Empire State Alliance of Paralegal Associations

DEFINITION OF PARALEGAL 

Definition Adopted by the New York State Bar Association:

A legal assistant/paralegal is a person who is qualified through education, training or work experience to be employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency, or other entity in a capacity or function that involves the performance, under the ultimate direction and supervision of, and/or accountability to, an attorney, of substantive legal work, that requires sufficient knowledge of legal concepts such that, absent such legal assistant/paralegal, the attorney would perform the task.

You may also wish to review definitions adopted by the American Bar Association, the National Association of Legal Assistants, and the National Federation of Paralegal Associations

Important Note re: use of term "Certified Paralegal"

The New York State Bar Association's Ethics Opinion 695 requires that a paralegal using the title "Certified Legal Assistant" identify the certifying body.   

A graduate of a paralegal certificate program is not "certified" by that program; he or she is, at most, a "certificated paralegal." 

In the event a paralegal practicing in New York has achieved the title of "Certified Legal Assistant," "Certified Paralegal" (see the NALA web site) or "Registered Paralegal" (see the NFPA web site), he or she must follow the guidelines set forth by the appropriate national organization and the New York State Bar Association's Ethics Opinion 695 (which was written prior to the introduction of NFPA's "Registered Paralegal" exam, but would apply similarly to use of that title). 

Also note NYSBA's Ethics Opinion 640, which discusses which titles may and may not be used by paralegals.

Exempt Status of Paralegals

For the U.S. Department of Labor's August 2004 regulations regarding exemptions to overtime requirements, see Regulations, in particular, specific mention of paralegals on page 22266.  For the DOL's FairPay Overtime Initiative, click here.