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NALA CP study plan

NALA CP · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 8 hours per week

Week 1

Civil Litigation

  • Map the full life of a civil action from client intake through appeal, writing a one-line note for each procedural stage

  • Draft a pleadings checklist distinguishing the required contents of a complaint, answer, and reply in a fact pattern you invent

  • Compute three separate deadline scenarios using the applicable rule for service, response, and discovery cutoff

  • Draft five interrogatories and five requests for production that are objection-proof on their face

Your checkpoint

A 10-page civil litigation outline plus a completed pleadings-and-deadlines checklist applied to one hypothetical case

Week 2

Civil Litigation & Legal Research, Writing, and Ethics

  • Explain the scope and limits of paralegal duties under unauthorized-practice and supervision rules, generating five concrete do-and-don't examples

  • Apply a conflicts-of-interest and confidentiality analysis to three short fact patterns and state the correct course of action for each

  • Summarize the mechanics of discovery disputes, including motion to compel and protective order practice, in a one-page flowchart

  • Cite the correct primary source type for each of five research questions without using secondary commentary

Your checkpoint

An ethics scenario bank of 15 fact patterns with a written answer and rule citation for each

Week 3

Contracts

  • Distinguish formation requirements for common law, UCC Article 2, and hybrid contracts, labeling each element in three sample agreements

  • Analyze offer, acceptance, and consideration in five short hypotheticals and identify the precise defect where a contract fails

  • Chart the Statute of Frauds categories and apply them to four oral agreements to determine enforceability

  • Identify every breach remedy available in a supplied fact pattern and rank them by likelihood of success

  • Explain the parol evidence rule and the exceptions using two contrasting written agreements

Your checkpoint

A contracts matrix covering formation, defenses, third-party rights, and remedies, each cell illustrated with your own example

Week 4

Contracts & Legal Research, Writing, and Ethics

  • Brief five published cases using a consistent format and pull one holding sentence from each

  • Draft a two-page office memo applying contract law to a fact pattern, using IRAC headings and correct citation form

  • Edit your own memo for Bluebook-style citation accuracy and record every correction made

  • Identify performance versus breach issues in a UCC sale-of-goods scenario and state the buyer's and seller's remedies

Your checkpoint

One complete IRAC office memo with citations and a marked-up revision showing at least ten self-corrections

Week 5

Corporate and Business Organizations

  • Compare sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, LLC, and corporation on formation, liability, taxation, and management in a single comparison grid

  • Draft the core formation documents for one entity type, including articles and an operating or shareholder agreement outline

  • Trace the fiduciary duties of partners, members, and directors through three conflict fact patterns

  • Summarize dissolution and winding-up steps for one entity and identify the creditor-priority order

Your checkpoint

A formation document packet for one entity plus a completed entity-comparison grid with five decision scenarios

Week 6

Criminal Law and Procedure

  • Map the sequence of a criminal case from arrest through appeal and label the constitutional right triggered at each step

  • Apply Fourth Amendment search-and-seizure standards to four fact patterns and state whether suppression is warranted

  • Distinguish the elements of three property offenses and two personal offenses with a self-written example of each element

  • Explain the burden of proof and hearsay considerations for a suppression hearing in a short written analysis

Your checkpoint

A criminal procedure timeline plus four suppression analyses each resolved with a stated conclusion

Week 7

Estate Planning and Probate & Real Estate and Property Law

  • Compare intestate succession outcomes and elective share rules across two fact patterns to determine who takes and in what share

  • Draft a will structure outline and a probate administration checklist covering appointment through distribution and closing

  • Classify five estate assets by probate versus non-probate treatment and explain each classification

  • Distinguish easements, licenses, and covenants and label five property scenarios by the correct interest

  • Complete a deed, title, and recording exercise identifying what makes a conveyance valid and recordable

Your checkpoint

A probate administration checklist and a property interests classification sheet, each applied to two hypotheticals

Week 8

Estate Planning and Probate & Real Estate and Property Law & Legal Research, Writing, and Ethics

  • Rank all seven domains by your own timed-practice accuracy and rebuild a final-week review list in that order

  • Complete a timed mixed practice set across all seven domains and score each domain separately

  • Re-write your weakest outline section from memory and check it against your notes to find gaps

  • Draft a reusable exam-day checklist covering issue spotting order, citation basics, and time allocation per question

Your checkpoint

A scored mixed practice report with per-domain accuracy percentages and a one-page exam-day checklist

Milestones

Week 2: Can state the civil litigation case sequence and the ethics rules on confidentiality, conflicts, and supervision from memory, citing the governing rule for each

Week 4: Scored at least 70 percent on a self-made 25-question contracts quiz, and produced a cited memo that passes your own edit for form and reasoning

Week 6: Can explain, without notes, the entity comparison grid and the criminal procedure timeline, including the right implicated at each stage

Week 8: Scored 75 percent or higher on the timed mixed practice set with no domain falling below 65 percent