Accredited Paralegal roundup: Celebrations, updates and new opportunities

Laura McBain, Member Services Coordinator and Secretary to the Accredited Paralegal Committee, is back with an update on the Paralegal Practice course, important updates to practice competencies and new opportunities for you to get involved with the accreditation.

It’s been a busy few months since I last updated you all. In my previous update, I mentioned the beginning of the Paralegal Practice course, our rebrand, and my attendance at the Scottish Paralegal Assocation (SPA) conference in Glasgow. This time around, I am back at the next SPA conference on the 26 September in Dundee – I hope to see some of you there – and have various updates on the Paralegal Practice course, some opportunities for you to get involved in our work and important updates to our competencies, plus much more!  

Last month I had the pleasure of travelling to Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen to meet with some of the students completing the Paralegal Practice (Cert He) course. It was great to spend some time with the students and to hear about their experiences of the online course so far. As well as spending some time getting to know each other, the students also had the opportunity to network with members of the RGU Law School and discuss their career aspirations for the future.  A fantastic day for the students to celebrate their achievements so far.   

If you are interested in taking the next step in your paralegal career you can find out more about the Paralegal Practice (Cert He) course here. Applications for 2025 are now open!  

As you might have gathered, it's an exciting time to get involved with the accreditation and the various projects we’re undertaking. The Accredited Paralegal Committee currently has vacancies for paralegal members, solicitor members and non-paralegal/solicitor members. By being a committee member, you can get involved in what I have touched on here and much more! It’s a fantastic chance to shape the future of your profession. Further information on the aims and functions of the committee can be found here along with how to apply.   

The closing date for applications is Tuesday 24 September 2024 at 12 noon.  

As part of its ongoing work, the committee is undertaking a review of the practice area competencies to ensure that they remain fit for purpose. The committee has now completed its review of the Residential Conveyancing and Commercial Conveyancing practice areas and while the changes are not substantial, we would recommend that you familiarise yourself with the revised competencies if this is your area of work.  

Further details of all our competencies and standards can be found here.  

Another one of our many projects to do with the Accredited Paralegal Status is trying to gain further insight into the journey to becoming a paralegal. After receiving regular enquires on this topic, we feel that research into this area will only benefit the sector. We know there is no set route which is why we are really interested to hear from you on how your paralegal journey began. We will be reaching out to you with a short questionnaire later this year and would appreciate if you are able to take part.  

To end on a celebratory note, this year we are celebrating the Law Society of Scotland’s 75th anniversary. In honour of the occasion, we were delighted to invite some of our paralegals, committee members and solicitors to share their thoughts on how the paralegal role has changed throughout the last 75 years and what changes they hope to see for the profession in the future. The full article The Law Society at 75: Tracking the impact of paralegals can be found here. 

We’d love to hear from you! If you’d like to write some content for our paralegal audience or want to know more about a certain area or topic, please get in touch at AccreditedParalegals@lawscot.org.uk.