What Is Pace?
Paralegal Advanced Competency Exam
Welcome!
My name is Corinne Deering and I have been a PACE Registered Paralegal® or “RP®” since May 2000. I graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Paralegal Studies from Bay Path College in 1984. My career began as a legal secretary and eventually morphed into a paralegal position. When I decided to take PACE, it was primarily to qualify under the "grandfather clause” which was set to expire at the end of 2000. With four of my colleagues, we formed our own in-office study group, each of us taking a portion of the study manual to summarize and prepare to discuss with the group. I studied from homemade flashcards and turned over notebook pages. We quizzed each other extensively, and we all took the practice exam.
The five of us took the exam on the same day. I do not remember much about taking the exam, other than the fear that I would forget everything and not pass. Once we were all finished with the exam, we all went to lunch to decompress and to ask each other the usual question following an exam … “you know that question about . . . what did you pick for an answer?” In no time at all, we had all convinced ourselves that we were all going to fail the exam. After what seemed to be the longest eleven days in history, we all began to receive our fate in the mail. At first, I was the only one notified of a passing grade. One of my colleagues was originally notified that she had not passed, but a few days later received news that her exam had been audited and in reality, she had passed. Some of us celebrated, and the others moved on.
It was a challenging experience, but I think the one thing we all learned was that we relied too heavily on the study manual and should have incorporated a wider range of other materials into our studying process.
The Purpose of PACE
PACE presents a bold opportunity to all paralegals to advance the profession through credentialing, particularly as discussion about regulation of the profession becomes more widespread and prevalent nationwide. PACE is designed for paralegals who want to lead the way for expansion of paralegal roles for the future of the profession, not to restrict entry into the profession.
The purpose of PACE is:
- To provide the groundwork for expanding paralegal roles and responsibilities;
- To provide the public and legal community with a mechanism to gauge the competency of the experienced paralegal;
- To be used in states considering regulation of experienced paralegals; and
- To direct the future of the paralegal profession and acknowledge the vital role of paralegals within the legal service industry.
