Paralegal Blog

As a paralegal, you will work with attorneys who value higher education and have devoted a significant amount of time and expense to pursue a legal career. Your paralegal education will matter to them.

Center for Advanced Legal Studies held its 62nd graduation ceremony Saturday, August 18, 2018 at South Texas College of Law. CALS was honored to award its graduates a total of 61 Paralegal Certificates and 21 Associate of Applied Science Degrees. Congratulations graduates and well done. We wish you much success during your paralegal careers. (Commencement Ceremony Program - PDF)

Center for Advanced Legal Studies would like to extend our special thanks and appreciation to Mr. Ernesto A. González (class of 1990) for his inspiring and entertaining commencement address. Thank you Ernie!

Graduation was streamed live to both YouTube and Facebook. A condensed version was uploaded to YouTube and is available for viewing below. 

When I was laid off from the oil business for the second time in my 15-year career, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe I was out of work again. Ups and downs are normal for the energy sector, and Texans are used to it. But the 2014 oil bust in Houston was particularly harsh for me. What was supposed to last a year at most would never come back, at least not like it used to be in the boom days.

By 2015, I had nothing in savings and I needed to work. Because I was a contractor who worked on a project basis, the 2014 down cycle was harder on me because I was not eligible for a severance nor unemployment benefits. Losing my career was not only financially devastating, but emotionally devastating as well. Most of my adult life I had a title and a hefty paycheck, and my identity was tied up in my career. I lost my identity when I lost my job, and I had no choice but to start over. If I wanted to have a better life long term, I had to find a career that was stable and offered more security.

Make sure the paralegal program contains at least 24 semester hours (38.4 CEUs) of skills-based paralegal training.

As a paralegal, you will work with attorneys who value higher education and have devoted a significant amount of time and expense to pursue a legal career. Your paralegal education will matter to them.

Is the program comprehensive enough to give you the skills, knowledge, and confidence you need to work alongside an attorney? One way to make certain is to evaluate the program length to insure adequate attention is paid to critical subjects areas. Further, recognized authorities in paralegal education have established minimum standards regarding program length. The State of California requires “the successful completion of a minimum of 24 semester, or equivalent, units in law-related courses and that has been accredited by a national or regional accrediting organization” as one criteria for a person to call themselves a paralegal.¹

Your choice of a paralegal program will have a profound impact on your opportunities for success in the career. Since there is a wide range in the quality of programs, choose carefully. Give yourself the best possible chance to succeed in this exciting profession.²

[Updated March 30, 2022]
The first step to becoming a paralegal is to get your degree or certificate from an accredited institution. Accreditation gives merit to any credential.

What is accreditation? The goal of accreditation is to ensure that institutions of higher education meet acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation in the United States involves non-governmental entities (accrediting organizations) as well as federal and state government agencies (these three entities are formally known as the Triad). Accreditation's quality assurance function is one of the three main elements of oversight governing the Higher Education Act's (HEA's) federal student aid programs. In order for students to receive federal student aid from the U.S. Department of Education (Department) for postsecondary study, the institution must be accredited by a "nationally recognized" accrediting agency.¹