"I refer to them as the Crackerjack Boxes. You buy the box of Crackerjacks, and get a 'certificate' that makes you a paralegal, a dental hygienist, a hairdresser, or whatever. It has very little real value." So, postulates Angelo Corpora, Associate Professor and Coordinator of The Paralegal Studies Program at Palomar Community College in San Diego, California. He compared the quickie paralegal schools commonly advertised in such suspect places as matchbook covers, with his distinguished paralegal training program that was recently ranked by one publication as first in California and third nationally.

"I don't know if that's really true," Corpora modestly offers. "I suppose it's subject to interpretation but let's just say as a general rule, Palomar College is ranked very high, and is very well thought of academically."

Corpora himself has many reasons to be justifiably proud of his own impressive credentials. With an Associate of Arts degree in Business from Du Page College in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, and a Master of Arts degree in Legal Studies, with an emphasis in labor relations from the Antioch School of Law at Antioch University in Washington, DC, he brings a wealth of experience to his current position. Prior to assuming his current college role in 1993, he had been teaching a variety of courses including real estate and business law.

"I was the chief author of its present format," he fondly recalls. "So, basically when I took over the program, I rewrote the curriculum to make it more relevant to employee needs."

In addition to overseeing Palomar's highly regarded paralegal training program, Corpora has been instrumental in bringing his program's awareness to thousands of television viewers and broadening consciousness of the whole paralegal profession.

He answers and explains how he has managed these impressive feats:

