Paralegals
Recognized
DAPA
Paralegal of the Year – 2004
The recipient of the 2004 “DAPA Paralegal of the
Year” award was announced at the DAPA Holiday luncheon meeting on Friday, December 10, 2004 as Lou
Bugarin.
Lou Bugarin has been a paralegal for 24 years and received her paralegal certificate in
family law and litigation from Southern Methodist University’s ABA program.
She is a Texas Board of Legal Specialization Board Certified Legal Assistant in Civil Trial
(1997) and intends to sit for the Paralegal Advanced Competency Exam “Registered Paralegal” this
year. As a DAPA member since 1982, Lou has been
active in the association and on the DAPA Board of
Directors. During 2005, Lou will serve as the Primary Representative to the National
Federation of Paralegal Associations. In 2003, Lou became a Charter Associate Member of the College
of the State Bar of Texas.
In addition to her many paralegal activities, Lou gives of her time to Dallas Court Appointed
Special Advocates (CASA).
First
DAPA Pro Bono Award
The first DAPA “Pro
Bono Service Award” recipient was Ro Buchanan, a paralegal with Greyhound Lines, Inc. This award was sponsored by DSI.
Ro Buchanan has been an active member of DAPA’s Pro Bono Section, and contributed over 40
pro bono hours in 2004 including volunteering at the Wills clinic for the elderly with the Dallas
Volunteer Attorney Program and the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, and as a money manager
volunteer for Senior Source of Dallas. Ro continues to
recruit DAPA volunteers for pro bono programs. She received an award of distinction from the National
Federation of Paralegals Associations for meeting and exceeding the goal of 24 hours of pro bono
service annually.
This award recognizes Ro Buchanan’s dedication and
outstanding contributions in the Dallas volunteer community, and as a pro bono representative
of DAPA.
FWPA
Paralegal of the Year and Volunteer of the Year
On December 9, 2004, the Fort Worth Paralegal
Association held its annual Holiday Luncheon. The Paralegal of the Year Award was presented to
Christine M. Reid, CLAS. Christine’s legal experience includes employment with the federal
government, in-house corporate counsel, and private law firm, as well as various speaking
engagements, including the portion of CLA review seminars related to bankruptcy.
She is currently the Senior Paralegal at Warner Stevens, L.L.P., in beautiful downtown Fort
Worth, and has been with the firm for 6 ? years.
Christine was born and raised in Michigan, where the majority of her family still resides,
and moved to Texas in 1993 (as fast as she could get here!). She
attained her certified legal assistant designation in 2001, and her bankruptcy specialty designation
in 2002. She is a member of NALA and has been a member
of the Fort Worth Paralegal Association since 1998. In
2003 and 2004, she served as Treasurer of FWPA, and is currently serving on its board as Secretary.
She enjoys spending time with family, traveling, reading, hanging out by the backyard pool
with friends, and cheering on her son’s ice hockey team.
At the same Holiday Luncheon, the Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Debbie House,
CLA. Debbie is a real estate paralegal and has worked for Larry Wood for almost 30 years! She joined
FWPA in 1999 and received her certification from NALA in 2000. She has served on FWPA’s board
since 2001 as Publications Chair for four years and Elections Chair for two years. She is also on
the board of the Legal Assistants Division serving as District 3 Director.
Debbie enjoys travel, camping, fishing, hunting, reading, watching football, and spending
time with her husband and two Labradors.
El
Paso Achievement
LISA SPRINKLE, CLAS RECEIVES ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM EL PASO PARALEGAL
ASSOCIATION
El Paso Paralegal Association Past President Lisa
Sprinkle, CLAS, was honored by the El Paso Paralegal Association on December 15, 2004, at the Annual
Attorney/Paralegal luncheon, for her long-time dedication and commitment to the paralegal
profession, not only in El Paso, but throughout the State of Texas.
The Annual Attorney Paralegal luncheon is the El Paso Paralegal Association’s annual
luncheon to honor the attorneys in El Paso and is its highest attended meeting each year. This
year’s theme was “Homeland Security on the Border.” The Association chose this meeting to
honor Lisa, in order to best recognize her many contributions to paralegalism, and she was awarded a
certificate and a nambè bowl.
She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1977. Lisa has been a legal assistant
since 1982, when she moved to El Paso. She attended El Paso Community College and received her
certificate of completion in paralegal studies in 1983.
She received her CLA designation in 1985 and the National Association of Legal Assistants
(“NALA”) Litigation Specialty certification in 1987.
From 1985 until May 2004, Lisa taught part-time at El Paso Community College in the paralegal
program. She taught various courses including Civil Litigation, Introduction to Paralegalism and
Torts. For several years Lisa also supervised and placed students for the paralegal internship
program at El Paso Community College. She is presently the Chair of the Advisory Board for the
Paralegal Program at El Paso Community Program.
