Paralegal Jobs | Guide to Becoming a Paralegal

Joining a paralegal association is a great way to be active in your local and national paralegal community. It will give you opportunities to network for paralegal jobs, keep abreast of career hot topics and make friends with common interests and passions. You will find that locating a paralegal association is actually relatively easy.

You should mainly look for paralegal associations that are NFPA (National Federation of Paralegal Associations) certified by visiting their Website at paralegals.org. Here, you can locate associations by state and then by county or city. However, you may not be able to find a local paralegal association on this site. If this is the case, try googling a paralegal association for your county. If you are still out of luck, ask you coworkers in paralegal jobs or former classmates.

Filing out an application and paying a membership fee is often a part of joining a paralegal association. However, the amount of the fee can be different for each type of membership, if applicable. Here are some examples of different paralegal association memberships:

Voting member

• Must be a current worker in paralegal jobs with at least six months of experience
• May vote at meetings

Associate member

• Must be a current paralegal or any legal professional with at least six months of experience
• May vote at meetings

Student member

• Must be currently pursuing a paralegal certificate
• Must have less than one year of paralegal jobs experience

Sustaining member

• Must be a corporation, law firm or special interest group interested in supporting paralegal jobs