Our annual spring seminar was held on Thursday, April 18, 2013. I would like to thank everyone who attended and helped make it a huge success. I have had many people com- ment to me that they walked away with an enormous amount of information and they were very glad they had attended. It is very hard to believe that we are winding down another year and getting ready for our annual meeting. This year the annual meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. We will be announcing the new board of directors at this meeting, so please make sure you vote. Finally, we are getting ready to kick off our membership drive. The new membership applications will be sent to you soon. Don’t delay, send in your application as soon as it arrives. We are issuing a challenge to each member. Anyone who sends in their 2013-2014 membership application between now and the annual meeting, your name will be entered into a drawing for a $300 VISA gift card. But, the real challenge is that anyone who gets a paralegal to join who isn’t already a member, you get your name in the drawing a second time. So the more paralegals you get to join the association, the more times your name gets entered into the drawing. Let’s make this year our best membership drive ever. Inside this issue: Membership News 2 Upcoming Events 3 March Against Hunger Results 6 Offices on the Move 8 NFPA news 10 Paralegals Not Likely to Disappear ! 13 Why Join a Paralegal Organization 14 Facebook: Your Fired ! 20 NIPA Board Members 25 Clarification of Civil Collection Procedures 26 FROM THE PRESIDENT May / June 2013 Welcome New Members Stephanie A. Hess Susan M. Smith Please patronize our advertisers & thank our sustaining members. They make this newsletter possible. Stewart Richardson Deposition Services. . .4 Summit City Reporting……………...8 The Paralegal Press
Transcript
Our annual spring seminar was held on Thursday, April 18, 2013. I would like to thank everyone who attended and helped make it a huge success. I have had many people com-ment to me that they walked away with an enormous amount of information and they were very glad they had attended. It is very hard to believe that we are winding down another year and getting ready for our annual meeting. This year the annual meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. We will be announcing the new board of directors at this meeting, so please make sure you vote. Finally, we are getting ready to kick off our membership drive. The new membership applications will be sent to you soon. Don’t delay, send in your application as soon as it arrives. We are issuing a challenge to each member. Anyone who sends in their 2013-2014 membership application between now and the annual
meeting, your name will be entered into a drawing for a $300 VISA gift card. But, the real challenge is that anyone who gets a paralegal to join who isn’t already a member, you get your name in the drawing a second time. So the more paralegals you get to join the association, the more times your name gets entered into the drawing.
Let’s make this year our best membership drive ever.
Inside this issue:
Membership News 2
Upcoming Events 3
March Against Hunger Results
6
Offices on the Move 8
NFPA news 10
Paralegals Not Likely
to Disappear ! 13
Why Join a Paralegal Organization
14
Facebook: Your Fired ! 20
NIPA Board Members 25
Clarification of Civil
Collection Procedures 26
FROM THE PRESIDENT
May / June 2013
Welcome
New Members
Stephanie A. Hess
Susan M. Smith
Please patronize our advertisers &
thank our sustaining members.
They make this newsletter possible.
Stewart Richardson Deposition Services. . .4
Summit City Reporting……………...8
The Paralegal Press
They say that the early bird gets the worm! Well lucky for us, this year
the “ worm ” is a $300.00 Visa gift card. Yes, that is right. If you re-
new your membership with NIPA at or prior to the Annual Meeting on
May 21, you will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a
$300.00 Visa gift card. Also, as part of the “ Member, Get a Member ” drive, anyone who
recruits a new member to join NIPA will earn yet another entry into the gift card drawing.
Of course the new member will be entered as well, so be sure to recruit as many members
as you can to better your chances of winning. The drawing for the $300.00 Visa gift card
will be held at the Annual Meeting, so act now.
Of course, there are already many great reasons to join the Northeast Indiana Paralegal
Association. Last year NIPA offered members the opportunity to earn 9 free hours of
paralegal CLE, just for attending monthly membership meetings. Yes, a $65 membership
to the NIPA can earn you up to 9 hours of paralegal CLE! If you have any questions re-
garding membership or the “ Member, Get a Member ” drive, please feel free to contact
As the saying goes, “it takes a village” to put on a successful seminar….so we’d like to express our
sincere thanks and appreciation to those who participated:
Planning Committee:
Julie Harber
Cindy Harrison
Beth Hill
Tonya White
Assistance with refreshment breaks:
Angie Meyer
Carrie Thomas
Speakers:
J. Spencer Feighner, Haller & Colvin, P.C.
Lindsey C. Swanson, Haller & Colvin, P.C.
