ABA Update

The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Legal Assistants (SCOLA) met for its Spring Meeting on May 17, 1996. A topic of ongoing concern with SCOLA deals with the report of the ABA Commission on non-lawyer practice entitled Non-Lawyer Activity in Law-Related Situations (NLP Report), reprinted in the November 1995 issue of TPJ. A synopsis of all comments on the NLP Report was prepared by the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility (CPR). These responses were not discussed by the ABA Board of Governors at their February 1996 Board meeting. It was noted that legal assistant associations made the most enthusiastic comments about the NLP Report, however, in general, the organized Bar was not favorably inclined toward the NLP Report.

The Board of Governors created a "Committee of Four" to review the NLP Report. Concern was expressed by SCOLA that the "Committee of Four" may not have been provided with copies of full and complete responses to the NLP Report. After further discussion, SCOLA considered whether to do another response to the NLP Report that urged that the "Committee of Four" be provided with full and complete responses to the NLP Report rather than the synopsis prepared by CPR staff; request that the CPR staff revise the categories used in the synopsis responses to separate "independent providers" and "paralegal associations"; emphasize SCOLA will continue to advocate the NLP Report; and, indicate that SCOLA will do further study on the issue of balancing consumer protection versus access. Despite these efforts, it was felt at the meeting that the NLP Report will probably not become policy in whole due to the fact that the NPR Report was not discussed at the April 1996 Board of Governors meeting as well. However, the report of the Board of Governors' "Committee of Four" will present a report at the June 1996 Board of Governors meeting. Thereafter, the "Committee of Four" and the Commission on Non-Lawyer Practice will be disbanded.

It was discovered at the October 1995 meeting of the ABA Consortium on Legal Services and the Public (Consortium) that the NLP Report is not being actively advocated by the Consortium due to the fact that it is publishing its own report on access to justice. The Consortium's report is similar to the NLP Report in terms of its recommendations and promotes increased use of traditional use of legal assistants. The Consortium's report emphasizes pro-bono work.

A report on the November 1995 NFPA Mid-Year Meeting revealed that the PACE exam was the major topic of discussion. NFPA is working with an independent organization to develop the PACE exam and has spent $60,000. on this effort. The PACE exam is designed to test critical thinking skills as opposed to competency in substantive areas of law [as does the CLA exam offered by the NALA].

SCOLA reviewed the revised draft of the Long Range Plan for the SCOLA Approval Commission. After various revisions to the Blue/letter and Black/letter provisions to the guidelines and procedures for obtaining ABA approval of legal assistant education programs, the Blue/letter changes will need to be submitted to the House of Delegates and should be implemented by September 1, 1996.

SCOLA also discussed the approval, re-approval, and withdrawal of ABA approval to various schools. These recommendations will also be forwarded to the House of Delegates for approval.

The SCOLA is also preparing a survey on lawyer utilization of legal assistants. The purpose of the survey is to try and determine the expansion of the traditional role of legal assistants. This survey should complement survey questions that have been sent out to various law firms by LAMA. The survey questions are directed toward utilization of legal assistants by individual attorneys. This survey is expected to be sent out by the end of August, 1996.

Due to budgetary and time constraints, SCOLA's interest in sponsoring a conference for lawyers and legal assistants had to be moved from the ABA Annual Convention to an independent date. The conference, which will be co-sponsored with Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., is scheduled for October 25, 1996 in Boston, Massachusetts. The details for this regional conference were delegated to a special sub-committee. The conference will run for one day and consist of two parts. Part one would focus on expanding the role of traditional legal assistants. Part two would specifically focus on how the legal assistant profession can help solve the legal services crisis. A break-out session is also being scheduled. ABA Legal Assistant Associate Members will be included in the conference mailing and the conference registration form will probably be placed on the internet. As a side note, it was discussed that the largest increase in the ABA's membership has been from associate members.

The Code of Ethics Subcommittee reported that it had determined not to prepare a model code of ethics for legal assistants. It was determined that it would not be necessary to prepare such a code, since the ABA is an association that serves lawyers and since various national organizations have fairly good model codes of ethics that can be used by individual states. The SCOLA Subcommittee will, however, review the model guidelines for the utilization of legal assistants (1991). It was felt that at the very minimum, the comments to the guidelines should be revised. The SCOLA Staff Director presented the current ABA Internet statistics. SCOLA was informed that the internet site averages between 15 and 20 "hits" per month.

Finally, SCOLA discussed the American Association for Paralegal Education's (AAfPE) request that SCOLA participate in the development of a voluntary credentialing examination for paralegals. The proposed AAfPE voluntary examination is scheduled to be taken before AAfPE'S Board of Directors this November. This credentialing examination is a test suited to determine whether a person is ready to assume an entry-level paralegal position. Since the AAfPE Board felt that the country is on the door step of licensure and certification, the time for a credentialing exam is here. The AAfPE Board feels that in the spirit of professionalism, that this project be a partnership with NFPA, NALA, and LAMA and that it seek the endorsement and recognition from the American Bar Association. The AAfPE Task Force feels that the creation of this examination is an important step of the development of educational standards. The Task Force believes that the exam would become a widely accepted standard of measuring the competency of a person for entrance into the paralegal profession. Since the AAfPE's membership at large has not voted on pursuing this exam, SCOLA will defer any action on this request until after the November 1996 AAfPE meeting.