North Idaho College offers paralegal program

COEUR d'ALENE — You don't have to be an attorney to work in a law office.

You can be a paralegal or legal administrative assistant, too, and North Idaho College has training programs for both, in addition to offering a legal administrative assistant certificate program.

Jennifer Lea is a 2005 graduate of the paralegal program. She got a job with James, Vernon and Weeks immediately. Lea became the firm's bookkeeper just last year.

"You learn a lot about the law. It's almost like, when I talked to our legal interns who are going to school to be an attorney, a lot of the classes that they take are the same ones that we take," Lea said.

Talesha Foster, a 2008 graduate, also praised the paralegal program.

"It was great. It was the reason I got my job," said Foster, who works for attorney Susan Servick.

The paralegal program is taught by attorneys, said Marilyn Wudarcki, instructor and paralegal and legal administrative assistant programs coordinator.

"The students get a very, very rounded program in different areas of the law, as well as some basic administrative work," she said.

Wudarcki described the program as a heavy two-year degree. Most take the program in three years, she said. It requires 18 credits of general education in addition to substantive law courses.

Six or seven people graduate from the program every year.

"It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a pretty tough program," Wudarcki said.

Paralegals do everything in law offices except quote prices and give legal advice. The attorney has to sign off on their work, she said, which frees up attorneys to tackle more complex things.

The paralegal program is the most popular of NIC's offerings in the field, and it is a successful one.

"The paralegal program, if we need an intern, I always call Marilyn," Lea said, noting that the firm consistently hires its interns.

"I don't have trouble placing my students at all," Wudarcki said.

If you plan to become an attorney, NIC offers a political science and prelaw transfer program.

The political science and prelaw concentration includes classes on American government, state and local government, and an introduction to political science, said instructor Richard Tanksley.

The college also offers three courses in criminal justice study. Tanksley said he would take at least one of them if he was majoring in prelaw.

They include an introduction to criminal justice, corrections in America and criminal procedure. Tanksley recommended taking criminal procedure, but said what students should take depends upon their interests.

Any Idaho and Washington state institution accepts NIC's two-year degree, and most private schools do as well, he said.

"You could come to NIC and get two years of basically any program," Tanksley said.