What are the requirements to be a paralegal?
In the United States, there is no paralegal license: NFPA states that no single authority oversees the paralegal profession and that, as of its writing, no state has paralegal licensure.
The requirements that decide hiring are employer requirements — BLS lists the typical entry-level education as an associate's degree, with certification preferred or required by some employers — plus state statutes where they exist, California's being the clearest example.
Is there a legal requirement to be a paralegal?
There is no paralegal license in the United States.
NFPA — one of the profession's national associations — states that no single authority oversees the paralegal profession and that, at the time of its writing, no state has paralegal licensure.
What the law does describe is the working relationship.
The ABA's current definition of paralegal, adopted by its House of Delegates at the February 2020 Midyear Meeting, reads: “A paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.”
It is worth reading for the requirement it does not set: the definition names three alternative qualifiers — education, training or work experience — rather than one mandatory credential.
The 2020 definition replaced the ABA's 1997 definition and dropped the term “legal assistant,” so the older “legal assistant/paralegal” phrasing you still see in circulated materials is not the current definition.
The supervision side of that relationship is where a rule does bite.
ABA Model Rule 5.5, comment [2], says the definition of the practice of law varies by jurisdiction and that the rule does not stop a lawyer from delegating functions to paraprofessionals so long as the lawyer supervises the delegated work and keeps responsibility for it — the comment cross-references Rule 5.3, on a lawyer's responsibilities for nonlawyer assistance.
The paralegal-side boundary comes from ethics codes rather than a license.
NALA's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility draws it in Canon 1, which bars a paralegal from the unauthorized practice of law and from establishing attorney-client relationships, setting fees, giving legal opinions or advice, or representing a client before a court or agency unless authorized.
So the legal baseline is thin but real: work delegated and supervised by a lawyer, and the paralegal's side of the practice-of-law line respected — plus a state statute where one exists.
For what the role involves day to day, start with the paralegal career guide.
What do employers require?
Employment requirements are set employer by employer, and BLS's description of the occupation shows the spread.
On education: BLS lists the typical entry-level education for paralegals and legal assistants as an associate's degree, and describes people entering the occupation with an associate's degree or a certificate in paralegal studies.
Beyond that baseline, some employers prefer a bachelor's degree, others consider candidates with a high school diploma and experience, and some hire people with no legal education and train them on the job.
What “ABA-approved” means on a program — and who actually needs one — is its own question: see ABA-approved paralegal programs.
On certification, BLS is direct: it is not required, but some employers prefer or require candidates who have completed a paralegal certification program, and certification typically means passing an exam plus keeping up ongoing continuing education.
The national credentials are compared in the paralegal certification guide; the state-level programs are indexed in the table further down this page.
Skills are the third requirement line.
BLS lists communication, detail orientation, interpersonal, organizational and research skills as the important qualities for the occupation.
One reading note for requirement-hunting in postings: NALA treats “legal assistant” and “paralegal” as synonymous terms — a definition it says appears in state supreme court rules, statutes, ethics opinions and bar guidelines — but usage varies by employer, and some firms use “legal assistant” for a secretarial role.
Judge a posting by its duties, not its label.
When you compare openings, the education, certification and experience lines in paralegal job postings are the live version of this list.
Which states regulate paralegals?
Start from the national picture: per NFPA, no state has paralegal licensure as of its writing, and no single authority oversees the profession.
What states do instead falls into two different buckets that get confused with each other.
Paralegal statutes.
A state can regulate the paralegal title directly.
California is the worked example: under Business and Professions Code section 6450, a paralegal works under the direction and supervision of an active California State Bar member, and may not contract with or be employed by a natural person other than an attorney to perform paralegal services.
The same statute requires working paralegals to certify, every two years, completion of 4 hours of mandatory continuing legal education in legal ethics and 4 hours in either general law or an area of specialized law.
Each state's statute is its own — California's rules do not transfer anywhere else.
Legal paraprofessional licenses.
A state can also license paraprofessionals for limited-scope legal work — a different role from a paralegal.