Jerry R. Jenkins, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP
Deanna Finney, Modern Information Solutions, LLC
Gina Shultz, National Corporate Research, Ltd.
Sponsors:
Modern Information Solutions, LLC
National Corporate Research, Ltd.
Stewart Richardson Deposition Services
Attendees:
A total of 17 attendees throughout the day.
Page 5 The Paralegal Press
Spring Seminar Highlights
Modern Information Solutions
National Corporate Research, Ltd.
Stewart Richardson Deposition Services
The Paralegal Press Page 6
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller announced the March Against Hunger food drive competition generated $55,455 and 10,065 pounds of food for local food banks. The fifth annual food drive competition was between 44 participating law groups from Indiana and Kentucky. To help coordinate the donations, Zoeller teamed up with the Indiana State Bar Association (ISBA) and the nonprofit group, Feeding Indiana's Hungry (FIsH), which is the umbrella organization for 11 regional food banks. "All food drive participants deserve recognition for their efforts to serve their local communities by self-lessly giving their time and money to a worthy cause," Zoeller said. "Too many Hoosiers, including children, face hunger on daily basis and it’s heart-warming to see the members of my profession step up in such a big way.” Zoeller said this year’s monetary and food donations combined is the equivalent to 143 tons of food. "As a fellow lawyer, I am particularly proud of the fact that lawyers from all corners of the state rose to the occasion to serve Hoosiers in need," said ISBA President Daniel B. Vinovich. “It’s opportunities like this annual food drive that allow us to serve beyond our clients." Winners from all six divisions will receive a trophy known as the Attorney General’s Cup for collecting the most donations: Extra Large Division – Barnes & Thornburg LLP (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Elkhart) – 784 pounds of food and $16,190 in monetary donations
Large Division – Burke Costanza & Carberry LLP (Merrillville) – 1,675 pounds of food and $7,153 in monetary donations
Medium Division – Wilkinson Goeller Modesitt Wilkinson & Drummy LLP (Terre Haute) – $2,510 in monetary donations
Small Division – Tuesley Hall Konopa LLP (South Bend) – 29 pounds of food and $1,570 in mone-tary donations
Sole Proprietor – Steven Douglas Law Office (Elletsville) – $1,685 in monetary donations
Public/Non-Profit – Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office (Evansville) – 2,295 pounds of food and $5,000 in monetary donations.
“We are grateful for the participation and generosity of so many Hoosier lawyers, as well as for the leadership of our state's attorney general to raise awareness of hunger,” said Emily Weikert Bryant, FIsH Executive Director. “One in six Hoosiers is at risk of hunger, and for Hoosier children just one in four. The pounds contributed through the food drive this year will provide the equivalent of nearly 240,000 meals to Hoosiers in need, with nearly 1 million pounds donated since the program was cre-ated in 2009.” The 11 regional food banks that serve Indiana and are members of FIsH include: Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana Inc., Food Finders Food Banks, Gleaners Food Bank, Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana, Food Bank of Northern Indiana, Terre Haute Catholic Charities Food Bank and Tri-State Food Bank Inc. Also, Freestore Foodbank of Cincinnati and Dare to Care Food Bank of Louisville also participated and serve some Indiana counties.
Local Firms that participated are:
Barnes & Thornburg Beckman Lawson
Burt Blee Dixon Sutton & Bloom
Faegre Baker Daniels Haller & Colvin
Murphy Ice & Koeneman
March Against Hunger Results !
