Paralegals & Legal Secretaries

Florida Bar to Explore Paralegal Licensing and Regulation

Posted on August 26, 2010
In a move that is generating a great deal of attention from legal professionals across the country, the Florida Bar is setting up a committee to explore the licensing and regulation of paralegals. ?That program [FRP] is up for review right now. But the registered paralegals have requested that we look into requiring that they be regulated in some form or fashion, and their request specifically is that they be regulated by The Florida Bar or the Florida Supreme Court,? said board member Greg Coleman, chair of the Program Evaluation Committee, which will review the registered paralegal program...

N.C. State Bar Approves Guidelines for Use of Paralegals

Posted on August 26, 2010
The North Carolina State Bar has published its Guidelines for the Use of Paralegals (http://www.nccertifiedparalegal.gov/guidelines.asp), approved July 23, 2010. They include the statement, "These guidelines are intended to facilitate the proper use of paralegals in a law firm by clarifying a lawyer?s professional responsibilities when supervising a paralegal...

Pair of So-Called Paralegals Preys on the Elderly

Posted on August 26, 2010
It's hard to spend your final days in a nursing home. Visitors remind you that someone still cares about you, and provide a link to the outside world. They help you do the things you can no longer do for yourself. But some visitors apparently view nursing home residents as sitting ducks, ripe for financial scams...

Paralegal Profile: Wilder Kendric "Ken" Berry, Prisoner Advocate

Posted on August 25, 2010
Job Title: Senior ParalegalEmployer: Winston & Strawn LLP, Chicago, IL Years of Paralegal Experience: 18Education/Degrees: B.G.S. Social Science, Roosevelt University; A.A.S., Daley College; Paralegal Studies, Lewis UniversitySpecialty Areas: Litigation, Criminal, Civil Right, Pro BonoCareer Highlight: Receiving the Liberty Bell Award from the Chicago Bar Association and the Distinguished Service Award from the Federal Court...

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Road to NALA CP Exam: I Score a Study Buddy

Posted on August 25, 2010
When a friend discovered that I had decided to seek NALA's Certified Paralegal designation, she emailed me, "R U NUTZ?"No, I'm special. At least that's what I'm told.But I thought maybe I should run the idea by someone I respect and admire, to see if she would think my few remaining marbles were rolling out the front door...

Today's Quote: A Clean Getaway

Posted on August 25, 2010
To The Idiot Who Stole the Toilet Paper from here:(upper-left hand drawer, to be exact)I think it's time you re-examined your life. Is your main goal in life to root through drawers looking for something to wipe your ass with or is there something I'm missing? Sure, you might have gotten away clean (pardon the pun), But you really have to ask yourself if this is what all your hopes and dreams turned out to be...

Mountain Magic for Paralegals

Posted on August 25, 2010
Every year the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (NCAJ) has a terrific fall conference for paralegals at the beautiful Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa in Asheville, North Carolina. The luxurious resort combined with the gorgeous fall foliage truly create Mountain Magic, which happens to be name of the event...

Road to NALA CP Exam: Can I Still Be Switzerland?

Posted on August 24, 2010
If I join a national paralegal organization, can I still be Switzerland?I downloaded NALA?s membership application (http://www.nala.org/Upload/file/PDF-Files/MBRAPP.PDF), although I don?t have to be a member to sit for the Certified Paralegal (CP) exam...

Two Utah Legal Staffers Die in Nepal Plane Crash

Posted on August 24, 2010
A successful paralegal and her close friend, the office manager of the law firm where they both worked, were fulfilling their dream of hiking to the base camp of Mount Everest, when their plane crashed in Nepal yesterday. There were no survivors.Heather Finch was a long-time paralegal for the law offices of Howard, Lewis & Petersen in Provo, Utah...

Today's Quote: Newest Fictional Paralegal Is a 10

Posted on August 24, 2010
"Markle plays Rachel Lane, an attractive paralegal with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law who's assigned to Mike and becomes his valuable after-hours research ally." ~ From "Meghan Markle books lead role on 'Legal Mind'" (The Hollywood Reporter).I love it that Aaron Korsh, the creator of the now defunct legal dramedy "The Deep End" doesn't give up...

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

Posted on August 24, 2010
You cat people are always clamoring for equal time here at Practical Paralegalism, so this one's for you.Legal secretary Dianne Moran thought she saw a pussy cat in her Hampshire, England back yard - a really large pussy cat. Or a massive moggy, to use an English term for a domestic house cat...

A Fancy Word for Stealing

Posted on August 24, 2010
The South Carolina Now headline rather dryly announces, "Hartsville woman accused of misappropriating clients' funds".Unfortunately, the news story is about a paralegal, Rebecca Shaw, of Hartsville, South Carolina. She has been charged by the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) with almost a dozen criminal counts arising from the alleged misappropriation of at least $245,000 in client settlement funds from a law firm trust account...

The Road to the NALA CP EXAM: When, Where and How Much?

Posted on August 23, 2010
First, I decided that the best way to propel myself down the road to NALA?s Certified Paralegal Exam would be to do something every day related to making the exam a reality. Today I decided to calculate the damage, i.e. when, where and how much? To keep track of the details, I created a notebook labeled ?NALA CP Exam? in my Evernote account...

Mercy, An Email Exchange Between Legal Secretaries Made Snopes.com

Posted on August 23, 2010
Or, I Found About This 'Cause Gmail Is Giving Us 30 Seconds to Undo Ill-Advised EmailTwo legal secretaries got fired over a ham sandwich. Urban myth, right? Nope, not according to Snopes.com. I can't believe I never heard this story before. As a Gmail lover, I thought Google's testing of an "undo" email button was the best thing since sliced bread, but learning about this epic legal staff tussle over a sandwich is, well, the best thing since two slices of bread were put together to invent the sandwich...

