Paralegal Studies

Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Paralegal Studies
Arellano University (4 years)
 
Certificate of Paralegal Competency
Institute of Continuing Legal Studies & Education (86 units)

Arellano University announced that, in collaboration with the Institute of Continuing Legal Studies and Education, starting June 2000, its College of Commerce will offer a special and unique baccalaureate course leading to the award of a Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Major in Paralegal Studies.

This will be the first time such a course will be offered in the country, providing the student with liberal education and office management skills including shorthand and computer skills along with general knowledge of the principles of substantive and procedural law, with special emphasis on effective communications.

Graduates from the course, the University points out, will form a group of highly trained professional paralegals -- non-lawyers equipped to deliver various legal tasks, relieving full-fledged lawyers of such tasks to allow them more time to concentrate on more important matters. The course will also provide a very good, if not the best, preparation for those who intend to pursue a Bachelor of Laws/ Doctor of Jurisprudence degree.

Beyond its direct and immediate objective, the course provides an excellent preparation for an independent profession in view of the well-rounded training/knowledge the student will receive.

In the event, therefore, that the holder of a baccalaureate degree in Paralegal Studies is unable for some reason or another, to pursue a law degree, he can have a life-long professional career as office manager/administrator; corporate or business executive director assistant secretary; legislative assistant or chief of staff; court staff member; legal researcher; background/field investigator; and independent entrepreneur.

What makes the course more unique, is that the student can, in mid-course, earn enough credits to entitle him to be awarded by the Institute of Continuing Legal Studies and Education a Certificate of Paralegal Competency, so that a student who, for financial reasons, has to seek a good-paying job to support his studies can, before his fourth year in the course, and with the assistance of the University and the Institute, find gainful employment as a professional paralegal or legal assistant, or as an executive assistant in a law or business firm. This will afford him the opportunity, which no other school in the country can provide, to finish his baccalaureate studies and to go on to law school or pursue a Masteral in Business Management.

The University will make this new course available to: all high school graduates who are planning to enter college, and to all college students who have taken the general course but have not yet decided to take a major field of study. Graduates of other courses may also enroll in this course, provided that they meet or comply with the minimum general course, pursuant to CMO No. 59, Series of 1996.

Specifically, the following are eligible for admission into the program:

1. Students already enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Major in Legal Management course under the old curriculum of the Arellano University.
    
   
2. Students enrolled in other academic programs of the Arellano University; or
    
   
3. Students who hold a baccalaureate degree from the Arellano University or any other institution of learning.
   

The University offers at least two scholarships for the course. The first is Entrance Scholarship for high school graduates who have excelled in their secondary education and who intend to enroll in the program. The second is Academic Scholarship, wherein an enrollee in the course has excelled in his/her previous semester.

The requirements for Entrance Scholarship are the following:

1. For Full Scholarship, the applicant must have a general weighted average of 88 percent or higher and no English grade lower than 85 percent. Likewise, he must enroll in all the required subjects for the semester.
    
   
2. For Half Scholarship, the applicant must have a general weighted average of 85 percent or higher and no English grade lower than 83 percent. He must enroll in all required subjects for the semester.
   

To be qualified as an Academic Scholar, the student must have obtained a general weighted average of 88 percent or higher for the entire semestral load and has no English grade lower than 85.