Legal Research & Legal Writing - A Paralegal Skills Course
What you'll learn
- Gain a functional understanding of the legal research and analysis process
- Distinguish primary and secondary sources of law including practical guides and manuals
- Develop a practical approach to legal research and writing (drafting) for paralegals
- Develop intuition for mirroring the preferences of your supervising attorney
- Navigate document automation and assembly software, templates, and formal and informal knowledgebases
- Learn best practices that your supervising attorney will appreciate
- International Students: Improve understanding of principles of research & writing in common law systems & develop Legal English skills
Requirements
- No specific prior course required.
- Some background and knowledge of what paralegals do is useful.
- For best audio quality, please view this course through the Chrome web browser.
- Please note Spanish captions are computer-translated.
Description
This is a quick skills course that can serve as a supplement (study-aid) to a formal class, a good overview of the topic, or a refresher to sharpen existing skills. Topics covered include principles of legal research, legal writing, legal communication, and tips for being effective and successful on various tasks or assignments.
The course starts by providing a functional description of legal analysis, including the research, synthesis, and summary of relevant and applicable laws, as well as the factual analysis that courts and lawyers do to apply the law to the facts. Next, the course describes the objectives of individual and organizational clients when they seek legal help from a law office or law practice. Finally, the course covers fundamental aspects of the preliminary legal research and writing (drafting) that paralegals may be tasked with conducting for the supervising attorney. Notably, the course includes coverage of the practical tools as well as the informal resources that paralegals often have access to in a law office or department that can help them be efficient and provide closer to final drafts for their reviewing attorney. The course includes discussion of legal communication, including shorter internal and external writings such as emails.
The course includes illustrations, extensive infographics, and examples that walk the student through the thought process that can help tackle a new drafting or research assignment from their supervising attorney. The course includes extensive lecture and visual materials; however, it is not intended to substitute for post-secondary instruction in legal research and writing for paralegals. This course is also not intended to be continuing education and is not qualified for such credit in any jurisdiction. The course focuses on paralegals in the U.S. and is intended to be a highly practical skill building overview useful both to paralegals in training who want to supplement their formal studies or current paralegals, legal assistants, law clerks, or early-career lawyers who want to sharpen everyday skills to help them improve performance on the job.
The lessons focus on the United States (US) legal system and are taught primarily in English. The course may also be applicable to other common law legal systems (e.g., India, United Kingdom - UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia).
Who this course is for:
- This course is beneficial to paralegals in training as well as currently qualified paralegals who want a refresher or to sharpen their skills.
- This course is not for continuing paralegal credits and is not intended to substitute for an approved paralegal training program. It is important that all students research and understand the requirements of the state in which they plan to work as a paralegal and discuss qualifications with their prospective supervising attorney under whose specific direction they will work.
- This course can be useful as part of orientation or on-boarding of new paralegals to law offices or in-house legal departments.
- This course can help develop Legal English skills for international lawyers seeking to learn more about the common law / U.S. legal system
Instructors
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 547 Reviews
- 2,112 Students
- 5 Courses
I have many years of substantive legal practice experience in the field, working in law offices of various sizes (large international law firm, innovative individual practice, and specialize boutique firms). I have extensive experience practicing U.S. Immigration Law, focusing on complex employment-based cases, including extraordinary ability, outstanding researcher, and national interest waiver cases. I have also developed smart strategies for knowledge management and legal quality assurance for complex employment-based request for evidence (RFE) responses.
My collective law-related work experience spans close to a decade and includes a judicial externship with federal administrative judges, an internship with nationally-recognized jury and trial consultants, and assistance at a very busy court clerk’s office. Uniquely, I also have extensive experience as a law clerk, giving me valuable perspective on what it takes to work under the direction and supervision of a responsible attorney. Then later, as an attorney myself, I have gone on to supervise the work of dedicated and shared paralegals in the last half decade within a complex administrative practice area.
In the course of my work, I have helped mobility and human resources professionals in various organizations, large and small, public and private, to support talented and hard-working people from around the world. I have also helped train, formally and informally, numerous paralegals with various levels of legal knowledge and experience, and served as a primary legal editorial lead for complex writing matters, successfully building the first-of-its-kind legal knowledge base and developing a legal quality assurance process and editorial review playbook. Many of the paralegals I have worked with have later attended top U.S. law schools (such as Harvard, UCLA, and NYU) and taken legal managerial (in-house) roles in companies and law firms.
In addition to independent curriculum design, development, and publishing, I am also a certified online faculty member at a college of continuing education and I teach within an ABA-approved paralegal program. I have been trained on best practices for the design, delivery, and assessment of high quality, accessible remote educational materials for adult learners. Importantly, please note that skills courses appearing on Udemy are published independent from any of my college teaching roles.
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 547 Reviews
- 2,112 Students
- 5 Courses
Informed Educational Insights, LLC, is a California company that publishes educational content, including supplementary learning materials for specialized fields, visual aids and learning tools, web-blogs and micro-blog content, and engaging skills courses. On Udemy, we publish practical skills courses from introductory to more advanced levels.
Instructors who teach the content have unique expertise and practical experience in their field or discipline.