Tennessee regulates paralegal work through the lawyers who supervise it, under the Supreme Court's rules: paralegals fall within its conflict-screening rules, may not answer docket calls for a lawyer, and are not reimbursed when counsel is appointed for indigent parties.
Walters State Community College leads Tennessee's ABA-approved certificate programs.
As a Tennessee resident you'd pay $4,498 to $17,935 in tuition and fees for a full-time year at Tennessee's ranked programs.
3 approved programs in Tennessee can be finished at least partly online, by each school's own page or, where a page says nothing, the federal record or the ABA's online flag.
ABA-approved programs conferred 100% of the 70 paralegal credentials Tennessee schools awarded in 2023-24.
Paralegals in Tennessee earn a median $58,820, below the national $62,890.
Every school in Tennessee that conferred a paralegal credential in 2023-24 has an ABA-approved program. The ABA lists 7 in the state. The rankings below cover 1 certificate program and 6 associate degrees.
Approved programs are ranked within each award level on tuition and fees (what a full-time year costs a Tennessee resident), graduation rate and paralegal graduates. Positions below are within Tennessee,
but each score compares a program with every approved program at its level in the country.
How the scores work.
Supervision And Its Limits
The Tennessee Supreme Court's Rules of Professional Conduct (Rule 8) let a lawyer delegate work to paraprofessionals so long as the lawyer supervises it and keeps responsibility for it, and they bring paralegals inside the conflict rules: a comment to RPC 1.10 says its requirements include paralegals and other firm staff. In Clinard v. Blackwood (2001) the Court made screening available, case by case, for paralegals as for lawyers, so a paralegal who changes firms can be screened off a matter rather than disqualify the new firm.
Some work stays with the lawyer. The Board of Professional Responsibility's Formal Ethics Opinion 85-F-94 says a lawyer who lets a paralegal answer a docket call for the lawyer is assisting the unauthorized practice of law, and in 2019 the Supreme Court upheld the disbarment of a Knoxville, Tennessee attorney who claimed a paralegal's work as his own in a fee itemization filed with a federal court.
This exception shall be applicable on a case-by-case basis to attorneys, law clerks, paralegals, and legal secretaries.
Paralegal time goes unpaid in one setting: under Supreme Court Rule 13, the services or time of a paralegal or legal assistant are not reimbursed to counsel appointed for indigent parties, any more than normal overhead is. And under RPC 5.5(h), no lawyer or firm may employ a disbarred or suspended lawyer as a paralegal or in any other position of a quasi-legal nature.
The services or time of a paralegal, law clerk, secretary, legal assistant, or other administrative assistants shall not be reimbursed.
ABA-Approved Paralegal Certificate Programs In Tennessee
One approved program in Tennessee conferred an undergraduate paralegal certificate in 2023-24. Paralegal certificate programs in Tennessee are ranked here only when a new student can start them. Tuition is a full-time year of in-state tuition and fees. The out-of-state or in-district figure is beside it where it differs.
Walters State Community College offers its ABA-approved paralegal program as a Technical Certificate for students who already hold an associate or bachelor's degree and as a 60-credit Associate of Applied Science in Business with a Paralegal Studies concentration, both listed at its Morristown, Tennessee campus.
Key Program Details
Technical Certificate: for associate or bachelor's degree holders, over a fall and a spring term
Associate of Applied Science (Business, Paralegal Studies): 60 credit hours
Both programs are offered at the Morristown, Tennessee campus
No LEGL credit by examination, and at most six LEGL hours in transfer
Legal Internship available as an elective
$197 per credit
Read more
The Technical Certificate is five required courses (Introduction to Paralegal Studies and Ethics, Legal Research, Legal Writing, and Civil Litigation Skills I and II) plus one Group A elective (Family Law, Torts or Criminal Law) and one Group B elective (Special Topics in Paralegal Studies, Corporate Law, Employment Law, Contract Law, Property Law, Bankruptcy and Creditor Rights or Legal Internship), set out over a fall term and a spring term. The 60-credit Associate of Applied Science combines 15 hours of general education (English Composition I and II, a humanities or fine arts elective, Principles of Macroeconomics and a mathematics elective) with a 45-hour concentration that adds Principles of Accounting I, Introduction to Business, Software Applications for Business, Fundamentals of Communication, Family Law, Torts, Criminal Law and nine hours of legal electives to the certificate's required courses. Students learn legal research in print and online, legal terminology, the court system and legal ethics, legal drafting, and client and witness interviewing.
Students with an A.A., A.S. or bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college qualify for the certificate; holders of an Associate of Applied Science qualify only if their transcripts show 60 semester hours that include 18 hours of general education, and students who complete the certificate courses without meeting these admission requirements do not earn the certificate. The paralegal program does not award LEGL credit by examination and accepts no more than six hours of LEGL credit in transfer. Walters State designs the certificate for students who do not intend to transfer to a bachelor's program; the associate degree is not primarily designed for transfer either, though articulation agreements with partner universities may offer transfer options, and its credits are guaranteed to count toward the same degree at another Tennessee public community college.
AASCertificate
ws.eduOctober 2, 2026
ABA-Approved Associate Degrees In Paralegal Studies In Tennessee
An associate's degree adds general education to the paralegal courses and usually takes two years full time.
Nashville State Community College leads Tennessee's 6 approved associate programs, conferring 20 paralegal degrees in 2023-24.
