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The Alliance Echo-Spring 2016 
Board Members
BOARD MEMBERS
John C. Goudie, AACP, President
Amber R. Underhill, Vice President & Director of Membership
Keelie J. Fike, AACP, CP, Secretary
Patricia S. Carr, AACP, Treasurer
Leslie L. Adams, AACP, Director of Education
Cheryl L. Stuber, Director of National Affairs
Diana J. Gruber, AACP, Parliamentarian
Carolyn M. Saenz, AACP, CP, Past President & Board Advisor
AACP Certification Commission
Kathryn Myers, Commission Chair
Barbara Wallace, AACP, DCP, RP
Christine Jahncke, AACP, RP
President's Report
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By John C. Goudie, AACP
Welcome to Spring, more or less. For our western state's members, not always so nice, and quite unpredictable! Our new Board is coming together nicely and working in a cohesive manner. I want to welcome Amber Underhill to the position of Vice President/Director of Membership! Amber was appointed to the position by the Board to fill the vacancy created by Sandra Herdler's departure to formally embark on her new career as a Chef! I want to thank Sandra for all of her years of time, commitment and work for the Alliance and certainly wish her the greatest success with the new restaurant in Kansas City! If you are in Sandra's area, check out "Screamin Eagle Bar & Grill."
Not surprisingly, we still await any response from the Department of Labor, regarding our written request last fall to reclassify "Paralegal" as a profession. Stay tuned.
We are still looking for speaker topics for the noontime CLE webinars and the Annual CLE webinar in September. We do have an ethics speaker lined up for the annual webinar. This is your opportunity to provide input to the Alliance on topics of interest to you and your fellow paralegals. A simple email to me or one of the other Board members with suggestions for legal topics is all it takes! Please take a moment to give this some thought and fire off suggestions to us so that we can line up a speaker on the topic (or if you have a speaker in mind, we'll get in touch with them) so we can get our webinars going for the year.
We have been looking at, and researching, the process of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to gain further exposure to the Alliance by having our website featured prominently on common search databases and websites. We would like to see greater exposure of the website and information on membership, in an effort to increase our membership base and our AACP professional certification program.
As always, I am here for any questions, concerns or input you may have for the Alliance. You may reach me at [email protected] or [email protected].
Benefits of Obtaining a Professional Certification
BENEFITS OF OBTAINING A PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION
By Leslie L. Adams, AACP
Each of you has made the decision to become a member of the American Alliance of Paralegals (“AAPI”). You see the value of belonging to a professional association which, by definition, is an organization seeking to further a particular profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that profession.[1]Have you considered taking your dedication to your profession a step further by becoming an American Alliance Certified Paralegal (“AACP”)?
There are just as many benefits to obtaining a professional certification as there are to joining a professional association. Because certification is voluntary, it evidences commitment to the paralegal profession. The paralegal who obtains a professional certification chose to pursue certification and has committed to meeting the requirements of maintaining it. An AACP is required to complete 18 hours of continuing legal education, including 3 hours of ethics. By completing these educational requirements, you are proving your willingness to continue to grow in your legal knowledge and to further expand your skillset. It also shows that you are committed to acting in a professional and ethical manner.
For the paralegal seeking employment, national certification differentiates you from the competition resulting in more job opportunities. Certification can lead to increased salaries, promotions, and peer recognition. Competition for paralegal positions can be stiff and a certification may give you an advantage over a paralegal with a similar skillset and experience. It establishes you as a continuous learner and what employer doesn’t want an employee who is always striving to stay up to date on the latest legal knowledge and ethical obligations?
Professional certification helps you be a leader and a mentor. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a leader, you may find yourself becoming more active in the AAPI once you obtain your AACP and, ultimately, volunteering to help with projects or running for office. Don’t laugh! It happened to me! You also may find yourself viewed as a leader by other paralegals once you obtain your AACP. Your peers may begin to reach out to you for advice or guidance because they view your certification as confirmation of your professionalism and knowledge.
Finally, obtaining an AACP designation leads to increased networking opportunities. This may be the most obvious benefit of obtaining a professional certification but it shouldn’t be overlooked. Certification puts you in an elite group of professionals. You will immediately have something in common with other paralegals holding the AACP designation and the relationships built from networking with other AACPs can be valuable. Although you are building a professional network through AAPI membership and certification, you can also build true, long lasting friendships.
