NALS — the association for legal professionals — offers three certifications: the ALP (Accredited Legal Professional), the CLP (Certified Legal Professional) and the PP (Professional Paralegal).
NALS membership is not required for any of the three exams.
Each credential is valid for five years and renews on CLE hours the association sets.
Here is what each exam looks like and which fits which stage of a legal-support career.
ALP: Accredited Legal Professional
The ALP — Accredited Legal Professional — is the starting credential of NALS's three.
It is a computerized multiple-choice exam with no minimum age requirement, and it is the credential NALS itself describes as a possible first step toward the CLP or PP.
Its scope is broad legal support, pitched at entry level.
The credential is valid for five years.
Renewal takes at least 50 hours of CLE credits and activities — the lightest renewal load of the three NALS credentials.
CLP/PLS: Certified Legal Professional
The CLP is NALS's Certified Legal Professional credential.
If you have run into the abbreviations ALS or PLS, note that the current certification resource manual — the 2025 edition our research read — names the association's credentials only as ALP, CLP and PP.
The CLP exam has four multiple-choice parts, and NALS requires all four to be taken on the first attempt.
Passed parts stay valid for two years.
Within NALS's line-up, the CLP sits on the legal professional/secretary track, as distinct from the PP's paralegal focus.
It is valid for five years and renews with 75 hours of CLE and activities, including 5 hours of ethics.
PP: Professional Paralegal
The PP — Professional Paralegal — is NALS's paralegal credential.
Its exam has four multiple-choice parts, but a candidate holding a valid, current CLP need only sit for Part 4.
That rule is the clearest statement of how NALS orders its own credentials: the association routes current CLP holders to the paralegal credential through a single exam part rather than the full four-part sitting.
The PP is valid for five years and renews with at least 75 hours of CLE, including at least 5 in ethics and 50 in substantive legal topics.
Which NALS certification fits you?
Read together, the three credentials form a path.
The ALP is a possible first step, in NALS's own framing.
The CLP is the legal-professional credential, with four exam parts taken in one first sitting.
The PP is the paralegal credential, and a current CLP reaches it by sitting Part 4 alone.
As a rough sort: if you are new to legal support and want a first credential, the ALP is the one NALS describes as a starting point.
If your career is the legal-professional/secretary track, the CLP matches it.
If you work as a paralegal — or hold the CLP and are moving deeper into substantive legal work — the PP is the credential built for that, with the renewal hours to match.
NALS is not the only national certifying body: NALA runs the Certified Paralegal (CP), NFPA runs the PCCE and PACE exams, and the American Alliance (AAPI) awards the AACP.
Their eligibility rules differ — NFPA says someone without substantive paralegal work experience is not eligible for either of its exams, while NALA's first CP eligibility category is graduation from a qualifying paralegal program, with no work-experience requirement in it.
For that side-by-side, see our guide to which certification fits your background, and the paralegal certification overview for how the national credentials sit alongside the state-level ones.
Career information, not legal advice. The exam and renewal details on this page come from NALS's 2025 certification resource manual as read on October 2, 2026 — confirm current requirements with NALS before you apply.
NALS fees and eligibility: not confirmed by our research