Nashville State Community College in Nashville, Tennessee offers its ABA-approved Paralegal Studies program as a one-year, 24-credit Technical Certificate for students who already hold a bachelor's degree and a two-year, 61-credit Associate of Applied Science, both built around a legal internship, with courses available at a variety of campus locations and virtually.
Key Program Details
Technical Certificate: 24 credits, one year, bachelor's degree required
Associate of Applied Science: 61 credits, two years
150 hours of legal internship
Courses at several campus locations and virtually, with a night option for the degree
Transfer credit capped at three hours for the certificate and nine for the A.A.S.
Pellissippi State offers in-person paralegal classes at the Hardin Valley Campus in Knoxville, Tennessee, lists the A.A.S. among its programs that may be completed fully online, and designs its 24-credit technical certificate for bachelor's degree holders.
Key Program Details
Paralegal Studies A.A.S.: 60-61 credit hours
Paralegal Studies Technical Certificate: 24 credit hours in a fall and spring sequence
In-person classes on the Hardin Valley Campus, Knoxville, Tennessee, and an A.A.S. that may be completed fully online
The college dates its most recent ABA approval to August 2023
Transfer of legal specialty credit capped at 9 semester credit hours
$197 per semester credit
AASCertificate
pstcc.eduOctober 5, 2026
#3In Tennessee
Score43.4/ 100
Associate of Applied Science degree in Paralegal Studies
Roane State Community College's ABA-approved Paralegal Studies program is a two-year Associate of Applied Science based at the main campus in Harriman, Tennessee, with paralegal courses taught by live video in Interactive Distance Education classrooms at most of the college's campuses.
Key Program Details
60-61 total hours in the plan of study
The program is based at the main campus in Harriman, Tennessee
A summer legal internship follows the first year
A final comprehensive exam is a graduation requirement
Chattanooga State Community College in Chattanooga, Tennessee offers its ABA-approved paralegal program as a Technical Certificate restricted to students who already hold a bachelor's degree, which the college says can be completed in one calendar year, and as a two-year, full-time Associate of Applied Science of 60 to 64 credit hours that includes a legal internship.
Key Program Details
Technical Certificate: one calendar year, bachelor's degree required
Associate of Applied Science: 60 to 64 credit hours, two years full time
Legal Internship in the associate degree
At least nine legal specialty credit hours in a synchronous classroom setting
Up to nine legal specialty transfer hours from ABA-approved programs
$219 per semester credit
AASCertificate
chattanoogastate.eduOctober 2, 2026
ABA-approved paralegal associate degrees in Tennessee, ranked 5 onward
Across Tennessee's ranked approved programs, you'd pay between $4,498 and $17,935 for a full-time year of tuition and fees as a Tennessee resident,
with a median of $4,550.
Tuition and fees are what each school reported to IPEDS for a full-time undergraduate year in 2023-24, tuition plus required fees, before books, supplies or aid. A certificate of about 30 semester credits is roughly a full-time year of coursework, but programs differ in length and many students take them part-time, so read the figure as a way to compare schools. Colleges set new rates every year. It is not the price of a post-baccalaureate or extension certificate, which schools price separately.
What Paralegals Earn In Tennessee
BLS puts the median for paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011) in Tennessee at $58,820 a year,
$4,070 below the national median of $62,890, 36th highest of the 51 states and districts BLS reports.
The 10th percentile is $43,570 and the 90th is $83,100. 6,080 people in Tennessee hold the job. Figures are from the BLS OEWS May 2025 release. Paralegal pay by state sets them side by side.
Every Paralegal Program In Tennessee
Every school in Tennessee that the ABA lists or that conferred a paralegal credential in 2023-24 is here, approved
programs first. Awards are the paralegal credentials each school reported to IPEDS for that year.
Common Questions About Paralegal Certificates In Tennessee
Do you need a certificate to be a paralegal in Tennessee?
The Tennessee Supreme Court's rules let lawyers delegate work to paraprofessionals they supervise and attach no credential to the role. A certificate is a common way to prepare, and the national certifications are voluntary.
Can a paralegal answer a docket call in Tennessee?
No. The Board of Professional Responsibility's Formal Ethics Opinion 85-F-94 treats answering a docket call for someone else as acting in a representative capacity, so a lawyer who lets a paralegal do it is assisting the unauthorized practice of law.
How many ABA-approved paralegal programs are in Tennessee?
The ABA's directory lists 7 approved programs in Tennessee. IPEDS shows 7 schools in the state conferring paralegal credentials in 2023-24, and none of them runs a program the ABA has not approved.
What are the best paralegal certificate programs in Tennessee?
On this ranking, Walters State Community College, which charges $4,519 a year in in-state tuition and fees, graduates 36% of its first-time students and conferred 2 paralegal certificates in 2023-24. Every program ranked here is ABA-approved.
What is the cheapest ABA-approved paralegal program in Tennessee?
Of the programs ranked here, you'd pay the least as a Tennessee resident at Nashville State Community College, $4,498 for a full-time year of tuition and fees in 2023-24. That's the figure the school reports to IPEDS, and schools reset it every year.
What do paralegals make in Tennessee?
BLS puts the median for paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011) in Tennessee at $58,820 a year, $4,070 below the national median of $62,890, with 6,080 people in the job. The 10th percentile is $43,570 and the 90th is $83,100. Figures are from the BLS OEWS May 2025 release.
Paralegal Programs In Other States
A campus program usually means the state you live in, but an online one does not. These are the
other states with enough ABA-approved programs for a page of their own.
