EDITOR'S COLUMN
Nancy C. Mclaughlin, CLAS

Why would we as a profession want to be Licensed (?), Registered (?), Regulated (?), etc. What would the advantages be to the consumer? Would Court Rules be the answer? These were some of the topics discussed at the Texas Forum held on September 24, 1999 at the William T. Clements Building in Austin, Texas. 
For those of you who are not aware, The Texas Forum is a meeting between The Legal Assistants Division Board of Directors, the Standing Committee of the State Bar of Texas on Legal Assistants and paralegal educators from around the state held each September in Austin, Texas. Every year a different topic is chosen for discussion and as mentioned this year it was “The Paralegal Profession.” First of all, the use of the word “profession” is actually a misnomer. A “profession” usually requires certain minimum qualifications for entry. As you are all aware, at this point in time, anyone can call themselves a “legal assistant” or “paralegal”. If we were to be licensed, regulated or registered, that would, in all probability, change as there would be certain requirements in order to become a member of the Legal Assistant Profession. 
A panel consisting of Supreme Court Justice Greg Abbott, Supreme Court Rules Attorney, Bob Pemberton, Vicki Brittain of the Southwest Texas Legal Assistant Program, Austin attorneys Peyton Smith and Laura Merritt and yours truly listened to remarks made by interested parties attending the Forum and then, if applicable, asked questions. Ellen Lockwood of Jenkins & Gilchrist in San Antonio spoke about the implementation of Court Rules for recovery of Legal Assistant fees. Pam Horn of Vinson & Elkins shared her firm’s decision to form a Committee for Professional Development of Legal Assistants to address issues affecting legal assistants such as evluations and CLE The attorneys on the panel asked if we wanted some type of regulation in order to increase our salaries and “pierce the glass ceiling”. Although all of the information imparted was interesting and it was certainly enlightening to gain insight into the attorney’s thinking on these issues, I felt that the one thing that was lacking in the discussion was the importance of education. 
I did some research and found that out of 72,268 attorneys in Texas, ONLY 6,399, or 9%, are Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. As there is no way to track us, there is no good estimate of the number of Legal Assistants in Texas. However, if you assume for a moment that for every three attorneys, you have one Legal Assistant, that would give us a number of 24,089. Although the number is probably higher, we will use that for the following calculation TBLS reports that out of all the Legal Assistants in Texas, ONLY 318 are Board Certified. Using the aforementioned number that would give us 1%. At the recent Legal Assistant University Seminar held in San Antonio in September, 1999, there were 270 registrants. The point of these numbers is I truly believe that if Continuing Legal Education was not mandatory for attorneys, the majority would not attend educational seminars on a regular basis. The same is sadly true for Legal Assistants. Unless something truly important takes place, such as implementation of the new rules of civil procedure, the majority of legal assistants do not attend CLE seminars. These numbers reflect the fact that, as a whole, I believe we are not interested in taking that extra step to become better educated unless it shows up on our paycheck. 
So where do the majority of the Legal Assistants in Texas gain their education as to developments in their field? Unfortunately, I feel that the answer is: They don’t! 
I was recently talking to another Legal Assistant, who as far as I know, has never attended a major CLE seminar. She stated that she was against any type of licensure or regulation and when asked why, she stated “I don’t want to take a test!” She also said that she did not want to have to pay any fees that might be necessary in order to obtain her license. This is the same Legal Assistant who won’t even consider a job unless it pays at least $40,000 a year.
Granted, we all want to make more money and gain the respect of the attorneys with whom we work as well as our peers. But, how can we if we are not willing to make the effort to become as well educated as possible in our chosen field? 
It is my opinion that if there is some type of licensure or regulation put into effect with regard to Legal Assistants, the best thing that will come from it will be that we will be required to be better educated. And, that means only good news for the consumer and our “Profession”.