Paralegal Studies Program: Modules

Transcript:

JOSEPH SPADA: "So what will students learn in BU’s new and intensive Paralegal Certificate Program? I focused on the basic fundamentals and practicalities of an everyday paralegal. We present seven modules, or subjects, that form the foundation of legal work.

Legal research, both traditional, in-library, reporter series and digests, all alphabetized indexes of legal topics. You have to know traditional, brick-and-mortar library searches, and online databases like WestlawNext. This price of this course includes a fourteen week subscription to the WestlawNext software.

Legal writing. Essential to a paralegal to be able to write professionally. We cover how to write a case brief, which basically entails reading case law and deconstructing the case into its component parts. We then kick it up a notch by learning the IRAC methodology.

IRAC is an anacroynm for Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion. The IRAC methodology will train the paralegal to think, reason, and analyze like an attorney.

Legal technologies. The legal field is no different from any other field in that technology is playing a greater and greater role. We are instructing students on the essential softwares that are being utilized in the legal field.

The entire point of Boston University’s program is to provide the nuts and bolts skill sets of a working paralegal, so in this module, we present the meat and potatoes, or tofu and tempeh, if you prefer: PACER, Electronic Discovery, Clio, CaseMap. These softwares are but a few of the ones that we go over so you have a familiarity with them when you graduate from our program.

Business law. Business law is designed to provide students with an introduction to the substantive areas of corporate business law, and again, the practical skills necessary to serve as a corporate paralegal.

Additionally, students will receive a comprehensive introduction to corporate finances and securities regulation, an overview of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, and some highlights of intellectual property law.

Real estate. In this course, you will learn real estate law in relation to how property is held and how it’s transferred. All aspects of real estate closings are covered, including how to prepare deeds, title searches, title abstracts, recording requirements.

Every real estate closing, commercial or residential, ends with a balanced HUD statement. At BU, you actually fill out and balance this HUD statement. Again, our aim is to provide you with a nuts and bolts skill set so you can go into an office and understand the practical day-to-day work, and not only have you seen these real estate forms, but you’ve worked with them, filled them out, and balanced them.

Probate and family law .The probate and family law has three main areas of concentration: probate, estate planning, and family law. In the probate section, students learn about wills and what happens if one dies without a will.

Estate planning discusses wills, trust, the basics of divorce law are also covered, including child custody, alimony, division of marital estates. And finally, the class undertakes an exploration of the complex and rapidly changing area of same-sex marriage.

Litigation. The litigation module provides an overview of the litigation process from an investigation to filing a complaint. You’ll learn what to incorporate in the answer to the complaint. A special focus will be on the discovery process; this is where a lot of paralegals work.

So this module encompasses investigation of facts through trial and even appeal, all the while focusing on the litigation tasks specific to the paralegal."