Description and Outcomes

Legal secretary is a field of law that offers employment opportunities for highly trained and qualified graduates in a wide range of businesses and industries. The Legal Secretary Certificate program is designed to provide you with an introduction to legal secretarial skills and enhance your abilities on the job. Upon graduation, you may pursue employment as a legal secretary or a legal administrative assistant in a law firm, the judicial system, or the legal departments of organizations in the profit and nonprofit sectors. Coursework focuses on the role of the paralegal in the civil litigation process and helps you develop the skills necessary for effective legal writing, document processing, and use of software applications.

Qualified credits earned in fulfillment of this certificate program may be transferable to certain Purdue Global degree programs.

Program Length

The Legal Secretary Certificate program consists of a minimum of 31 quarter credit hours. Upon successful completion of the program, you will be awarded a certificate.

Program Outcomes

1. Communication: Demonstrate the ability to effectively communicate in the legal environment.
2. Ethical Decision Making: Demonstrate the ability to apply ethical decision making in the practice of paralegal.
3. Critical Thinking: Demonstrate the ability to apply critical thinking to resolve paralegal practice problems.
4. Theory and Practice: Demonstrate the ability to synthesize and analyze theoretical and practical concepts from a variety of areas of legal specializations.
5. Basic Skills: Demonstrate the ability to apply and employ basic office secretarial skills to produce legal forms and documents.
6. Legal Communication: Demonstrate the ability to produce written legal correspondence and documentation.

Program Availability

For program availability, please refer to the U.S. State and Other Approvals section and the Program Availability Grid.

Policies

Please refer to school-specific policies and the Policy Information section for general Purdue Global policies.

Certification, State Board, and National Board Exams

Certain state certification and licensure boards have specific educational requirements for programs to lead to a license or nongovernmental certification that is a precondition for employment in a recognized occupation.

Unless otherwise specified, Purdue Global's programs are not designed to meet any specific state’s licensure or certification requirements. If certain licensed occupations, vocations, or professions are not explicitly listed, Purdue Global has not made a determination with respect to the licensure or certification requirements of those occupations, vocations, or professions. Licensure-track programs may limit enrollment to students in certain states; please see Purdue Global’s Program Availability Grid to determine enrollment eligibility.

You are responsible for understanding the requirements of optional certification exams. Such requirements may change during the course of your program. You are not automatically certified in any way upon program completion. Although certain programs are designed to prepare you to take various optional certification exams, Purdue Global cannot guarantee you will be eligible to take these exams or become certified. Your eligibility may depend on your work experience, completion of education and/or degree requirements, not having a criminal record, meeting other certification requirements, or the program or the University itself having appropriate accreditation or licensure.

Program Requirements