• What is the median age of your students? Around the early 30s.
• Is there a different demographic between the day and evening classes, or does it run pretty similar? The night program tends to be about 35. The day program tends to be mid-20s, but overall it's in the early 30s.
• Could you tell me a little bit about the television program you produce in conjunction with the college? The name of the program is "Contemporary Legal Issues" and it is part of a "tele-course" of the same title. It's an advanced course in "Legal Research Writing and Analysis." I bring in a panel of experts on a contemporary legal issue. The students get to meet with them, and then they have to do a research project based upon that issue.
• And you serve as host and moderator of the program? Yes.
• Could you elaborate about how the program is produced? We do one program a week, but it is repeated several times, so it is broadcast four times during the week. Then we run another one the following week.
• Do you have any idea how large your audience actually is? That's a little difficult to determine. Our program is broadcast on cable here in San Diego County, and theoretically if 70 percent of the homes have cable, potentially that's a pretty large audience. It's a rather substantial audience because first and foremost, it's part of a "tele-course." The students are obviously watching it, but then another purpose of the program is as a public service. Now, we get feedback all the time, so we know the general public is watching and has embraced it. Another component, beyond the public service one, is for the legal community. We include judges and lawyers. For example, last year we did a program on the unification of the court system. We had the presiding judge for the entire county on the program dealing with issues such as that we no longer have a municipal court in San Diego.
• Do you ever confront issues such as the potential licensure for paralegals? Oh, sure. We did a whole program called "The Dynamics of Paralegalism," and one of my guests was the president of The American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE). We just dealt with issues relating to the paralegal community. Another program I produced that was purely paralegal was on UPL, the unauthorized practice of law, essentially paralegal issues. On another program called "The Legal Team in Action," we profiled a law office. We talked with a lawyer, a legal secretary, and a paralegal. So, we're always integrating paralegals into the spectrum. That is foremost, since we are a paralegal's studies program. In the past year we've done programs on domestic violence, and on a new court called "The Domestic Violence Court" that is unique to San Diego County. We did a program on workplace violence. For another on mediation, we brought in the top mediator in the nation who'd handled over three thousand cases. We had one of the top jurists in the state talk about alternative dispute resolutions. It's a wide variety of programs. We've presented same gender and sexual harassment, as well as the latest case on age discrimination from the California Supreme Court. Everything from paralegal issues, access to justice, as well as contemporary legal issues. The kinds of things you would only read about in a law journal or law review articles. They're not in textbooks yet. They're that cutting edge.
• Do you view the show as an important marketing tool for your paralegal courses? We show some TV ads before and after the program comes on and, of course, the opening introduction states, "This program is brought to you by the Paralegal Studies Program at Palomar College." So, in effect, I suppose it's a part of our marketing.
• You already have a ready made market of potential students watching? Oh, yes, of course, and it is a wide audience.
• How is your college adapting to the growing acceptance of on-line education? Well, this TV program is under that umbrella. This is a "tele-course." We are not doing on-line stuff, per se. We do have a wide variety of computer courses. Here again, technology is driving the legal community, and it obviously needs to be integrated completely into a paralegal education program, so we're going to be doing lots of that.
• Approximately what per cent of the curriculum is conducted through the Internet and other technologies? Oh, I would say as much as 30 or 40 percent, and then again, every professor is giving some kind of assignment that involves computers, either as a research vehicle like WESTLAW, LEXIS/NEXIS, Internet research, or software specific for that particular area of practice. So, for example, a family law professor instructs the students on how to use the family law software, things of that nature.
• Do you foresee a time when paralegal certificates will be offered exclusively on-line, without students having to physically come to a campus to sit in on classes, or do you think the ABA would disapprove of that happening? I can't speak for the ABA. Frankly, I can only just give you my view, and my view is that the dynamics of the law is such that it really requires, especially at our level, the interaction with the professor to maximize learning, assimilation, and then the practical part of applying it. Our curriculum is a very integrated one. It blends technology, the classroom, and then real-world experiences through internships and externships.
• Could you explain how your externship program works? That's for individuals who are working in a particular area already and have established certain goals and ways to expand their learning objectives. I don't think today you can take any single methodology to produce a paralegal. It is like any other paraprofessional or professional training. I think it is the integrated approach that's most important. So, to answer your question, I don't foresee a time when you can get a degree or a certificate in paralegal studies in its entirety through online courses. From a marketing standpoint, it helps us to build bridges with the legal community through our television program; through having our students working directly with lawyers and judges, prosecutors and so on. All of those things kind of build on each other; it is not a direct marketing ploy.
• Is your Associate's degree 60 credits? Our program is around 66 credits; then the students go directly to work in the paralegal field. About 30 percent go on as transfer students, and some are in the process of doing other things. They are going to use their degree in concert with their current occupation or profession. I should say that of the 50 percent who immediately go to work, almost 25 percent continue with their legal education. We encourage them to go on, if not immediately, to at least be working in the direction of getting their Bachelor's degree, continuing their legal education.
• I continually see more advertisements and articles about distance learning. Do you see any ethical issues concerned with the debate between someone taking courses online as opposed to other students having to physically lug books on campus and sit in on classes? Also, can you anticipate the workplace valuing an on-line degree comparably to one obtained in a classroom? Law is a very challenging subject. There are some things you can do online. You can learn procedurally how to do a form, or even how to draft a document, but the rest of it, no. It's very difficult to learn. I can't imagine there would ever come a time when we train lawyers or doctors strictly on an on-line basis. Doctors will probably always need to do practice operations before trying them on live human beings. And lawyers need more than just theoretically-based education. Of course, in paralegal studies, the primary focus is on what we call "procedural law," but nonetheless, our students have a wonderful blend of procedural and substantive law. Law is a very difficult and challenging subject to assimilate in and of itself and, frankly, I can't see how a program could be done exclusively on-line. I just don't think it would work.
• Could you explain how your job placement system works? We are a public institution. We're not a proprietary or "for-profit school." We have a career center, a placement service and, of course, as the coordinator of the program, I work with students. Here again is an example of why we have a very integrated approach to education: more than half of our students find employment upon graduation. The reason for that is we begin very early on having students think about career choices, how to do a job search, development of resumes, and interviewing skills.
• Your program is very goal-oriented? Oh, absolutely. In addition to the academic side of it, there's this component. So, because we're a very large college, we have all those things here, and we continue to work with students long after they graduate. We bring them back to the schoolhouse. For example, we are a test center for the CLA (Certified Legal Assistant), which is a two-day, eight-hour examination sponsored by The National Association of Legal Assistants. We also have a CLA review course, which a student would take upon completion of their degree requirements. We encourage our students to do these kinds of things to continue their education, so we have graduate students coming back all of the time for additional education and certificates in various areas of practice. So, again, it is an integrated approach. I suppose philosophically, that is my problem with degrees that you might be able to do completely on-line. There may be disciplines where that would work, but medicine, law, any of the professional training, or paraprofessional programs, I just don't foresee where that would be accomplished exclusively through distance learning. I think eventually there will be many different types of degrees offered exclusively online to meet the demands of the new millennium, but they will probably initially be stigmatized as being inferior to so-called "traditional" ones.
• What types of marketing devices are you employing to promote your paralegal training program? Are you using radio, TV, print, a Web page? The college has a Web page, and all of the information about our programs is available on the Internet.
• Do you keep a record of approximately how many daily "hits" your Web page receives? I'm not sure of the actual number, but I'm sure it is a very large number. We're a large college. We have 27,000 students.
• Are you currently doing any local newspaper advertising? Not in that sense. We do a lot of publicity releases, lots of articles on the school, the program, people who are coming here, profiling students who graduate, when our courses are. We have a very effective orientation program which gets lots of publicity.
• Where are these press releases seen? In a wide variety of general newspapers, legal publications, various law journals, things of that nature, as well as the general press, if you will.
• Are you running any radio or television ads? We do some TV ads on "Contemporary Legal Issues" either right before or after the viewing of the program and, of course, the opening introduction to the program states, "This program is brought to you by the Paralegal Studies Program at Palomar College," so in effect, I suppose it is part of our marketing, inadvertently, but marketing nevertheless.

