National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA)

Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) / Certified Paralegal (CP)

The National Association of Legal Assistants (“NALA”) is an association comprised of four autonomous boards or committees with its headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The Certifying Board, the Advanced Paralegal Certification Board, the Continuing Education Council, and the Professional Development Committee.  The Certifying and Advanced Paralegal Boards both include attorneys and paralegal educators as members.  The Council and PD Committee members are NALA members.  All Board, council, and Committee members are volunteers. NALA employs a full-time executive director, who serves as association CEO, under direct supervision of the association president and eight staff members providing administrative management and member services.  NALA feels that its full-time professional staff provides abilities allowing it to provide its membership with significant and distinct advantages among professional associations.

nala

The official NALA Mission Statement declares “NALA leads the paralegal profession by providing a voluntary certification program, continuing legal education, and professional development programs for all paralegals.”  Thirty-four years ago, in 1976, NALA began sponsoring a paralegal certification examination that established a professional designation called Certified Legal Assistant (CLA).  Two synonymous professional designations, or credentials, are currently offered by NALA: the Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) or Certified Paralegal (CP) credential. In 2004, NALA formally registered the mark “CP” for use by those who prefer to use the term “paralegal” instead of “legal assistant.”  As of 2009, over 15,000 paralegals successfully passing the NALA examination have earned the CLA/CP designation.

The CLA/CP examination is a two-day comprehensive examination based on federal law and procedure. Five broad areas, or sections, that make up the examination are Communications, Ethics, Legal Research, Judgment and Analytical Ability, and Substantive Law.  The testing methods used range from true/false, multiple choice, and matching questions to essay writing.

The substantive law section of the exam has five components.  The examinee is allowed to choose four areas of substantive law from a group of nine and all examinees must take a fifth component that covers general American legal concepts.  A score of at least 70% on all five of the exam sections is necessary to pass the exam and earn the CLA/CP credential.

In addition to its basic CLA/CP credentials, NALA also offers an Advanced Paralegal Certification program recognizing specialized skills applicable to specific practice areas. Based on a 2002 special task force evaluation, NALA’s “CLA Specialty Certification” program, originally established in 1982, was totally redesigned.  After taking over three years to fully complete the restructuring, the redesigned program created the current Advanced Paralegal Certification program conferring the ACP credential upon completion.  The ACP certification is now a curriculum-based certification program focused on educational development of specific practice areas for substantive understanding of an area of practice rather than qualification determined through testing for skills such as analytical, research, or writing ability.  The curriculum for each course is about 20 hours long.  In place of traditional testing this program employs assessment components for participants to demonstrate required ability in a particular specialty area.   The program’s overall design is intended to provide a more accessible means of advanced certification for those paralegals working in specific or specialized practice areas such as contracts, discovery, trial practice, social security disability, corporate business entities, trademarks, land use, personal injury, and alternative dispute resolution.

NALA dues range from $125 per year for active members to $50 per year for students.  Its four membership categories are: active, associate, student, and sustaining.  Officially associated through formally established affiliate liaisons, NALA works cooperatively with dozens of local paralegal/legal assistant alliances,

This entry was posted in Career Guide and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.