President's Message
Kim J. Cantu , CLA
Since taking office last June, my first TPJ article
compared benefits of the Legal Assistants Division, State Bar of Texas (LAD), with Dorothy
and her journey down the infamous “yellow brick road.”
My second article compared the “scarecrow’s need for a brain” with the Texas paralegal
and the need for CLE. This
article brings us to “Courage for the Lion” . . . .
In other words, the Division’s commitment to the Texas paralegal, the profession and, most
important, its members, just as Dorothy was courageous and committed to help the scarecrow, the tin
man and the lion, the Division, too, is committed
to its members.
As you may recall, when HB 1769 was published in the January 2004 issue of the Texas
Bar Journal, this Bill, surprisingly, brought “uncertainty” regarding paralegals
performing investigative tasks for their attorneys.
Due to the questions raised by Texas paralegals in this regard, LAD leaders realized the
reliance upon it by its members and sought direction, guidance, and interpretation of House Bill
1769.
On November 24, 2004, Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, published Opinion No. GA-0275
(http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/op50abbott/ga-0275.htm)
in response to the request for interpretation.
Abbott’s Opinion determined that HB 1769 was not intended to exclude paralegals working
under the direct supervision of Texas attorney(s) in the performance of investigative tasks.
Subsequent to Opinion No. GA-0275 being published, concerns were still expressed by LAD
members as to HB 1769’s relation to “freelance” paralegals.
Once again, LAD remained committed to the membership and sought clarification of the Opinion.
Members were referred to the AG’s Opinion referencing that the AG “did not address
persons working for attorneys or law firms as independent contractors.”
LAD members were further referred to the Attorney’s Rules of Professional Conduct 5.03.
Suggestion was made that freelance
paralegals should apprise the contracting attorney of the AG’s Opinion No. GA-0275 and make
certain their [the paralegal’s] contract scope of work or engagement letter sets forth that the work
they [the paralegal] will be performing for him/her is assisting
him/her in his/her practice of law and is either temporary, in lieu of, or in addition to
work performed by an in-house employee.
LAD members were also asked to note that the AG did not address contractors working for
persons licensed as attorneys, but not practicing law.
My second reference to “courage” and “commitment” point us to the Texas paralegal,
who believes it is now time to change the definition of our profession and the term with which we
refer to ourselves. The
Legal Assistant Committee (LAC) and the State Bar of Texas (SBOT) have demonstrated their commitment
to the profession and exhibited courage through their efforts to update the definition of paralegal,
which has not been updated since its adoption in 1986.
Both the Division and the SBOT adopted the definition promulgated by the American Bar
Association’s (ABA) definition in 1986 which reads “[a] legal assistant is a person, qualified
through education, training or work experience, who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office,
governmental agency or other entity in a capacity or function which involves the performance, under
the ultimate direction and supervision of an attorney, of specifically delegated substantive legal
work, which for the most part requires a sufficient knowledge of legal concepts that, absent such
assistant, the attorney would perform the task.”
The contemplated changes would update the terminology to exclusive use of “paralegal” and
request annotation of the terms within the definition: “education, training or work experience.”
It takes “courage” to step up and explain to long
time SBOT members and leaders that Texas paralegals and paralegals across the United
States are consciously choosing the “paralegal” profession.
Becoming a paralegal is not a job an individual selects as a temporary fix to pay the bills.
In today’s society, individuals choose to become “paralegals” through formal education,
years of experience and training by attorneys.
In this regard, the Joint LAC/LAD Task Force is seeking to further annotate the definition of
our profession for education, experience and training.
This is indicative of
LAD’s commitment, courage
and determination on behalf of its members.
Let this article be LAD’s call to its members to log on to the “members only” section
of the LAD website and show YOUR courage by casting your vote to change the name from “Legal
Assistants Division” to “Paralegal Division,” State
Bar of Texas. Online voting will take place April 18 — May 2, 2005.
It will be YOUR vote that makes this proposed change possible.
If this change becomes reality, this will be a giant leap for the Division down its yellow
brick road. Just
like the Lion, Division members will be on the way to finding Oz.
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