The Advanced Certified Paralegal (ACP) is the advanced credential NALA reserves for paralegals who already hold its Certified Paralegal (CP) designation — only current Certified Paralegals can earn it.
Its courses are web-based, about 20 hours each, and each earns up to 20 CLE hours.
NALA says more than 3,500 paralegals have earned the ACP since the credential launched in 2006.
What is the NALA Advanced Certified Paralegal (ACP)?
The Advanced Certified Paralegal (ACP) is NALA's advanced credential, and NALA gates it sharply: the ACP credential is available only to current Certified Paralegals.
If you have not earned the CP yet, that comes first — our NALA CP guide covers the eligibility routes, the two-part exam, fees and renewal.
The detail people miss is the split between the courses and the credential.
Anyone may take an ACP course — you do not have to be a NALA Certified Paralegal — but the credential itself goes only to current CPs.
NALA draws the same line in its own terms: a certificate marks that you completed a learning program, while certification validates mastery against a professional standard.
The ACP is the credential side of that line, which is why completing a course and holding the ACP are not the same thing.
The credential's reach, per NALA: it has been awarded to more than 3,500 paralegals since its inception in 2006.
One naming note before the list: an ACP is a credential from NALA, not a specialty certificate from a university or course provider.
If you are comparing course-based certificates instead, our specialty paralegal certificates guide covers that landscape.
ACP specialties: NALA's course list
Each ACP course targets one practice area.
NALA's ACP page listed the following courses as of October 2, 2026:
- Business Organizations – Incorporated Entities
- California Advanced Specialization in Discovery
- Contract Management
- Criminal Litigation
- Discovery
- eDiscovery
- Family Law
- Family Law – Adoption and Assisted Reproduction
- Land Use
- Personal Injury
- Real Estate Principles
- Trial Practice
Read together, the list spans litigation-side work — discovery, eDiscovery, criminal litigation, trial practice and personal injury — next to transactional areas such as contract management, real estate and business organizations, with family law and land use alongside.
Two paralegal specialties were not on the page we checked: as of October 2, 2026, NALA listed no immigration course and no intellectual-property course.
If you practice in either field, confirm NALA's current catalog rather than assuming the list still stands.
The course list is NALA's — and it changes
Is the NALA ACP worth it?
For a current CP, the case is specific rather than general.
The ACP is NALA's specialty-level credential, with courses aimed at individual practice areas — discovery, family law, trial practice and the rest of the list above — so for a CP whose work sits in one of those areas, the ACP is the credential built around that area.
Each ACP course also earns up to 20 CLE hours on its own.
The CP's five-year renewal is CLE-based too, with its own ethics, technology and non-substantive limits — but our research did not confirm how NALA applies ACP hours to CP recertification, so confirm with NALA before you count on them.
The renewal rules sit on our NALA CP page.
What our research does not have is a pay or hiring effect for the ACP specifically — the NALA pages we checked don't publish one, and we won't invent a number.
Whether paralegal certification increases pay at all is its own question: our guide to whether paralegal certification increases pay covers it separately.
So the practical read: if you hold the CP and your work sits squarely in one of NALA's listed specialties, the ACP is the credential built around that work.
If you do not hold the CP yet, the decision makes itself — the CP comes first.
And price the move before you commit: course fees change, and this page doesn't quote them — confirm current costs with NALA before you enroll.
Career information, not legal advice. The ACP credential, its course list and its requirements belong to NALA and change — confirm current details with NALA before you enroll.