What Is A Paralegal?

Everyone knows what a solicitor is, and most people know what a barrister is. Some have even heard of legal executives. But what on Earth is a Paralegal?

The legal services market has changed and developed over recent years, and paralegals have emerged as a distinct category of lawyer, specialists with often many years' experience in one or more areas of law, setting up their own businesses to cater to niche markets.

Coinciding with this, the Institute of Paralegals www.theiop.org was founded, to support this new branch of the legal profession, and more recently the Professional Paralegal Register was formed www.ppr.org.uk to provide a strong framework of self regulation and accountability.

Our supervising lawyer, Ellen Walker, is a Fellow of the Institute first elected 2009, and is a Tier 4 paralegal on the Register, holding a 2.1 qualifying law degree (LLB Hons) from the Open University.