The eLearning Center for Gatlin Education Services

In this course, you will gain a basic background in law office administration. You will learn how law is practiced in the private sector, the role of the legal administrator and legal assistant manager, how a law office manages its expenses, timekeeping, and how a lawyer sets and collects fees. You will learn about billing, client trust accounts, administrative reports, and client file management.

The course also covers the use of computers in a law office. This knowledge is especially valuable since computers play a major role in the modern law practice. In this age of electronic discovery and online legal research, computer knowledge is extremely important.

Topics covered include:

• Learning about the differences between computer applications (software) and computer systems (hardware).
• Computer terminology, and the technologies that are most commonly used, including operating systems, software applications, and hardware devices.
• Input devices, speech recognition programs, and scanners, and word-processing programs.
• Law-related uses of the Internet, including the main fee-based sources of computer-assisted legal research, such as Westlaw® and Lexis®, as well as the use of listervs, intranets and extranets.

A paralegal with expertise in these areas will be a valuable part of any legal team.

Reading Assignments:

Reading assignments are given weekly from the provided textbooks.  Reading is also assigned from the supplementary course documents as listed below.

Supplementary Course Documents:

Students have continuous access to these course materials via the online classroom.

• Westlaw Guide
• Computer in the Law Office
• Tech Tips
• Interview with a Law Office Manager

Discussion Topics

Discussions are a mandatory part of the course and make up 15% of the total grade given.  They are broken down by week in the online classroom.

Practical Assignment (required):

The Practical Assignment is posted at the beginning of Week Three and due by the end of that week.

Quizzes and Tests

All students are required to take a final test during the final week of the course. Tests are administered in the online classroom, and all answers must be submitted by the last day of class.

Grading:

Grading is calculated as follows:

• Law Office Administration
• Organization and structure of a Law Office
• Law Office Billing
• Types of fees
• Costs and overhead
• Timekeeping
• Filing and Recordkeeping
• Basic filing systems
• Document storage
• Expenses
• Client Funds
• Administrative Reports
• Introduction to the Use of Computers in a Law Office
• Introduction
• Terminology:  A review of some of the basics
• Software in the law firm
• Computer-assisted legal research
• Internet
• Intranet and extranet
• Use of Computers in a Law Office for Non-Research Tasks
• Word Processing
• Email
• Spreadsheets
• Internet
• Listserv
• World Wide Web
• Computer Basics