Legal Support Professional - Associate in Business Studies

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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.

LAW OFFICE FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE: This program is designed to provide a basic foundation of the work required for a Legal Support Professional.

LAW OFFICE SPECIALIST CERTIFICATE: This program is designed to provide advanced office skills while specializing in a legal office

Fall First Year:

COM 112W - Fundamentals of Oral Communication Credits: 3 ¹
LW 220W - Lifelong Wellness Credits: 1 ^{2 7}
OAT 151 - Business Communication I Credits: 3
OAT 171 - Document Processing: Beginning Credits: 3
PSY 101W - Applied Psychology Credits: 3 ³

Total Semester Credits: 13

Winter First Year:

MGT 251W - Business Law I Credits: 3
OAT 152 - Business Communication II Credits: 3 ⁴
OAT 172 - Document Processing: Intermediate Credits: 3
ELE – Elective Course Credits: 3 ⁶
ELE – Elective Course Credits: 2 ⁶

Total Semester Credits: 14

Fall Second Year:

LSP 110W - Legal Ethics and Responsibilities of the Legal Assistant Credits: 3
LSP 115 - Principles of Substantive Law Credits: 3
MGT 252 - Business Law II Credits: 3
MGT 256 - Human Resources Management I Credits: 3

Total Semester Credits: 12

Winter Second Year:

LSP 120 - Legal Research Credits: 1.5
ACC 211 - Principles of Financial Accounting Credits: 4
CST 106 - Internet Foundations Credits: 1
CST 110 - Web Content Development Credits: 1
ELE – Elective Course Credits: 2 ⁶
ELE – Elective Course Credits: 2 ⁶
ELE – Elective Course Credits: 2 ⁶

Total Semester Credits: 13.5

Fall Third Year:

CST 151 - Spreadsheet Fundamentals Credits: 2 ⁹
POL 103W - American Politics Credits: 3 ⁵
LSP 260 - Legal Support Internship I Credits: 1 ⁸
LWA – Any 1 credit LWA Course Credits: 1 ⁷

Total Semester Credits: 7

Winter Third Year:

LSP 230 - Civil Litigation Credits: 3
LSP 280W - Legal Writing Credits: 1.5

Total Semester Credits: 4.5

Total Credits: 64

Notations

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.
Proficiency in keyboarding is required for successful completion of this program. If you are not proficient, take OAT 170 in your first semester.
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.
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.
Additional credits earned in LSP 261 or LSP 262 may be used as elective credits.
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.
1. COM 114W can be taken in place of COM 112W
2. Any 1 credit LW course can be taken in place of LW 220W
3. PSY 211W can be taken in place of PSY 101W
4. ENG 111 and (ENG 112 or ENG 113 ) can be taken in place of OAT 152
5. POL 105W , POL 212W , POL 215W , POL 220W , POL 221W , POL 223W , POL 225W , POL 228W , HIS 221W , HIS 222W , or HIS 237W can be taken in place of POL 103W
6. Approved elective courses include: HSC 105 , HSC 205W , LIB 195W , LSP 150 , LSP 210W , LSP 220 , LSP 235 , LSP 240 , LSP 250 , LSP 253 , MGT 257W , OAT 273 , PHL 205W or PHL 210W
7. Any 2 credit LW course can be taken in place of LW 220W and LWA — course
8. LSP 261 or LSP 262 can be taken in place of LSP 260
9. CST 155 can be taken in place of CST 151