a paralegal is to a lawyer what a nurse is to a doctor a lot of people don't know what
a paralegal is what they do but I think that's the best way that I can explain it paralegals
help lawyers in the performance of their legal duties they do legal research they do legal
drafting drafting with legal documents they help lawyers prepare for trial a system at trial they
have interaction with clients of the lawyer so they play a very vital role in the provision of
legal services to the public we offer a degree it's an AAS degree the Applied Science degrees
means that our education is very practical it means that we're preparing you to work when you
graduate from our program you are qualified and capable and knowledgeable enough to go out and
provide meaningful services to an employer our faculty is composed of practicing lawyers and
judges all of our professors our subject matter expertise in the areas that they're teaching and
our practicing lawyers and or or judges we have applied to the American Bar Association
for approval of our paralegal studies program and we have just been informed by the American
Bar Association that they have approved our program and this is very significant because
you have to keep in mind that there are not many ABA approved paralegal studies programs at the
community college level and although our program was operating under those ABA guidelines for a
number of years we still could not say that we are ABA approved now we are and of course just
looking at the paralegal profession as a whole Bureau of Labor Statistics has stated that the
career of a paralegal is going to grow by 12% through the year 2028 which makes it the fastest
growing profession any career profession this area call it the DMV the District of Columbia
closed in Maryland and Virginia this particular area probably has more attorneys more lawyers
per capita than any other place in the country the reputation of our program is growing in the
legal community and we get requests from law firms and other organizations employing paralegals and
we pass those job opportunities on to our our students our current students and recent grads
my name is Bonnie stouts paralegal at the law firm McCarthy Wilson paralegal is actually the support
staff we do what it takes to help our lawyer to help them look good to have everything prepared
we subpoenas some of the pleadings answers to interrogatories there's a questions you
get when you're in a civil lawsuit the Montgomery College paralegal studies program is even better
than the universities because it's hands-on and the professor's are people you're going to work
with in the legal community you're networking with people that you're going to deal with when you go
to the court we look out for our people it's short and sweet we look out for our people and
we can help place them in jobs and and I think that that's a big big plus too for our program
so that people know that you know they have a shot at finding a job through us I just like
the fact that you're helping people and you're preventing them from going through something
that is hard your help cushioning them through this process and holding their hands so they
understand what's going on because if you're not in this business you don't know and it's scary and
if you get a call from an attorney you know it's scary in an email so I love the people aspects
you