After having worked for several attorneys, she began
freelancing as a contract paralegal in 1990. Her firm, Legal Works, specializes in civil trial work.
She successfully completed the Texas Board of Legal Specialization examination in Civil Trial
Law in 1994, the first year it was offered. She has maintained her TBLS certification for 10 years.
She was a member of the NALA Board of Directors from 1989 to 1993. From 1989 to 1991, she
served as NALA Region 4 Director, serving members in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and
Texas. In addition to her service as a member of the board of directors, Lisa was also chairman of
the 1990 NALA Annual Convention. From 1992-1993, Lisa served as the NALA affiliated association
director, also an elected position on the board of directors of NALA. Lisa dedicated a lot of time
and energy to the goals of NALA and paralegal certification.
Lisa also served as District 16 Director for the Legal Assistants Division of the State Bar
of Texas (“LAD”) from 1994 to 1998, and was Parliamentarian in 1995-1996 and 1996-1997,
President Elect in 1998 and 1999 and served as President in 1999-2000. As President, Lisa’s goals
for the Division included increasing visibility of the Division in Texas communities and focusing
members’ attention on the benefits of membership. Also in 1999-2000, Lisa was Chair of the 2000
Legal Assistant University continuing legal education seminar held in Austin.
In 1996 Lisa was instrumental in developing and taping the LAD Community Service videotapes
entitled “Legally Speaking.” This program aired in El Paso to educate the public on legal
issues. It also aired in Longview and will be airing in Amarillo. Many paralegal programs, local
associations and law firms purchased these tapes.
In June 1997, Lisa was awarded the LAD Award of Excellence for her service to LAD in regard
to her efforts in starting and continuing the “Legally Speaking” series. A videotape was
produced entitled “Profiling the Paralegal Profession” and was distributed to Texas law schools
to educate new lawyers about the utilization of paralegals; Lisa worked with Ray Thomas, President
of the Texas Young Lawyers Association to accomplish this task. She reported that Mr. Thomas had
reviewed the “Profiling the Paralegal Profession” video, and TYLA endorsed the video. Mr. Thomas
prepared an endorsement letter for the Division’s use in sending copies of the video to law
schools in Texas. Mr. Thomas also traveled to El Paso to shoot two “Legally Speaking” videos.
Lisa is currently a LAD Ambassador, available to travel throughout the State promoting LAD.
Lisa is a person who knows how to lead. She sets goals and sets timelines to accomplish those
goals. She is a very determined person and perseveres until she obtains what she is reaching for.
She makes working with or for her easier by maintaining a schedule to accomplish tasks and
deadlines. These traits embody the definition of a true “paralegal.”
She has been described by Norma Hackler, Executive Director of LAD, as intelligent, loyal,
trustworthy, ethical, witty, opinionated, a good mother, a great wife and most of all, a great
friend.
She has been a mentor to many persons throughout her career as well as to her students at El
Paso Community College.
When you ask people about their experiences with Lisa, most people reply that they cannot say
enough good things about her.
Lisa has been married to her high school sweetheart for 30 years and has one daughter.
Legislative
Update
The Final Word on HB 1769
The Attorney General’s opinion issued last fall was a
bit unclear with regard to how freelance paralegals were to be treated under HB 1769 therefore
clarification was sought by LAD. President Kim Cantu
summed up the response from the Attorney General’s office and circulated it on the LAD list serve.
Ms. Cantu’s response is as follows:
LAD has been directed to take note in the AG’s Opinion
where it states that the AG is not “addressing persons working for attorneys or law firms as
independent contractors.” LAD members have been
directed to refer to the Attorney’s Rules of Professional Conduct (5.03) in this regard.
Further suggestion has been made that “freelance” paralegals should apprise the
contracting attorney of the AG Opinion at hand and make certain that their contract scope of work or
engagement letter sets forth that the “work” they will be performing for him/her is “assisting
him/her in his/her practice of law” and is either temporary, or in lieu, or in addition to work
performed by an in-house employee. Further, it should
be noted that the AG did not address contractors working for persons licensed as attorneys but not
practicing law.
Technology
Update
News from State Law Library
The State Law Library has completed the project on
digitization of Texas statutes dated 1879 to 1925. This
will be beneficial to those tracing the history of current statutes.
All Texas statutes can be accessed at www.sll.state.tx.us
Federal Court Electronic Filing
The following web site provides a list of Federal Courts
which use Case Management/Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF), with court links provided.