The Paralegal Voice: Intellectual Property Paralegals

Posted on August 23, 2010
The latest edition of The Paralegal Voice, ?IP Paralegals,? co-hosted by Vicki Voisin and me, is now available at Legal Talk Network.We welcome paralegals, Colleen Sarenpa, Director of Trademarks for Polaroid Corporation at PLR Brand Services, LLC, and Gwen Spurrier, a paralegal at the Minneapolis law firm of Gray Plant Mooty, to talk about one of the fastest-growing specialty areas today: intellectual property...

To Seek or Not to Seek NALA's Certified Paralegal Credential?

Posted on August 22, 2010
I'm one of those people who always has to have a plan. My friends will tell you that I do not know how to relax and be still. I also need to be intellectually engaged (it keeps me out of trouble). Even though I'm almost 50 years old, I feel like I'm really more like almost 30...

Is "Pilfering Millions" an Oxymoron?

Posted on August 22, 2010
By now you may have seen the strange story of Canadian ex-paralegal Shellee Spinks, who has received a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 16 criminal charges surrounding the theft of $2.6 million from clients. Robert Mongue covered the story at The Empowered Paralegal blog in his recent post, "Attorney Supervision of Paralegals"...

Today's Quote: A Legal Secretary's Eulogy

Posted on August 22, 2010
In addition to all that work required under her own roof - the cooking, the cleaning, the gardening, the wiping away of her children's tears, and the care of the dogs - Jill had long worked as a legal secretary, a demanding job she does with the kind of attention to detail that work requires if the attorneys these women work for are going to look as capable as they wish to look...

The Secret Law Firm Nap Closet

Posted on August 21, 2010
I'm still admiring Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs' nap room from afar, but apparently this idea is not original. Illinois legal assistant Marie Carnes shared the following comment at the nap room post:The Big Law Big City firm I worked for when I was pregnant with my first kid had a "closet" with a couch in it...

Saturday LOL: Every Paralegal's Dog

Posted on August 21, 2010
Earlier this month I did a post about why you need to look under the table during depositions. Today, I bring you a video about why you don't want to look under the table during dinner, if you share your house with a four-legged family member. (This video could totally be about The Corginator...

TGIF: Cubicle Wars Do Seem Kind of Epic...

Posted on August 19, 2010
...or petty. Um, that still didn't keep me from laughing.Yet another reason never to say those two magic words (out loud), "I'm bored."

Being a Legal Assistant Doesn't Preclude Jury Duty

Posted on August 19, 2010
Illinois legal assistant Jacklyn Ferino, also known as Juror No. 103 for the Blagojevich trial, thought her profession would keep her out of the jury box.Ferino, a softball player and 2000 graduate of Shepard High School in Palos Heights, thought her job as a legal assistant would preclude her from serving on the jury...

Legal Assistant Is a Hot Shot Tap Dancer

Posted on August 18, 2010
A beautiful and talented Portland, Oregon legal assistant is part of a four-sibling dance group, the Hot Shot Tap Dancers, that performed on America's Got Talent "Top 12 Wild Card Show" earlier this week.Here's video of Bethany Massey dancing with her brothers on the show:Congratulations to the Massey family for getting a second chance to strut their stuff...

Monster Says Legal Hiring Is Up

Posted on August 18, 2010
A short article in the business section of the San Francisco Chronicle, "8 Occupations With Increased Demand," analyzes the top professions which have experienced the fastest growth in online hiring since July 2009, based on Monster's Employment Index...

Paralegal Profile: Ana Pierro, Securities Specialist & Blogger

Posted on August 18, 2010
Job Title: Paralegal SupervisorEmployer: The affiliate of a large Bank, Jersey City, New JerseyYears of Paralegal Experience: 15+Education/Degrees: BA Political ScienceSpecialty Areas: Plaintiff?s personal injury and insurance defense. More recently securities litigation...

NCPA's 26th Mid Year Seminar

Posted on August 18, 2010
And 3rd Annual CLA/CP & NCCP Review CourseI am really excited to be presenting at the North Carolina Paralegal Association's upcoming Mid Year Seminar in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 11, 2010. My session, titled "Social Media for Career and Case Development," covers everything from how to create a professional online presence that you can be proud of, to ethical pitfalls to avoid in the ever-changing world of online social networking...

Today's Quote: Choose Wisely, Grasshopper

Posted on August 17, 2010
"Joshua is 28 and a paralegal. He says his recent dating life has been a debacle and admits that he needs to stop dating girls and start dating women." ~ Reality Check's description of one participant from ABC's reality show, Dating in the Dark.Okay, so maybe young Joshua didn't choose wisely, despite his newly found insight, but you can watch the video for yourself...

Hire This Sharp-Eyed Paralegal Graduate

Posted on August 17, 2010
I hope that a lucky area employer has snapped up new paralegal graduate Tabatha James, of Alpharetta, Georgia. If she lived in Oklahoma, I bet personal injury attorney Ed Abel would give her an interview, after she uncovered a website using his photograph - and his firm's success stories - to masquerade as a legitimate legal employer...

From the Brilliant Mind of a Paralegal Comes the Law Firm Nap Room

Posted on August 16, 2010
All right, so maybe The Palm Beach Post literally said in its article, "Companies can help workers deal with stress," that "the latest innovation - brainchild of [Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs] paralegal and health-committee member Linda Wald - might prove to be most popular: a meditation room...

Today's Quote: I Knew It

Posted on August 16, 2010
When you visit other courthouses to research a case, there?s a good chance you?ll come up empty-handed. The files could be anywhere ? maybe in a judge?s chambers, maybe not. Your guess is as good as the file clerk?s, who, by the way, is pretty sick of fetching your dang documents all day...

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