IT’S OFFICIAL — NAME CHANGE APPROVED BY MEMBERS AND SBOT
PARALEGAL DIVISION, STATE BAR OF TEXAS
AUSTIN, TEXAS — May 4, 2005
The Legal Assistants Division, State Bar of Texas (LAD) is pleased to announce
that effective April 8, 2005, the membership of LAD and the Board of Directors of the State Bar of
Texas (SBOT) approved LAD’s name change from “Legal Assistants Division” to “Paralegal
Division.” As of May 4, 2005, LAD members approved
such change to its Bylaws. Additionally, the SBOT’s
Standing Committee on Legal Assistants will now be called “Standing Committee on Paralegals,”
and a new definition has been approved to reflect the use of the term “paralegal” exclusively,
in lieu of “legal assistant.”
The newly re-named
Paralegal Division has been working on this change for approximately ten years by way of open
forums, surveys, and meetings with its members and members of the SBOT.
The Standing Committee on Paralegals and Paralegal Division will soon begin working with the
SBOT’s Texas Rules on Disciplinary Rules of Professional Procedure Conduct
Committee for the development of annotations to the new definition of “paralegal.”
Clarifying the definition of paralegals will assist courts in awarding attorneys fees and
make clear the types of tasks paralegals handle. In the long run, these changes will increase the
level of professionalism and in turn, increase protection of the public, as well as aid in the
delivery of legal services to the public.
The trend nationally
over the last several years has been indicated preference for the term “paralegal” to the
exclusion of “legal assistant.” The National
Association of Legal Assistants adopted “Certified Paralegal” as an alternative to “Certified
Legal Assistant” for the designation granted upon passage of its certifying exam.
In August 2003, the American Bar Association House of Delegates voted to change the name of
its Standing Committee on Legal Assistants to the Standing Committee on Paralegals. Many paralegal associations across the country, included several here in Texas,
have changed their names to reflect this trend (El Paso Association of Legal Assistants became El
Paso Paralegal Association; Houston Legal Assistants Association became Houston Metropolitan
Paralegal Association).
This is a long
awaited moment for the Division in an attempt to take the profession into the future and eliminate
the confusion that has developed , not only in the State of Texas with large corporations,
government agencies, and law firms, but also nationally, between the two terms, i.e., “legal
assistant” and “paralegal.” These were once
thought to be synonymous terms; however, since society’s movement to do-away with the term
“secretary” and utilize the term “assistant,” more distinction between the titles has become
necessary.
For more
information, contact the Paralegal Division at pd@txpd.org or on the web at www.txpd.org.
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