Why not take the next step in your professional growth by becoming an American Alliance Certified Paralegal? I’m available at [email protected] if you have questions or want to discuss what needs to be done to achieve certification.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/professional_association
Saying "Goodbye" to Sandra M. Herdler
SAYING "GOODBYE" TO SANDRA M. HERDLER
The American Alliance is “losing” one of its very active members. Our former Vice President and Director of Membership, Sandra M. Herdler, is leaving the paralegal profession for a different career. Sandra has served on the Board since 2009. She subsequently held positions of Vice President, Director of Membership, and after the position was combined, continued her activities on the Board. She also chaired the Marketing Committee and was the “keeper” of the LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.
Sandra worked as a paralegal at the firm of Krigel & Krigel, PC, in Kansas City, Missouri and was member of the relocation team when the firm moved to a different building last year. She also is a “foodie” and a graduate from one of Kansas City’s culinary institutes. The Board was treated to Sandra’s gastronomic talents at a face-to-face Board meeting in 2013.
When the American Alliance membership directory was in need of someone to take over the upkeep and changes, Sandra stepped in. Her input was valuable when we revamped our web site and contracted with a new association management company. She also persuaded a few of the lawyers at her firm to make presentations at the American Alliance webinars.
Sandra is changing careers and has accepted a position as executive chef at Screamin Eagle restaurant in Kansas City. She said this was a hard decision for her to make because of her love for the paralegal profession, but she felt that this was an opportunity that she could not pass up.
We will miss Sandra’s hard work, her dedication to the American Alliance and her social media expertise. However, if you are ever in Kansas City, you’ll know where to get a good meal.
To tweet or not to tweet? What professional job seekers need to know about using Social Media
To tweet or not to tweet?
What professional job seekers need to know
about using Social Media
by
Dr. Robert Diotalevi
and
Alexander Tatko
Abstract
Remember when the Internet was the greatest thing since sliced bread, with access to a plethora of information at your fingertips, and the ability to send a message instantly to someone across the world? Now the Internet takes it one step further in an exploding area entitled social media; social media may have started in 1999 with a site to reunite school mates in Great Britain, but it truly started with MySpace and LinkedIn in 2003 when there were over 3 billion active web pages. Despite the fact social media has been around for over 10 years, it didn’t really hit its stride until Facebook took off and left MySpace in the dust with over 200 million users in 2009[1].
Since then, Facebook has grown past 1.3 billion monthly active users worldwide and there has been an emergence of many popular social media sites such as LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest and Google+, etc.[2]. With this brave, new world of technology and social media, paralegals need to adjust to use it to their benefit in order to creating a persona for themselves as well as aiding in getting jobs, all while making sure they are doing so properly. In this article we will endeavor to set up and use top name social media sites to aid folks in acquiring connections with popular organizations and important people.
Setting up an Online Persona
Social media has given people around the world a way to create a name for themselves since potential employers and co-workers are able to scan their Facebook wall or read their tweets and begin to get an idea of who they are. This is called an online persona; basically an online persona is an electronic version of one’s personality, it’s who you are and what makes you you. For example, a few things that may create your persona include the content you follow online, the way type, and more. Your online persona is unique to you because it’s your identity and people are able to get a feel of who you are and how you conduct yourself. Unfortunately, if a paralegal is unaware of how to properly use these social media sites to create a proper persona, it’s likely they are doing more harm to themselves than good. Don’t be mistaken though, that doesn’t mean one should refrain from engaging in social media, just that one should know how to properly represent themselves before engaging this relatively new medium.
In order to properly create your persona, it’s best to use as many top-sites as possible, this way you are getting yourself out there more. Picture it as a newspaper ad; if you’re selling an old car, you would get more views by putting it in more local newspapers and surrounding area’s newspapers to ensure you reach a greater amount of potential customers. The next thing would to make sure you stay up to date of these sites, the more your post and spread yourself out, the more your name gets across on the internet, including google searches[3].
Along with staying up to date, it’s important to keep your profiles professional. This means that you use only professional pictures and posts[4]; letting the world know how many drinks you had at the club last night while posting sleazy pictures, will not help your persona. You may now be asking yourself, “Well what can I post then?”, well any professional accomplishments such as getting certified as a paralegal or getting certified in Microsoft word are information that will appeal to other’s in your field and make your persona more appealing.
In addition to keeping things professional, it’s important to make sure you list your full name as the name people see on your profile and not a nickname that people call you, even if it resembles your personality[5]. The reason for this is because how can an employer look you up if your real name if William, but you have you name listed as “Bill” on all your profiles, it just won’t work. Finally, in order to make sure people can view your profile you may wish to make it “public,” by doing this anyone in the world can view the information, pictures, and any other content on your page; that is why it’s crucial you keep it professional – you never know who’s watching. If you do desire though, on some platforms you can select the audience for each picture and post whether it be for your professional or for your social life audience[6].
