Jurists and Paraprofessionals

Abstract

To many the word ‘paraprofessionals’ must sound unfamiliar. It is a relatively new word which came into use in the late 1960’s in the United States. It means the person who did not go to a law school and therefore did not take the bar examination but after receiving some training does some legal work that a qualified lawyer would otherwise do. These persons almost always work as assistants to lawyers in law firms. Thus, they are called more often ‘paralegal assistants’ or just ‘paralegal’. This is a peculiarly American phenomenon having hardly any equivalent in any other country. But, when we look in a broader perspective we can find in many countries the class of people who may be called ‘paraprofessional’ in the sense that they are not fully qualified lawyers but still do the kind of work that a fully qualified lawyer would or could do in the same country or in any other country. We use the term ‘paraprofessionals’ in this broader sense.