Rice University Paralegal Certificate Program

Curriculum

Participants must successfully complete the Fundamentals/Core Skills course and five substantive topic courses. Class projects and exams, including a comprehensive final will be administered. Participants must score 70 percent or better on the final exam, obtain a class average of 70 percent and attend at least 70 percent of the classes in order to earn the certificate.

Specific study topics include:

Introduction to the legal field
Participants will learn about paralegal career opportunities and the types of tasks a paralegal may perform.

Legal terminology
By following an actual legal matter through the legal process, participants will be introduced to relevant legal terms. The case presented will be tracked through both the civil and criminal court procedures.

Legal analysis
To understand the process and structure of proper legal analysis, participants will develop the skills to analyze both case law and statutory authority.

Legal memorandum form
After learning the analytical process, participants will analyze provided cases and statutes to prepare internal and external memoranda.

State-specific instruction
Local and state trial and appellate courts specific to Texas jurisdiction will be discussed. Participants will also be provided with information related to researching the law within Texas.

Federal court structure
Participants will be instructed in the basic differences between state and federal jurisdiction as well as the jurisdictions for the various federal courts in Texas.

Stages of litigation
Participants will learn the three stages of the litigation process and the functions a paralegal may perform during each stage.

Government structure
Because each branch of government uses various forms of law, participants will learn the structure of government and the laws that apply to each branch.

Ethical considerations
Because a violation of an ethical rule may affect the supervising attorney as well as the paralegal, it is critical that participants be familiar with the rules of ethics and learn to maintain a high ethical standard.

Court rules
Court rules are the procedural requirements for trials. Students are taught the most relied-upon court rules as well as the skills necessary to find any rule for specific procedural questions.

Discovery preparation
Participants will be taught form utilization and will create sets of interrogatories, requests for admissions, and requests for production and inspection of documents. Participants will be provided with templates, just as they would within a law-firm environment.

Discovery coordination
The discovery process is one of the most important aspects of a paralegal’s involvement in the litigation process. Participants will learn the rules relevant to discovery.

Pleading preparation
Pleadings are documents filed with the court asking the court to take a specific action. Participants will study pleadings and will prepare a complaint (with a summons) and an answer.

Utilization of legal forms
In a law-firm environment, a paralegal would rarely prepare a document from scratch, but would rely on previously existing forms and templates. In this class, participants will learn to manipulate templates and utilize formbooks to become more effective and efficient paralegals.

Preparing for depositions
A deposition is the oral questioning of a witness under oath, usually outside a courtroom. Participants will learn the considerations for deposition setup.

Deposition digesting
Students will be provided with a deposition transcript and will learn to summarize that document, an important paralegal skill.

Arbitration process
Arbitration is the pre-trial process that encourages parties to avoid trial. Participants will learn how the arbitration system works.

Application of hearsay rule and rule elementization
The hearsay rule will be discussed, and participants will utilize the developed skill of rule elementization to properly analyze and apply rules to facts.

Index research
The foundation of all legal research is the ability to use indexes. Participants will learn to efficiently utilize fundamental research tools.

Interviewing clients
Specific techniques to be considered when interviewing a client will be discussed.

Law-office investigation
Participants will learn techniques of in-office and out-of-office investigations, including interviewing witnesses.

Legal research skills
By using hands-on, interactive training devices, participants will learn proper law library utilization, how to locate primary authority, how to use secondary sources, how to update research sources, and how to utilize specific legal materials, including American Law Reports, American Jurisprudence, 2d, Corpus Juris Secundum, West Digests, Words & Phrases, Am. Jur. Proof of Facts, formbooks, treatise research, legal periodicals, Shepard's, and state and federal statutory research. Participants will also be trained in the use of the two most important legal research systems, the Key Number System and the Total Client Service Library.

Online legal research skills
Due to a special relationship between the Rice Paralegal Certificate Program and LexisNexis, enrolled participants will be trained in and have access to LexisNexis Online Legal Research for approximately one year.

Bluebook citation form
A citation is an address to a legal document. Bluebook is the most widely accepted form of citation. Participants will be thoroughly trained in citation form.

Informal advocacy
Advocacy is the process of acting on behalf of another’s interests. Being able to obtain information through informal techniques is an invaluable skill for a paralegal.

Authority identification
Authority is anything a court can use to reach its decision. Participants will learn to identify the various types of authority, including primary, secondary, mandatory, persuasive and non-authority.

Strategies for employment
Multiple strategies for seeking employment will be discussed, including traditional and non-traditional methods.

About the Program Designers

Daniel R. Barber and Alyssa Navallo are paralegals and nationally recognized educators that have designed and developed courses and consulted for paralegal programs for Duke University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Davis, and the University of Miami, among others. Mr. Barber will be the supervising instructor of the core skills course throughout this paralegal program. Ms. Navallo will serve as the student Web site facilitator providing online instruction and support. Mr. Barber and Ms. Navallo are the co-authors of four paralegal texts and have been praised for their innovative use of Internet and support materials and for the hands-on experience they create including:

• Recognition from multiple universities for program design
• Recognition on the floor of the U.S. Senate for their efforts in designing professional training programs