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spring 2004 vol. 9 no. 4                                                                                                                            Return to Contents
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President's Message

Melissa Sherman, CLA

As I write this, the Legal Assistants Division (LAD) Board is preparing for it’s February Board meeting. As you read this, I hope that you are preparing for LAD’s 2004-2005 membership renewal period, which begins in April. This renewal period will have many challenges for us as applicants and for those LAD volunteers who will be processing our first mandatory CLE forms.

The Board is busy working on a variety of important issues and I am proud to be a LAD member. The State Bar has approved the Division By-Law changes which were voted on by the membership this past fall, including the two new membership categories – Subscribing and Emeritus. We are in discussions with the State Bar regarding the Texas Legal Directory and the possibility of our membership being listed in that publication with the rest of the State Bar membership. The Joint LAC/LAD Joint Task Force is working on updating the paralegal definition in Texas.

The Division’s Sustaining members and other vendors are helping us circulate our new ad that was developed last year. The plans for this year’s Annual Meeting in San Antonio are proceeding, as are those for the 2004 LAU three-day CLE seminar scheduled for September in Fort Worth. The President of the Texas Young Lawyers Association has circulated information about the Division to his members, and our President-Elect Kim Cantu is preparing an article on the Division that will be in the TYLA’s newsletter.
We continue to monitor the “paralegal” v. “legal assistant” terminology debate and have provided information from last year’s survey on this topic to both the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the Legal Assistant Management Association. We are preparing to enter the nomination period for our Exceptional Pro Bono Award, which will be presented at our Annual Meeting. The Division’s minutes have been scanned onto Summation and azre now easier to access and search. We continue to update and upgrade our website, www.lad.org, to provide the most current information in the most accessible format possible. Most of our 16 Districts have offered affordable, local CLE since June of 2003. We continue to seek State Bar approval to implement on-line CLE offerings.

The Division attempts to monitor and investigate changes in the law that impact our membership, such as HB 1769 which was outlined in the Texas Bar Journal, Vol. 67, No. 1, January 2004, p.51, regarding limitations on non-licensed investigators performing certain investigation related tasks. We will be addressing HB 1769 at our Board meeting and will keep you updated on our website, in District newsletters, and in this publication. As the sanctions referenced in the Texas Bar Journal article may be imposed against the employer attorney, the Division currently suggests that concerned attorneys contact the General Counsel’s office of the State Bar for their interpretation.

With all this activity, I hope you will join me in renewing your membership in the Division this spring. As renewing members, you will receive a renewal form that will be very similar to those you have seen in the past. The new Emeritus renewal category will be on this form and should be self-explanatory. In addition to the renewal form, you will receive a CLE reporting form. You will use this form to self-report the 6 hours of CLE you have obtained in the past year.

Finally, I would like to address the Director vacancies in Districts 7, 9 and 12. These Districts include, but are not limited to the Amarillo, Waco, Bell County, Denton, and Wichita Falls areas. The Board is very concerned about the lack of leadership and representation in these areas. If you are an active member in these Districts and are interested in serving in this capacity, or if you would like more information about the responsibilities and obligations of a District Director, please contact me at (817) 649-6848.

Texas Paralegal Journal © Copyright 2004 by the Legal Assistants Division, State Bar of Texas.

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