NFPA treats these as their own category and lists the Arizona Legal Paraprofessional Program, the Arizona Legal Document Preparer Program, the Minnesota Legal Paraprofessional Practice Pilot Project, the Oregon Licensed Paralegal Program and the Utah Licensed Paralegal Practitioner Program.
These licenses attach to the paraprofessional track, not to the paralegal title.
A third role adds to the confusion: document preparers.
In California, a registered legal document assistant gives self-help services for pay to people who are representing themselves, and may not give any advice, explanation, opinion or recommendation about legal rights, remedies, forms or strategies.
In Arizona, anyone preparing legal documents without the supervision of an Arizona attorney must be certified as a legal document preparer under Supreme Court Rule 31 and ACJA §7-208, and may give general legal information but not legal advice.
Neither role is a paralegal — but postings and titles blur them, so it is worth knowing the boundary.
The practical summary: voluntary credentials are not licenses — on NFPA's definitions, a paralegal can only call themselves licensed where a state runs a formal paraprofessional license.
Which bucket your state sits in decides what you actually have to do to work there.
Rules change — confirm with the body that sets them
Which states offer voluntary certification?
State-level voluntary certification is a credential a state program offers — voluntary meaning no one is required to hold it to work as a paralegal.
NFPA's regulation page lists 16 state-level voluntary paralegal certifications, including California Certified Paralegal, Florida Registered Paralegal, North Carolina Certified Paralegal, Ohio State Bar Association Certified Paralegal, Texas Board of Legal Specialization Certified Paralegal and State Bar of Wisconsin Certified Paralegal.
All 16 appear in the table below.
Two things to know about that list.
First, the sponsoring body matters, and some names say it outright — the Ohio State Bar Association, the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and the State Bar of Wisconsin name theirs — so for any program on the list, the sponsoring body's own pages are where the eligibility criteria live.
Second, state-level programs are national associations' and state bodies' credentials running on separate tracks.
The national certifications are NALA's Certified Paralegal (CP), NFPA's PCCE and PACE exams, and NALS's ALP, CLP and PP — how those work, who qualifies and what they cost is the territory of the paralegal certification guide, not this page.
One vocabulary trap to close while you read program names: NALA distinguishes a certificate — completing a learning program — from certification, which validates mastery against a professional standard.
Finishing a paralegal course does not make someone a certified paralegal.
Paralegal requirements by state
The table pulls the state-level picture into one place: the 16 voluntary certification programs on NFPA's list, each named the way NFPA names it.
| State | Voluntary credential (as listed by NFPA) |
|---|---|
| California | California Certified Paralegal |
| Delaware | Delaware Certified Paralegal |
| Florida | Florida Registered Paralegal |
| Illinois | Illinois Accredited Paralegal |
| Indiana | Indiana Registered Paralegal |
| Kentucky | Certified Kentucky Paralegal |
| Minnesota | Minnesota Certified Paralegal |
| New York | New York State Certified Paralegal |
| North Carolina | North Carolina Certified Paralegal |
| Ohio | Ohio State Bar Association Certified Paralegal |
| Oregon | Oregon Certified Paralegal |
| Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Certified Paralegal |
| South Carolina | South Carolina Certified Paralegal |
| Texas | Texas Board of Legal Specialization Certified Paralegal |
| Virginia | Virginia Registered Paralegal |
| Wisconsin | State Bar of Wisconsin Certified Paralegal |
How to read it: a row is a voluntary credential, not a work requirement.
Per NFPA, no state has paralegal licensure as of its writing, so none of these programs is a license.
Absence from the table is also not a clean bill of silence — the list covers voluntary certification programs only, and a state can regulate paralegal work in other ways: California's supervision and continuing-education statute applies whether or not a paralegal holds one of these credentials.
And because each program sets its own criteria, treat the credential name as a pointer: confirm eligibility, renewal and cost with the sponsoring body before counting on one.
Career information, not legal advice — paralegal requirements are set state by state; confirm the rules that apply to you with the body that administers them in your state.