Utilizing Social Media Sites to Gain a Job:
Setting up an online persona via social media networks is especially important if you are looking for a paralegal job. It’s projected that by 2022 there will be 323,300 employed paralegals and legal assistants combined, thus, making social media even more valuable to those who wish to continue to be employed or those who wish to be one of the 323,300 whom will be employed[7]. Now that we have found out how to properly create a social media persona, it’s key to examine how to specifically use the top name sites to land a job in the legal occupation.
The most popular social media website around is Facebook with a whopping 1.3 billion monthly users worldwide[8], but how can you as a paralegal use those astronomical amount of users to your advantage? One of the easiest ways to get intertwined with the legal field is to use the “like” function on Facebook; right around 2009, when Facebook surpassed MySpace, the “like” button was introduced into Facebook; this button allows the user to like a product, page or company and follow that account and everything they post[9]. A job seeker can use the like button to like local business associations as well as national associations, law firms, legal clinics and anything else related to their profession[10]. By doing this their name will become linked with other people with similar interest, thus, making a networking connection, while being able to follow their updates and find out about any new events or advances in the profession.
Job seekers can also participate in discussions if they join local legal groups on Facebook, thus creating an opportunity to further network themselves while showing their knowledge to their colleagues and potential employers[11]. While Facebook is one of the top social media sites, Twitter and LinkedIn follow up right behind them, especially in terms of networking.
Twitter is a social media where users can post and read short messages which are called “tweets”; they can contain videos and pictures[12]. It works similar to Facebook as users can follow important people, or in a paralegals case, law firms, co-workers or hiring managers. By following someone such as the hiring manager of the firm for which you wish to work, the paralegal can try to find common ground between them as well as any potential information about the firm that they may use during their interview. It is always important to research a firm to the best of your ability before going to an interview and twitter allows you another way to do so while finding common ground[13]. Not only is knowledge power when it comes to an interview, but by researching the person you are being interviewed by, it will help you relax and see them more as a person instead of a future boss, which will ultimately help ease the nerves during the interview. Other important people you can follow are career experts, companies, colleagues and hashtags (words or phrases used to describe the information discussed in a tweet, i.e, #law, #jobopening), all of which you can engage in conversation with to better your knowledge and help land a job[14].
Beside reaching out to companies, Twitter is always becoming popular for companies reaching out to paralegals; more and more companies (as well as local legal communities) are advertising job openings on Twitter in order to get more applicants as well as get applicants who are proficient in social media so that their firm can stay up to date with the ever changing technology[15]. Finally, it’s also becoming a trend for paralegals to include their Twitter handle (username) on their resumes so that their future employers can see their interaction with the business community via social media[16]. All of these ways to use Twitter can be invaluable to the job seeker.
While Twitter and Facebook are up on the top list for social media, LinkedIn is one of the most essential social media tools a paralegal can use. LinkedIn is a social media site that allows recruiters and employers alike to search for the best candidate for a job by searching a specific set of skills, work experience, location and more. As with Twitter and Facebook one can follow key companies and personnel, but you can also do more[17]. In order to get the most out of LinkedIn, a paralegal candidate should post their resume to their profile and join local HR Legal Communities or groups to get their name out there while being able to join in discussion with some of the top names in the profession[18]. Basically, LinkedIn is the professional social media site and by using it to network, employers can view your resume and contact you directly about their interest in your services[19].
Conclusion
No matter what social media network you utilize, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or all of them, it’s key to follow a few reminders, stay active, act professional, and spread yourself out. By doing these three simple things you can ensure that you will create a better online persona for yourself that will either help you grow in the position, you’re in or help your achieve your goal of finding employment in the legal field. Good luck!
Article is reprinted with the permission from the authors.
About the Authors
Dr. Robert Diotalevi, Esq., LL.M., is the Founding Program Coordinator and Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. He has been a lawyer for 29 years. He possesses four degrees and has been internationally published. His e-mail is [email protected].
Alexander Tatko, is a legal studies major at FGCU. He is currently holding a 4.0 GPA and is certified in all ProDoc 5 software. He is graduating in Fall 2015 with a Bachelors in legal studies and plans to go onto to law school to further his legal education. His email is [email protected].
