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NEWS/EVENTS/PHOTOS
Featured
Event! August 2007 |
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Attention
Members!
This
is an election year, so please be thinking of your next Board of Directors
that will take office Jan.
1, 2009!
Blurring
the Secretary-Paralegal Line Can Be a Bad Idea
CARYN TAMBER
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer
November 5, 2007
This is a sidebar to the story "Evolution of the Legal Secretary."
Lawyers giving paralegal-level tasks to their secretaries should tread carefully, the paralegal community warns.
Attorneys are ethically responsible for their subordinates’ work, so they should not give advanced legal work to those who may be unqualified to handle it, said Hillary Michaud, who coordinates Villa Julie College’s legal studies department.
Melissa McClellan, president of the Baltimore City Paralegal Association Inc., said that paralegal work requires special training.
“I would be alarmed to know that a law firm is relying on someone without proper training to perform legal research,” she said.
Secretaries may be able to perform basic paralegal tasks such as tracking cases online, but “computerized legal research is sort of tricky,” Michaud said. The quality of results depends on how the user phrases his or her search, and knowing the proper phrasing requires training.
“Your more sophisticated research is still going to be performed, by necessity, by someone who has training.”
Both Michaud and McClellan said the paralegal field is becoming increasingly professionalized and that more employers are looking for candidates with four-year degrees in a paralegal-related field.
McClellan said it’s not a problem if a secretary does some light case-organization tasks when he or she has a moment, but that it shouldn’t go beyond that.
“It’s a full-time job,” McClellan said. “You can’t be a legal secretary, receptionist and paralegal all at the same time.”
Another problem with giving a secretary work that could be done by a paralegal is that lawyers can bill for their paralegals’ time but not their secretaries’, noted Michele Shipley, secretary of the Maryland Association of Paralegals Inc.
“As an income-producing profession, we can provide a certain expertise that maybe a secretary cannot, and a more costeffective delivery [of] those services,” Shipley said.
Michaud, McClellan and Shipley all said their profession should be regulated to make sure that only qualified paralegals do paralegal work.
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Kristine Devine has a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Keene State College in Keene, NH. She has been a legal assistant/paralegal for more than 4 years, all of which has been with Seidel, Baker & Tilghman in Salisbury. She works primarily in disability law, focusing on Social Security, Workers' Compensation and Long-Term disability claims. She also works on a variety of general practice cases such as Wills, Trusts and custody, as well as assist with preparation for litigation.
Carlette R. Allen has been a Senior Legal Assistant with Foundation Coal Corporation working with Corporate Law, Securities, Mergers and Acquisitions since 2002. She attended Temple College and has a Paralegal Certificate from the Paralegal Institute in Falls Church, Virginia. She also attended the Institute for Investigative Technologies and is licensed as a Private Investigator in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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MAP
In the Legal Community: MSBA Annual Meeting 2007
by Sydney Greenish
This past spring, the MAP Board of Directors voted and passed to have MAP return to the MSBA Annual Meeting as an exhibitor. MAP members Laura Hurley, Kristine Devine, Devon O’Meara, Sydney Greenish and Michelle Shipley volunteered to host the MAP exhibit table at the MSBA annual meeting in Ocean City on June 13-15th.
The MAP exhibit team met members from the legal community from all points of the state who had questions/comments ranging from “what is a paralegal qualified to do?” to “I don’t know what I would do without my paralegal!”
MAP presence at the event was important as it allowed MAP to educate those in the legal community on the effective use of paralegals, paralegal regulation news and trends in the profession. We were also able promote the value of becoming a MAP member and the benefits that come with that such as having a network of professionals to bounce ideas off of, the affiliation with the NFPA, being able to share tips and stories with other paralegals, and being able to MAP social and educational meetings and other events.
This was the first MSBA Annual Meeting that MAP member Laura Hurley exhibited, this is what Laura had to say about the event:
"This was a new experience for me and I truly enjoyed it. This was a great time to socialize with fellow MAP members and to meet new people that work within the legal industry. I was amazed that there were so many attorneys and even a judge that started their careers as a paralegal. Many attendees were familiar with MAP but were not fully aware of all the benefits such as our job bank. I believe MAP’s exhibit at the Maryland Bar Association Conferencewas a success."
Laura Hurley, MAP Member and MSBA 2007 MAP Exhibitor
In addition to exhibiting, MAP member Michele Shipley was also a presenter at the event - - educating Maryland attorneys and Judges on how to effectively utilize paralegals and the cost benefit of doing so.
A big THANK YOU to the exhibit team and a thank you to Board for continuing to keep MAP involved in our legal community.
