At least 12 states have passed or seriously debated legislation regulating paralegals. Laws such as California’s Business & Professions Code 6450 came into effect because people with little or no training were delivering inappropriate services directly to the consumer.

These regulations mandate educational background and establish mandatory continuing education requirements, changes that ensure that paralegals stay current on the latest changes in the law, ethics, procedures and techniques.

These educational and regulatory trends are expected to continue. As a result, paralegals will be smarter, better educated, and earn higher incomes. Trends are a fact of business life. How should you handle them? As John Naisbitt, best-selling author of Megatrends and Megatrends 2000 was known to say, ‘Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going.’