2 - Paralegal Employment

Question 1

private law firms

Answer 1

a law firm that generates its income mainly from the attorney (and paralegal) fees paid by clients

Question 2

boutique law firms

Answer 2

a law firm that specializes in one main area of the law

Question 3

general counsel

Answer 3

the chief attorney in a corporate law department (corporate counsel)

Question 4

civil service

Answer 4

nonmilitary government employment, often obtained through merit and competitive exams

Question 5

jurisdiction

Answer 5

1 - a geographic area over which a particular court, legislature, or administrative agency has authority; area can be the entire country, a state, a group of states, a county, a city, etc.
2 - power of a court to resolve a legal dispute
3 - power or authority that a person, government or other entity can exercise

Question 6

paralegal specialist

Answer 6

a major civil service job classification for paralegals who work for the federal government and for some state and local governments

Question 7

legal aid offices

Answer 7

an office of attorneys (and often paralegals) that provides free or low-cost legal services for persons who cannot afford standard legal fees (legal services office)

Question 8

indigent

Answer 8

poor; without means to afford something such as a private attorney or filing fees

Question 9

civil

Answer 9

1 - pertaining to the state or its citizens
2 - noncriminal
3 - nonmilitary

Question 10

client trust account

Answer 10

a bank account controlled by an attorney that contains client funds that may not be used for general operating expenses or for any personal purpose of the attorney

Question 11

uncontested

Answer 11

unchallenged; without opposition or dispute

Question 12

pro bono

Answer 12

concerning or involving legal services that are provided for the public good (pro bono publico) without fee or compensation; sometimes also applied to services given at a reduced rate

Question 13

special-interest group

Answer 13

an organization that seeks to influence policy in favor of a particular group or cause, often through lobbying

Question 14

test case

Answer 14

litigation that seeks to create a new legal principle or right

Question 15

prepaid legal services

Answer 15

a legal-insurance plan by which a person pays premiums to cover future legal services that might be needed (legal plan, group legal services)

Question 16

crime

Answer 16

conduct the government classifies as a wrong that is serious enough to warrant a criminal proceeding and punishment if convicted

Question 17

tort

Answer 17

a civil wrong (other than a breach of contract) that causes injury or other loss for which our legal system deems it just to provide a remedy such as damages; injury or loss can be to the person (personal tort), to moveable property (personal property tort), or to land and anything attached to the land (real property tort)

Question 18

conversion

Answer 18

tort committed by an intentional interference with another’s personal property consisting of an exercise of dominion over the property

Question 19

public defender

Answer 19

attorney appointed by a court and paid by the government to represent an indigent defendant in a criminal case

Question 20

assigned counsel

Answer 20

an attorney (often in private practice) appointed by the court to represent an indigent person in a criminal or civil case; paid by the government and might be called public defender

Question 21

outsourcing

Answer 21

paying an outside company or service to perform tasks usually performed by one’s own employees

Question 22

e-discovery

Answer 22

discovery by a party in litigation of an opponent’s date generated by or stored in a computer or other digital device (e.g. data in emails, spreadsheets, memos, Web pages, video and other digital records) [electronic data discovery]

Question 23

legal nurse consultant (LNC)

Answer 23

a nurse, usually an independent contractor, who examines and evaluates facts involving the delivery of health care on behalf of an attorney, health organization, or other entity

Question 24

legal nurse

Answer 24

a nurse, usually an employee of an attorney, who examines an evaluates facts involving the delivery of healthcare on behalf of an attorney

Question 25

job bank

Answer 25

service that lists available jobs; sometimes only available to members of an organization

Question 26

blind ad

Answer 26

a want add that does not give the name and address of the prospective employer; contact is made through a third party (e.g. newspaper or agency)

Question 27

staffing agency

Answer 27

an employment agency that places temporary workers, often directly paying the workers and handling all of the financial aspects of the placement

Question 28

informational interviews

Answer 28

an interview whose primary purpose is to gain a better understanding of an area of law or kind of employment

Question 29

chronological resume

Answer 29

resume that presents biographical date on education, training, and experience in a chronological sequence starting with the present and working backwards

Question 30

functional resume

Answer 30

resume that covers skills and experience regardless of when they were developed or occurred

Question 31

font

Answer 31

design or style of printed letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks or other characters

Question 32

point

Answer 32

measure of the size of printed letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks or other characters (approx. 1/72 of an inch)

Question 33

Portable Document Format (PDF)

Answer 33

file format consisting of an electronic image of a document that preserves the features and styles of a document (e.g. line spacing, photograph placement, and font size) that existed before it was converted into a digital document

Question 34

metadata

Answer 34

data about data; data about a computer document that is hidden within the document itself (e.g. earlier versions of the document)

Question 35

parallelism

Answer 35

using a consistent (i.e. parallel) grammatical structure when phrasing logically related ideas in a list

Question 36

due diligence

Answer 36

reasonable efforts to find and verify factual information needed to carry out an obligation, to avoid harming someone, or to make an important decision (e.g. to determine true market value of a potential investment, or to decide whether a job prospect is worth pursuing)

Question 37

blog

Answer 37

internet journal or diary on any topic of interest to the blogger (‘blawg’ is topic is mainly law)

Question 38

cover letter

Answer 38

1 - letter indicating what is being sent in the same envelope or package and that often highlights its components or purpose
2 - a brief business letter that states your interest in a specific position and briefly explains why you would be an excellent choice
3 - a transmittal letter

Question 39

intranet

Answer 39

private network of computers for the sharing of data, software, and services within the organization using features similar to the world wide web

Question 40

contaminate

Answer 40

cause of conflict of interest to exist in a law office because of prior employment, prior volunteer work or other factors that could create the conflict

Question 41

conflict of interest

Answer 41

divided loyalties that actually or potentially harm (or disadvantage) someone who is owed undivided loyalty

Question 42

redacted

Answer 42

to edit or prepare a document for publication or release, often by deleting, altering or blocking out text you don’t want disclosed