  It sounds like your program is doing great. We're doing fine. Our program is growing and we are considered one of the better programs for a lot of reasons.

• Do you envision CD-ROMs or e-commerce as future ways of promoting your program? Absolutely. I think as the technology continues to advance, there will be more opportunities to use it as part of a marketing strategy. Consumers could potentially purchase these at places like Barnes & Noble or websites like Amazon.com. It would be financially lucrative for the college and a way of promoting the school. Some of the people who bought the CD-ROMs might be enticed to enroll at the school and take the whole degree program.
• Could a school offer a specific course on CD like "Paralegals in the Entertainment Field?" The problem with some of these things, and they are very problematic, is that you have to be very careful that you don't violate UPL statutes, and you also have to very, very, careful of your approval process with the ABA and AAfPE, as well as your full accreditation. We're a fully accredited community college, so if you compare every course in our program, unlike some other institutions, the courses are fully accredited. We are accredited through WASC, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The ABA's and AAfPE's posture also affect us. I think the technology is going to be there to do a wide variety of things. Whether or not it's ethical to do so, and whether or not in the final analysis sanctioned by either the state or by one of the accrediting agencies remains to be seen. I think, like everything else, there are limitations on how we educate. Everybody learns differently, true enough, and distance learning has its place, tele-courses have theirs. All of these things play a role in the 21st century, but I think just how extensive a role is going to be a function, not of just one consideration like technology, but rather a wide variety of things. Just because we can do something may not mean that it's the right thing to do, that it's ethically correct, or that it's even effective. Everything is on CDs, and we're exploring the possibility of putting some things on CDs for consumption of marketing. Instead of sending someone a catalogue, we can send a CD that says, "This is our college."
• It also shows potential students that you're up-to-date technologically? Absolutely. But at this point, I'm not too sure about the value of putting whole courses on CD. There may be lots of application, but I don't think it could be sold as a course, per se. That's a little different than saying, "Here it is on a CD. Now, go forth and multiply."
• How would you sum up your educational philosophy about your program? Frankly, what we're trying to do here at Palomar College is to produce the very best student we can, within the constraints of a two-year degree program and in doing so that's our best advertisement because when our students are done, they have the skills and knowledge necessary to function as a traditional paralegal under the supervision of an attorney. That's what we're about. That's our primary focus. That's our best marketing strategy. That's our best advertisement.