LAU 2004 - The Race is On!
By
Leticia Martin, CP, Fort Worth
The Legal Assistants Division’s (LAD) Annual Legal Assistants
University (LAU) was held in Fort Worth September 22-24.
Melissa Sherman, CLA, LAU Planning Committee Chair and Immediate LAD Past President, her 11
planning committee co-chairs, and LAD’s Executive Director Norma Hackler were all instrumental in
the great success and attendance of LAU this year. For
those who are not familiar with LAU, each year LAD provides it members a three-day multi-track CLE
event which is held in a different Texas city each year. Attendees
can earn up to 14 hours of CLE in three days (two half-days and one full day).
LAU is also well known for its entertaining socials that are planned for the attendees to
attend during the evenings. This year there were
just over 200 registered attendants at LAU who traveled from all corners of the State of Texas.
The
CLE was held at the Doral Tesoro Hotel and Golf Resort that is located in the Alliance area of Fort
Worth and located five minutes away from the Texas Motor Speedway.
One side the hotel overlooks the lavish golfing grounds and the other side of the hotel
provides an awesome view of the Texas Motor Speedway.
Over
60 hours of advanced CLE was available. The seminars
were broken down into sections including Civil Litigation, Personal Injury, Intellectual Property,
Corporate, Real Estate, Family, Probate and Estate Planning, Criminal, Labor and Bankruptcy. The speakers were recruited from both Fort Worth and Dallas by paralegals working
in the field of law they were recruiting for. From the
report cards turned in by the attendees the seminars were outstanding.
The
Civil Litigation seminars included 14 hours of CLE from Wage & Hour Law Overview and Update to
Electronic Evidence & Discovery, Evolution of Technology in Federal Courts, The Legal
Assistant’s role in Preventing and Litigating Legal Malpractice Cases, Introduction to Insurance
Principles & Litigation, Cost Shifting of Electronic Discovery and many more.
Personal Injury including 8 hours of CLE with topics such as Healthcare Liability Claims
after Tort Reform, Asbestos medicine and Case Management, Medical Records as a Second Language,
HIPAA – One Year Later, just to name a few. There
were 7 hours of Family Law, 6 hours of Corporate, 6 hours of Real Estate, 6 hours of Probate and
Estate Planning, 4 hours of Criminal, 4 hours of Labor and 4 hours of Bankruptcy.
As you can see there was something for everyone. And
each year we learn from the last so each year LAU becomes more superior.
Wednesday’s
activities started at 12:00 noon beginning with the first CLE classes that continued until about
4:30 that afternoon.
The
Wednesday Welcome Social, Hit
the Track…the Race is On!, was filled with Pace Car rides on the track of the Texas
Motor Speedway (speeds up to 80-90 mph) and a fajita dinner that was held in one of the garage
depots on the race track grounds. This social would not
have been possible without the following sponsors: The
Marker Group (sponsored cocktail hour at hotel prior to race track activities); American Language
Technologies (sponsored bus rides from the hotel to TMS); Hollerbach & Associates (provided free
Pace Car rides); Written Deposition Service (sponsored use of the garage area); and Fort Worth
Paralegal Association (sponsored dinner). We were also
fortunate to have someone from the TMS executive offices speak on the making and history of this
enormous facility. For those attendees who had “the
need for speed”, for an additional fee, took a real
race car ride in real race cars driven by real
professional race car drivers at speeds up to 160 mph — WHOOSH!!!
Thursday
morning CLE started at 8:00 am and continued through about 4:30 pm that afternoon.
On Thursday an Exhibit Hall was set up for 33 legal service vendors.
These generous vendors provided a variety of goodies at each of their booths and they all
provided awesome door prizes. LAU could not be a successful CLE event without the support of the legal vendor
community. Attendees visited the exhibit hall in early
morning, at mid morning break and during the lunch hour. Much
information was gained through the exchange of ideas and one-on-one contact.
Thursday
evening’s social, Switch Gears, was held at the hotel and was full of golfing/putting activities, a
barbeque buffet, door prize giveaways from many vendors, and tethered balloon rides (sponsored by
Esquire Deposition Service). The evening was a great
success and it was awesome for everyone who experienced the tethered balloon rides which were set up
on the golf course next to the golf pro shop.
