AAPI American Alliance Certified Paralegal (AACP)

The AACP is the certification credential of the American Alliance of Paralegals, a national paralegal association.

Of the four national bodies our research covers — NALA, NFPA, NALS and AAPI — all four certify individuals, while the ABA approves paralegal programs rather than certifying paralegals itself.

AAPI's credential is the one decided without a test.

That is the defining feature.

NALA's Certified Paralegal (CP) is earned through a two-part exam, and NFPA runs the PCCE and PACE exams.

The AACP instead is issued "based on the above formal educational and experience criteria," as AAPI's program document puts it: a reviewed application, a transcript and an attorney declaration rather than a test.

It is also a small credential.

AAPI's own program document reports 85 AACPs in total — and that count sits in a statistics block on a page the document marks as revised in October 2022, so treat it as dated rather than current.

Beside NALA, whose statistics reported 6,665 active Certified Paralegals as of August 1, 2026, the AACP is a niche mark rather than a mass credential.

Where does it sit in the wider field?

Our guide to paralegal certification maps the full landscape — national exam-based credentials, AAPI's review-based one and the state-level certifications — and the side-by-side of which paralegal certification to pursue compares NALA, NFPA, NALS and AAPI directly.

AAPI grants the AACP on two things at once: experience and education.

On the experience side, every applicant needs at least five years of substantive paralegal experience.

On the education side, the program document's criteria cover a bachelor's or advanced degree in any field, or an associate degree or a certificate from an ABA-approved or AAfPE voting-member paralegal program.

One naming point matters here: "ABA-approved" describes the program.

The ABA approves paralegal programs; it does not certify paralegals — certification of individuals is what NALA, NFPA, NALS and AAPI do.

So an ABA-approved program certificate satisfies an AAPI educational criterion; it is not itself a certification.

The application is where the experience claim gets documented.

An AACP application requires:

The attorney affidavit is the piece that reaches beyond your own paperwork: a lawyer attests to the substantive paralegal work you claim.

Combined with the transcript check, that is how a no-exam credential verifies its holders — the review replaces the test.

Note that AAPI membership is its own requirement with its own dues, which our research does not cover; ask AAPI for the current membership cost before you budget.

The AACP runs on a three-year renewal cycle.

Every AACP renews their certification every three years with 18 hours of continuing legal education, of which 3 hours must be in ethics, and pays a $40 renewal fee.

AAPI attaches one more condition to renewal beyond the hours and the fee: the holder must be employed as a paralegal at renewal.

A lapsed paralegal career does not just pause the credential's usefulness — under the rule as written, it fails the renewal condition itself.

For scale, NALA's CP runs on a longer cycle: five years, with 50 CLE hours including at least 5 in ethics.

If you are comparing renewal loads across credentials — AAPI's 18 hours every three years against the CP's 50 every five, and the rules NALS and NFPA set — our guide to paralegal continuing education lays the CLE requirements out by credential, and the NALA Certified Paralegal (CP) deep dive covers that credential's full cycle.

Career information, not legal advice. The requirements here come from AAPI's AACP certification program document as read on October 2, 2026 — confirm current requirements with the American Alliance of Paralegals before you apply or renew.