Records and Registration Office to accept the transferred course as a substitute for the legal specialty course. Legal specialty courses are identified in this publication with an asterisk (*).
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