On
Friday morning there was additional CLE to attend. The Last Lap attendee luncheon was held at noon and included special recognition of
the LAU Planning Committee, LAU volunteers, luncheon sponsors, and another opportunity for
additional CLE presented by keynote speaker Robert Schwartz of Bailey, Galyen & Gold who spoke
on Mass Torts - Litigation
Involving Corporate America. Alas an additional one-hour CLE was provided after the luncheon to complete the
full LAU event.
It was
awesome to see old friends as well as many new faces in attendance at LAU and for those who could
not make it this year, start thinking about attending next year in Austin!
LAU 2004 Planning Committee
Melissa Sherman, CLA, CHAIR
TBLS Board Certified Legal Assistant - Civil Trial Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Amis & Bell
Arlington, TX
Rhonda J. Brashears, CLA – Door Prizes
TBLS Board Certified Legal Assistant -Personal Injury Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Underwood, Wilson, Berry, Stein & Johnson, P.C.
Amarillo, TX
Penny Grawunder, CLA - Exhibitors
TBLS Board Certified Legal
Assistant-Civil Trial Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Settle & Pou, P.C.
Dallas, TX
Kathryn Moore, CLA- Exhibitors
TBLS Board Certified-Personal Injury Law
Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Beirne Maynard & Parsons
Dallas, TX
Patricia Hammer, CP - Marketing
TBLS Board Certified Legal Assistant- Family Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Bailey Galyen and Gold
Fort Worth, TX
Diana J. Odom - Marketing
Bailey Galyen and Gold
Fort Worth, TX
Javan Johnson, CLAS - Socials
TBLS Board Certified Legal
Assistant-Civil Trial Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Longview, TX
Leticia “Tish” Martin, CP- Socials
Shannon Gracey Ratliff & Miller
Fort Worth, TX
Star Moore, CLA - Speakers
Law Offices of William T. McGee
Fort Worth, TX
Ginger Dvorak - Registration
TBLS Board Certified Legal Assistant-Civil Trial Law & Family Law, Texas Board of Legal
Specialization
Brown McCarroll
Austin, TX
Jim Hollerbach
Hollerbach & Associates
San Antonio, TX
Kim Cantu, CLA, Board Advisor
President, Legal Assistants Division
McKool Smith, P.C.
Dallas, TX
The LAD Would Like to Extend Special Thanks to the Sponsors of the
LAU 2004 Seminar Held in Fort Worth, TX
Wednesday
Welcome Social Sponsors, Hit The Track...The Race is On!
American Language Technologies, Plano – Ride to the Races
Fort Worth Paralegal Association, Fort Worth –
Racetrack Concessions
Hollerbach & Associates, San Antonio - Pace
Car Rides
The Marker Group, Houston –
The Tune Up
Written Depositions, Dallas –
The Pit Stop
Thursday
Social, Switch Gears
Esquire Deposition Services,
Dallas – Take a Ride Up in
a Hot Air Balloon
Breakfast in Bed
Medical Research Consultants,
Houston
BookBag Sponsor
IKON Office Solutions/DMI Record
Retrieval, Dallas
CD Rom Speaker Diskette
Litigation Solution, Inc.,
Dallas
LAU 2004 Exhibitors
2Xi Litigation Support Services, Carrollton
A.S.A. Attorney Service
Associates, Carrollton
Altep, Inc., El Paso
American DataMed, Irvine, CA
American Language Technologies, Plano
Blumberg Excelsior, New York, NY
Capitol Services, Inc., Austin
CaseFile Xpress, Austin
CUW LitSupport, Dallas
Elite Copy Solutions, Inc., Dallas
EMSI Legal Facts, Waco
Henjum Goucher Reporting Services, Dallas
Hollerbach & Associates, San Antonio
IKON Office Solutions/DMI Record Retrieval, Dallas
Litigation Solution, Inc., Dallas
Medical Legal Expertise, Houston
Medical Research Consultants, Houston
National Association of Legal Assistants, Tulsa, Ok
Paralegals Plus, Fort Worth
RLS Legal Solutions, Houston
Robert Half Legal, Englewood, CO
Rydman Record Retrieval, Austin
Safesite, Inc., Dallas
Special Counsel, Dallas
Special Delivery Service, Inc., Dallas
Spherion, Dallas
Team Legal, Houston
The Marker Group, Houston
The Mortgage Institute, Inc., Grapevine
Thomson West, Eagan, MN
Tusker Group, LP, Austin
Written Deposition Services, Inc., Dallas
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