Mar 28, 2024  
2020 - 2021 Catalog 
    
2020 - 2021 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Legal Support Professional - ABS


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Program Code: ABS.10282

Not all legal work requires a law degree. As a legal support professional, you may work in a variety of environments and be responsible for a variety of job duties.

You may find work directly under the supervision of a lawyer. While the lawyer assumes responsibility for the legal support professional's work, you will often be allowed to perform all the functions of a lawyer other than accepting clients, setting fees, giving legal advice, or presenting a case in court. You will generally do background work for the lawyer and help a lawyer prepare litigation for trial by investigating the facts of the case to make sure that all relevant information is uncovered. Secretarial services are normally required as well.

You may conduct research to identify the appropriate laws, judicial decisions, legal articles, and other material that will be used to determine whether or not the client has a good case. After analyzing all the information, you may prepare a written report that is used by the attorney to decide how the case should be handled. If the attorney decides to file a lawsuit on behalf of the client, you may prepare legal arguments, draft pleadings to be filed with the court, obtain affidavits, and assist the attorney during the trial. You may also be responsible for routinely typing up the pleadings and client correspondence.

You may find work in a police department, court office, administrative office, nonprofit organization, loss prevention department or human resource office of a company. Job duties in these types of environments could consist of investigative work, process serving, file maintenance, typing of routine documents, applications and pleadings, and research into appropriate administrative or employment statutes and cases.

Fall First Year:


Total Semester Credits: 13


Winter First Year:


Total Semester Credits: 14


Total Semester Credits: 12


Winter Second Year:


Total Semester Credits: 13.5


Fall Third Year:


Total Semester Credits: 7


Winter Third Year:


Total Semester Credits: 4.5


Total Credits: 64


Notations


  1. A grade of “C” (2.0) or higher is required in LSP 110W , LSP 115 , LSP 230 , LSP 280W , MGT 251W , OAT 151 , OAT 152 , (OR ENG equivalents) and all Elective Courses.
  2. Proficiency in keyboarding is required for successful completion of this program. If you are not proficient, take OAT 170  in your first semester.
  3. Satisfactory completion of OAT 172  requires 50 WPM. Workforce demands require at a minimum 70 WPM. Therefore students may want to take OAT 273  Advanced Document Processing as an elective to increase their typing speed and accuracy.
  4. OAT 171 - Document Processing: Beginning  requires OAT 170 - Keyboarding  with a “B” grade or better. A keyboarding waiver test is available for OAT 170 . Contact the BIT Division office, 989.686.9127, to arrange for the waiver test.
  5. Additional credits earned in LSP 261  or LSP 262  may be used as elective credits.
  6. Many employers in the legal field require certain standards of prospective employees at the application stage. Job applications uniformly ask applicants if they have ever been arrested for any offense, either misdemeanor or felony. An affirmative response or finding on the part of a prospective employer may be grounds to deny employment.

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