Portfolio Overview

I have created a portfolio containing six items I have created during my courses in the Paralegal Certificate Program at the College of Lake County. Below, I will give a brief synopsis of what the item is and why I feel this is a good reflection of my capabilities as a candidate for a paralegal position as well as a link to each item. These items can also be found under Sample Work.

Client Letter

Client letters are a staple of any law office or legal department. They are done every day, often multiple times a day, to convey information between attorneys and their clients. Paralegals are often the authors of these letters and knowing how to strike the balance between informative and professional without being cold or too firm is an important skill to have. I feel that including a draft of a client letter shows that I am capable and reliable when it comes to performing the day-to-day tasks.

Case Brief

Case briefs are, as their name suggests, a brief way for an attorney to become familiar with the facts of the case and the relevant case law. Drafting a case brief shows a paralegal’s capability to gather information through research and quickly and concisely synthesize the information into an easy to read and remember synopsis for the attorney. I feel that including a case brief will show that I am capable of keeping it short and sweet when the situation calls for it without skimping on quality.

Office Memorandum

An office memorandum is the next step up from a case brief. With a similar layout, they are easy to confuse but an office memorandum often dives deeper and thoroughly analyses the legal issue at a great length than a case brief does. I feel that this document will provide a good example of being able to conduct legal research and really flesh out the legal reasoning and application of law to certain legal questions. It will show I am capable of a higher level of sophisticated reasoning and legal understanding.

Friends & Family Research Memorandum

This document is another legal memorandum but is a source of pride for me because the topic and subsequent legal research were of my own choice. For this assignment, we were asked to come up with our own legal questions based on either our own life experiences or those of friends and family. It was meant to be an area of interest to us personally. I chose to investigate pet custody/ownership as it relates to divorce. This is an area of emerging law and there is not much out there on the topic. I feel that including this document again shows my ability to really flesh out a legal issue through research, even when there may not necessarily be a lot of pre-existing case law to go off.

Job Market Report

This is a PowerPoint slideshow that I created based off of research I conducted on current paralegal job postings. For this assignment, we were tasked with finding, reviewing, and compiling current job opportunities for paralegals for review and critique by our classmates. I feel this is a good example of my ability to conduct research and synthesize information into a visually appealing and educational format. I have become very comfortable with using Microsoft PowerPoint throughout my legal studies courses.

Paralegal Interview

This is a PowerPoint slide show that I created based off of an interview with a real-world paralegal as part of my Capstone course work. We were tasked with connecting with and interviewing a paralegal using a set of questions we came up with. We then had to synthesize the information into a PowerPoint presentation for our classmates to review. I feel this is a good example of my dexterity with Microsoft PowerPoint and reflects my listening skills in the detail of my summary.