Registration information can also be found on this site as it required before use of
services. http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/cmecf/ecf-links.pl
National
Organization
News
The Legal Assistant Management Association (LAMA)
announces a name change effective January 1, 2005 to International Paralegal Management Association
(IPMA). The change follows findings of a special task
force created by LAMA’s Board of Directors to analyze the title “legal assistant manager” as
it is used and understood in the industry. The results
of the study discovered that 75% of the organizations members preferred the term paralegal and that
the majority of educational programs used the same term. It
is felt by IPMA leaders that the name change describes the association, its membership and enhances
its positioning for the future. The term
“paralegal” reinforces a more universal recognition of the job title and brings it in line with
other organizations representing the interest of paralegals.
NALA
News
The Certified Legal Assistant Exam (CLA) is offered
three times a year: March or April (depending on holiday schedules), July and December.
The next test date for 2005 Calendar Year will be July 22-23 with an application deadline of
May 15. Visit the NALA website at www.nala.org for the
more information and to download the required forms.
Need information from an out of state paralegal? NALA
has a substantial listing of paralegal associations from around the United States and several
international listings. Visit www.legalassistanttoday.com/assoc_links to view this list.
Local
Associations
CLE in El Paso – by Clara Buckland, LAD District 16, Professional
Development Committee
Two of the El Paso Paralegal Association’s (EPPA)
major goals have been to motivate its members to become certified, and to offer as much CLE as
possible in light of LAD’s yearly CLE requirement. In
January of 2004, the Director of District 16 offered a half day seminar entitled “Record
Retrieval: The Basics and Beyond.” The topics covered
included Open Records Act, Obtaining Discovery and Service in a Foreign Jurisdiction, Record
Retrieval: Subpoena vs. Authorization, Admissible vs. Inadmissible.
The seminar was TBLS approved for 3.75 hours of CLE in civil trial, criminal, personal
injury. NALA approved 4.4 hours of CLE.
Throughout the year, EPPA offered CLE at its monthly luncheons and was host to two half-day
seminars in April and October. The one-half day
seminars were offered for the 5th year and approved for 3.3 hours of CLE. The
spring seminar entitled “Updates” covered Technology/Communication, Litigation and Family Law
and the fall seminar entitled “Critical Skills” covered Judgment, Ethics and Communication/Legal
Writing. All of the seminars were well attended.
In December, EPPA held its annual Attorney/Paralegal luncheon to end the year with fun
motivation speakers and a CLE opportunity. This past
year Bob Humphries, an attorney with the Border Patrol Department of Homeland Security spoke on the
legal aspects of Homeland Security.
To further serve its members and attain its goals, EPPA offered a members only CLA study
group. The study group helped increase membership.
LAD’s local Professional Development Committee plans to form a TBLS study group in civil
trial for its members with hopes of encouraging non-members to join and sit for the exam in October.
First
Annual Joint
Paralegal
Celebration
San Antonio, Texas
By Charlene B. Carroll, CLA, and Lisa A. Santos
In 2003 LAD members Charlene B. Carroll, CLA, and Lisa
A. Santos were approached by Linda Studer (President of Alamo Area Professional Legal Assistants,
Inc. AAAPLA@), Milton Grimm (President of South Texas Organization of Paralegals, Inc. ASTOP@ ),
Ellen Lockwood (now President-Elect of the Division), and Patti Giuliano (now District 5 Director)
to coordinate a Joint Paralegal Celebration with volunteers equally from the three organizations.
Volunteers came and went, but it ended up being a small group of paralegals dedicated to planning a
successful first time event.
The volunteer group had worked on
numerous events in San Antonio over the years, but had
never been totally in charge of planning such a celebration. It was a new experience and one in
which the group definitely learned a lot.
Hopes were for attendance of at least 100 and dreams for as many as 200. The committee was
thrilled to receive a record setting reservation list of 186! The final count that attended the
luncheon was 169 representing the largest gathering of paralegals for a Legal Assistants Day
celebration in the history of San Antonio.
The keynote speakers were Justices Phylis J. Speedlin, Justice of the Fourth Court of
Appeals, and Craig T. Enoch, former Texas Supreme Court Justice. Justice Speedlin’s speech was
titled “We Couldn’t Possibly Do It Without You!,” and Justice Enoch’s speech titled “Yes,
Virginia, There Is Life After the Court!” Both
speakers were fabulous and well received by the audience.
Wanted:
Speakers
Do you like to speak to groups or have a topic of
expertise you’d be willing to share with your fellow members?
The Professional Development Committee is updating and hopefully expanding the LAD Speaker
Database. Many of the listings in our database are
quite old and in need of updated information. If you
have submitted your name as a speaker, please provide updated information as requested on the
Speaker Request Form found on the LAD website. If you
know of paralegals and/or attorneys that would like to be added to the list, please encourage them
to fill out a request form. Due to the CLE requirements
and seminars to provide continuing education – we need speakers.
Please give this some thought and help LAD help its members.
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