The word "Paralegal" is a generic term which comes from the Latin "Para", which loosely means "to cover", so broadly speaking, a Paralegal is someone who 'covers' for a lawyer.

The National Association of Paralegals, defines a Paralegal as:

"a person qualified through education and training to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of the law and legal procedure and who is not a qualified solicitor or barrister. Paralegals may work for, or be retained by Solicitors within the legal profession or they may work within a legal environment within commerce, industry or the public sector or may practice as independent paralegal practitioners".

Within the legal profession, Solicitors have always relied upon their unadmitted support staff and could not operate effectively without them. Paralegals are important members of the legal team, playing key roles in the legal process. Their duties involve them working closely with Solicitors and Barristers and may take them from office to courtroom, from clients to conferences, from the law library to the negotiating table. The work that experienced Paralegals undertake is quite often virtually indistinguishable from that undertaken by the Solicitors who employ them.

By their very nature, Paralegals tend to specialise. If they start their career in a Solicitor's office in a particular field of law, be it civil litigation, matrimonial and domestic, conveyancing, criminal work, or whatever, they tend to stay in that particular field, and therefore become an expert in it.

Within commerce and industry many organisations need employees who have a broad knowledge of law and procedure together with an expertise applicable to their particular sector. Paralegals work in areas such as Financial Services, Insurance, Banking, Building Societies, the Retail Sector, Credit Control, Export, etc.

In the Public Sector are Government Departments, Local Authorities, Court and Tribunal Staff, Welfare, the Probation Service, Social Services, the Police and the like. In these areas a Paralegal can be invaluable.