Institute of Paralegals
Setting Standards - Promoting Professionalism
What We Do
Promoting, developing and representing the paralegal profession
What we do
We administer the Route to Qualification: the nationally recognised career path for professional paralegals. It turns a job into a career and an occupation into a profession.
We also set and administer Competency Standards for paralegals and legal secretaries.
In addition we:
- Help our members to develop their careers as legal professionals.
- Give free paralegal careers advice
- Represent paralegals (both here and overseas)
- Work with leading organisations such as the University of Cambridge to bring you the best paralegal training
- Lobby government, regulators and the legal profession on issues concerning paralegals: rights of audience, diversity, professional recognition, terms and conditions, training, etc.
- Work with employers and recruiters
- Work with training providers, university law schools and others to provide you with the best qualifications at the most affordable price
- Accredit courses for training providers here and overseas
What we don't do
- Regulate anyone
- Give legal advice
- Use our position to force you to buy expensive training that you don't really want
- Claim that paralegals are qualified lawyers
- Mislead you into thinking that you must join us before you can become a paralegal
Our current projects include:
- Partnering Cambridge University to create vocational paralegal courses.
- Embedding our competency standards for paralegals and legal secretaries. Over 70 law firms, regulators and other interested bodies are either on the working party or have requested a watching brief. Following the success of our standards for conveyancing paralegals created in partnership with the Land Registry, we are now looking at other sector-specific standards.
- Partnering with university law schools to deliver nationally consistent, affordable, professionally accredited legal education and training
- Working with a government recognized national awarding body to create the LPQ (Legal Professional Qualification) qualification "brand name" so that firms, FE colleges training providers and others can create instantly-recognised courses designed especially for paralegals and other legal support staff
- Working with other legal sector professional bodies to promote legal careers
- Lobbying the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty's Court Service regarding rights of audience for paralegals
- Liaising with professional indemnity insurers concerning PI cover for the almost 6,000 paralegal advisory firms regulated by government
- Creation and marketing of a level 2 and level 3 vocational law course in schools and FE colleges to encourage students to consider a legal career at an early stage
- Working with a major local law society to introduce a comprehensive career development and local recruitment service for paralegals working in their member firms
- Creation of government/nationally recognised qualifications for legal secretaries upon their successfully meeting the national competency standards for legal secretaries
Member Login
Competency Standards for paralegals and legal secretaries
Regulation and Professional Conduct
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