[1] Dr. Anthony Curtis, The Brief History of Social Media, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, (last updated Jul. 22, 2014), http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html
[2] Facebook Statistics, Statistic Brain, (Jul. 1, 2014), http://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistics/
[3] Tonya, 10 Ways to Use Social Media and Networking to Find a Paralegal Job, Paralegal Alliance, (Feb. 13, 2013), http://www.paralegalalliance.com/10-ways-to-use-social-media-and-networking-to-find-a-paralegal-job/#axzz3CDQW6mLZ
[4] Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Paralegals Benefit from Social Media, The Paralegal People Blog, (Aug. 15, 2012), www.paralegal.edu/blog/bid/208065/Paralegals-Benefit-from-Social-Media
[5] Tonya, supra.
[6] Right Management, Staying Professional on Social Media Networks, Career + Work Blog, (Jul. 1, 2014), http://www.right.com/blog/careerpluswork/2014/staying-professional-on-social-media-networks/
[7] U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Paralegals and Legal Assistants: Job Outlook, Occupational Outlook Handbook, (Jan. 8, 2014), http://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/paralegals-and-legal-assistants.htm#tab-6
[8] Facebook Statistics, supra.
[9] Jason Kincaid, Facebook Activates “Like” Button; FriendFeed Tires of Sincere Flattery, Tech Crunch, (Feb. 9, 2014), http://techcrunch.com/2009/02/09/facebook-activates-like-button-friendfeed-tires-of-sincere-flattery/
[10] Tonya, supra.
[11] Id.
[12] Story of a Tweet, About Twitter, (accessed Sept. 9, 2014), https://about.twitter.com/what-is-twitter/story-of-a-tweet
[13] Tonya, supra.
[14] Id.
[15] How Social Media Can Help Paralegals Find the Right Job, The Legend Express for Paralegals, (Feb. 2013), http://www.legaco.org/article/how-social-media-can-help-paralegals-their-job-search
[16] Tonya, supra.
[17] Alison Doyle, LinkedIn Professional Networking Site, About Careers, (accessed Sept. 4, 2014), http://jobsearch.about.com/od/linkedin/qt/linkedin.htm
[18] How Social Media Can Help Paralegals Find the Right Job, supra.
[19] Tonya, supra.
Welcome New Members
Darlene Buffington, Detroit, MI
Jennifer Dill
Sheila Gibson, Emeryville, CA
William Hempstead, Newark, NJ
Brian Hollinger, Dover, DE
Heather Hutchens, Goshen, OH
Minjung Jin, New York, NY
Douglas Masone, Sacramento, CA
Felicia Moses, Belleville, MI
Carline Romain, Riverdale, NY
Paul Staso, Logansport, IN
Melanie Walker, Waynesville, OH
Lori Wolverton, Akron, OH
Congratulations New AACPs!
Congratulations
To Our Newest AACP
Suzanne M. McFarland, West Chester, Ohio
Tonya E. Wood, Jackson Beach, Florida
Director of National Affairs Report
Director of National Affairs Report
By Cheryl L. Stuber
Update on the Adoption of the ABA Model Regulatory
Objectives for the Provision of Legal Services
Furthering my report in February, the ABA House approved the model regulatory objectives for nontraditional legal services (aka Resolution 105). The Resolution serves as a guide for states in their regulation of nontraditional legal services. The heart of the debate was over whether by adopting the resolution the House was endorsing the practice of law by nonlawyers. The House Chair, Patricia Refo, limited the debate to only two speakers for and two against the proposal. William Hubbard, past ABA President, spoke in favor of the motion and gave a long list of ABA entities and outside legal organizations that supported the motion. He told the audience that regardless of what the House did, the work of nonlawyer providers would continue anyway. On the opposing side was Marjorie O’ Connell, the ABA delegate from the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations. Marjorie indicated that her members were “mad as anything” at the prospect of handing legitimacy to poorly trained practioners.
A motion was made to postpone the resolution indefinitely but failed. In the end, 276 delegates opposed and 191 favored it. The House then considered amendments to the Resolution:
- First amendment – adding language saying that nothing in the resolution abrogates ABA policy on nonlawyer ownership of law firms and other cores values – passed easily.
- Second – urged regulators to require lawyer supervision of nonlawyers providing legal services; require that such practitioners be subject to rules of professional conduct; and require that such practitioners accurately state the scope of services provided.
- An amendment supporter from Cleveland said that the Section of Family Law would support the resolution only with this amendment, and noted that family attorneys were not represented on the commission despite family law taking up 50 percent of civil dockets.