(Photos: from L to R – Kristin, Laura and Devon)
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YOUR 2005 - 2007 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ARE:
Traci M. Radice
President
(410) 244-5800
traci.radice@MDparalegals.org
presmap@yahoo.com
tradice@mrrlaw2.netKatherine Friedeman
Policy Vice President
(301) 292-8300
kfriedeman@yahoo.comSydney Greenish
Administrative Vice President
sydneyparalegal@yahoo.comElaine Patton, RP
Membership Vice President
membership@MDparalegals.orgMichele Shipley, RP
Secretary and PACE Ambassador
(410) 266-0626
michele.shipley@MDparalegals.orgJanice Ferragamo
Treasurer
JanFerragamo@yahoo.com
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MAP's
2nd Annual Teddy Bear Drive was a success!
MAP
acknowledges and appreciates the following supporters of its 2nd Annual
Teddy Bear Drive:
- Villa Julia College (collected 300 bears!)
- Hyatt, Peters & Weber, LLP/Severn Savings Bank (collected 129!)
- Wilmer Cutler Picking Hale and Door, LLP (collected 100!)
- Saul Ewing LLP (collected 90+ in just a few days!)
- Merkle Direct Marketing, Inc. (collected approximately 40!)
We also thank and acknowledge the following additional supporters of the teddy bear drive: Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP; Sunday School Class/Frames Memorial United Methodist Church; McGuire Woods LLP; Gallagher, Evelius & Jones, LLP, Webb/Mason, The Shooting Stars, Peter A. Holland, P.A., and Special Counsel and any individuals not mentioned.
Sometime in the beginning of October, I believe, at the suggestion of a member, this teddy bear drive became a contest. We promised to highlight the firm/employer which collected the most bears. Well the winning firm of the 2nd Annual Teddy Bear Drive is
Piper Rudnick is a business law firm of about 1,000 lawyers with U.S. offices in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Edison, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Reston, San Francisco, Tampa, and Washington, and a European office in Paris. Piper & Rudnick began in 1936 when the law firm of Rudnick & Wolfe was founded by Harry Rudnick & Sydney Wolfe. In 1952, Piper & Marbury was formed by the merger of Marbury, Miller & Evans with Piper, Watkins, Avirett & Egertonit. The firms of Piper & Marbury and Rudnick & Wolfe merged in November of 1999 to form Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe. In April 2002 the firm changed it's name to Piper Rudnick.
The firm's practice is focused on: Litigation, including national business and securities, product liability and toxic torts, intellectual property, antitrust, labor and class action litigation, and white-collar; Real Estate, comprising one of the largest and most diverse practices in the United States, with a focus on transactional, finance and securities capabilities for owners and investors in all property sectors; Business and Technology, including corporate and securities, corporate governance, franchise and distribution, intellectual property, media, information technology, taxation, bankruptcy, biosciences, IPOs, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, project finance, and other major transactions for companies of all sizes; Government Affairs, including a nationally known federal affairs and legislation group; a government controversies practice and prominent regulatory practices in government contracts, environmental, e-commerce and privacy, tax legislation, antitrust and communications; and International, with significant capabilities in trade regulation, dispute resolution, and cross-border transactions. These core practice areas embrace other disciplines that cross these boundaries, such as bankruptcy, employee benefits, health care, insurance, public finance and estate planning.
Piper collected approximately 621 bears or other stuffed animals (as of Nov. 30th) on behalf of MAP. Congratulations Piper Rudnick LLP!!!
As a result of your contributions, the Maryland Association of Paralegals successfully collected approximately 1300 bears for use by the Maryland State Police.
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For more details about the following MAP events, please see our Calendar section.
- November
30 -Wine and Cheese Reception and Annual Meeting of the Members
Please join the Maryland Association of Paralegals from 6-9PM at The Rose Restaurant in Baltimore, MD for our Wine and Cheese Reception and Annual Meeting of the Members. Click here for the invitation flyer.
Click on a thumbnail to view the full image.
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Baltimore City Dinner Meeting |
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1st Annual Teddy Bear Drive for the Maryland State Police |
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Nothin' Ta Plunder played 70's music in honor of the 30th Anniversary |
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President
Traci Radice with guest speaker First Lady Kendel Ehrlich and Grace
Cunningham of Venable who initially hired Mrs. Ehrlich as a paralegal at the beginning of her career |
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Tiffany Oller, Traci Radice, Mark McKenzie, Anne Waters |
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Justin Leck of Venable - Winner of six video series set "Medical School for Lawyers" donated by SEAK, Inc. (www.seak.com) |
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President Traci Radice presents just a few of the 1950 teddy bears to Cpl. Britt Moore of the Maryland State Police |
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Bowie Jensen paralegals - Sarah Hare, Candace Walker (The Docket editor), Angela Porrovicchio (CLE Coordinator) |
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Winners
of PACE scholarships sponsored by Courthouse Copy Service: Joyce Thaden
and Michele Shipley. Also pictured: Elaine Patton, RP, NFPA Region Director and PACE Ambassador |
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Winner of Ipod drawing donated by Ironside Legal Services: MAP volunteer, Katie Turner |