- Speakers against the amendment indicated that the amendment would have unintended consequences and could regulate paralegals who are currently not regulated, as well as Washington’s Limited License Legal Technicians and various states’ courthouse navigator programs. A past ABA treasurer indicated that it would “take the work of months and years” to come up with appropriate model regulations.
The second amendment failed on a voice vote, though with strong support. The resolution itself then proceeded to a voice vote and the ayes had it.
After Resolution 105 was adopted, ABA President Paulette Brown released the following statement: “The adoption of Resolution 105 is intended to create a framework to guide the courts in the face of the burgeoning access to justice crisis and fast-paced change affecting the delivery of legal services. The ABA Model Regulatory Objectives for the Provision of Legal Services that was adopted provides for the protection of the public, the advancement of the rule of law, the independence of professional judgment and diversity and inclusion among legal service providers as well as freedom from discrimination for those receiving legal services. Moving forward, it allows the assessment of regulations that may develop, concerning nontraditional legal service providers. The ABA recognizes the importance of evaluating the changes in the delivery of legal services and the need for the ABA to carefully analyze these changes so that the public and the legal profession are protected and lawyers maintain the ability to serve their clients.”
Harvard Law School launches “Free the Law” project to digitize case law and provide free access.
Back in October 2015, Harvard, with the support of Ravel Law, a legal research and analytics platform, began to digitize its collection of U.S. case law, which is one of the largest collections in the world. Harvard Law School’s collection consists of 40,000 books containing approximately forty million pages of court decisions, and includes materials from cases that predate the U.S. Constitution. Not only are they digitizing case law, but they are making it available online, for free.
Driving the “Free the Law” initiative is the belief that the law should be free and open to all. Using technology to create broad access to legal information will help create a more transparent and more just legal system.
Case law for California jurisdictions will be online in November 2015. Harvard’s full collection of nationwide case law is expected to be digitized and searchable for free by mid-2017 and will be available at Ravel Law’s website www.ravellaw.com. The database is expected to be released to bulk users within eight years.
Calendar of Events
- AAPI Board Meetings - via Conference Call at 1:00 P.M. EST
- June 14, 2016
- August 9, 2016
- December 13, 2016
- AAPI Annual Meeting – via Conference Call at 1:00 P.M. EST
- September 15, 2016
- AAPI National Paralegal Summit Webinar
- September 22, 2016
- AAPI Annual In-Person Board Meeting - St. Louis, MO
- October 21, 2016
For further details, look under the Calendar Tab on the American Alliance website.
Lorman Continuing Legal Education
The American Alliance has teamed up with Lorman Education Services to offer members a discount on Lorman seminars. All members get a 10% discount on seminars, teleconferences and bookstore items. To take advantage of this savings visit the Lorman website at www.lorman.com/training/AAPI and click on the American Alliance logo at the top of the page.
Here are some upcoming CLEs that may be of interest:
Live Webinars
- Legal Citation Networks-Mastering Efficient Legal Research With Next Generation Legal Analytics Tools-May 26, 2016
- Daubert Motions: Challenging Expert Opinions-June 2, 2016
- Medical Records Update for Paralegals: Releases, Retntion and Confidentiality Requirements-June 14, 2016
- Legal Ethical Issues-June 21, 2016
- Electronic Data, Discovery and Document Storage-June 30, 2016
On Demand Webinars
- Internet Research for Paralegals
- Paralegal's Role at Trial
- Federal Cases From Pleading to Judgment for Paralegals
- Legal Writing: Editing and Proofreading Essentials
- Litigation Support for Paralegals
The American Alliance of Paralegals, Inc. Code of Ethics
1. A paralegal shall not engage in the unauthorized practice of law.
2. A paralegal shall keep confidential any and all information, documents and other materials entrusted to him or her or acquired in some other way during the course of the legal representation of a client. The confidentiality shall be maintained before, during and after the legal representation unless the client has given consent or disclosure is required by law or by court order.
3. A paralegal shall avoid conflicts of interest and shall immediately disclose any potential conflicts of interest to his or her employer.
4. A paralegal shall ensure that his or her status as a paralegal is disclosed at the beginning of any professional relationship with the attorney, client, personnel of a court, or the personnel of an administrative agency.
5. A paralegal shall follow all provisions of the rules of professional conduct for a paralegal of the state in which he or she is employed. If no such specific code for paralegals exists, then a paralegal shall follow the attorney's code of ethics as it applies to paralegals within that state.
6. A paralegal shall maintain personal and professional integrity.
7. A paralegal shall attain a high degree of competency through education, training, and experience.
8. A paralegal shall maintain a high degree of competency by engaging in continuing paralegal education on an annual basis.