Page 7 The Paralegal Press
NIPA MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
As a member of NIPA, some of the benefits that you will receive are:
Automatic membership in the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA),
the oldest and largest national paralegal association
The chance to meet and network with other paralegals
Educational meetings featuring speakers on le-
gal topics and topics affecting the paralegal pro-
fession
A Job Bank with Information about local job
openings
Discounts on educational seminars
Salary and benefits surveys
Timely news about issues affecting paralegals
Articles about local paralegals and paralegals in
other states
Access to members-only pages on both the NIPA and NFPA websites
Directory of NIPA members including their area of practice
Information about paralegal duties and responsibilities
Public service announcements
Links to CLE and other websites
A chance to win the Paralegal of the Year Award
Personal and professional growth through leadership opportunities
Representation in the Indiana Alliance of Paralegal Associations regarding matters af-
fecting paralegals in Indiana, including regulation
NIPA members, this is your association and this is your publication, so we want to hear from you. We want to know what you are thinking about, what you are doing, who you are. We are always accepting articles, feature columns, and advertisements. If it has to do with the paralegal profession, we’re interested. Just think what a coup it would be to include the fact that you’re a professionally published author on your résumé.
If you’re not sure what to write about and you’re a member - voting, student, or corporate- just contact us and we can “spotlight” you. We’ll provide the questions and you provide your an-swers and a professional photograph (or logo). Get your name out there, build your personal or professional brand, and make new contact. Don’t be shy and don’t delay-send your articles, inquiries, advertisements, and pictures to [email protected].
The submission deadline for the next issue is Monday, June 10.
Bake-off to raise money for March Against Hunger
In an effort to raise money, Haller & Colvin de-cided to kick off the food drive with a couple jeans days on Fridays in March for a $5 donation. Hal-ler & Colvin also hosted its first annual Bake-Off on Friday, March 22, at noon. The baking catego-ries included pies, cakes, cookies and miscellane-ous (anything else sweet that doesn’t fit into the other categories). All proceeds benefited our March Against Hunger Food Drive. The winner of each category received endless bragging rights (until next year). Lunch was provided with help from the Subway and for a $5.00 donation, anyone in the building would receive lunch, one ticket to vote for your favorite baked good and unlimited samples of all the sweets entered into the contest. Additional tickets were available for purchase for $1.00. Ballot stuffing was encouraged.
Haller & Colvin raised $290.00 from the bake-off and $240 from Friday jeans days. The results of the bake-off were as follows: Pies: Carrie Thomas (Dutch Apple Pie) Cakes: Rebeca Gonzales (Pumpkin Roll) Cookies: Beth Bowditch (Chocolate Chip Cookies) Miscellaneous: Angie Meyer (Scotcharoo Bars)
NFPA is proud to announce the essay topic for the 2013 NFPA/Thomson Reuters schol-arships is now available at:
http://www.paralegals.org/uploads/TR_Scholarship_app_2013.pdf with the Application form.
There are two scholarships available: first place is $3,000 and second place is $2,000.
This scholarship opportunity is open to both member and non-member stu-dents of NFPA. The deadline for sub-mission of completed applications and accompanying documents is July 1, 2013. Winners will be provided a travel stipend to attend the NFPA An-nual Convention in Hartford, CT in Oc-tober and will be recognized at the Awards Luncheon on Saturday, Octo-ber 5. Notification will be provided to the winners on or about August 26, 2013.
Please share this information with any students you may know and with paralegal pro-grams in your area.
Theresa A. Prater, RP, Vice President & Director of Profession Development NFPA
Will Paralegals Disappear? The Paralegal Mentor Says “No”!
by Paralegal Mentor
Recent headlines on the Internet have been alarming:
Paralegal Jobs are Vanishing….
Rise of Technology Causing Paralegal Jobs to Disappear?
Recession, tech killing middle-class jobs…
Paralegal jobs being overtaken by technology…
As technology evolves, jobs disappear…
Instead of allowing these dire, attention-grabbing headlines to create a profession-wide panic, let’s give some common sense thought to these predictions.
Background Information:
As recently as 2010 the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, predicted there will be an 18% growth rate in paralegal jobs through 2020 and that this is one of the fastest growing pro-fessions.
In contradiction to that, The Associated Press released a report in January 2013 stating that 5 years after the start of the Great Recession, millions of middle-class jobs have been lost world-wide and will never return. Additionally, millions more are likely to vanish.
Further, the report states that, “Year after year, software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices become more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more effi-ciently tasks that humans have always done.” The analysis refers to jobs that are routine and repeti-tive in the service sector and examples used are paralegals, meter readers and travel agents.
In August 2012, The ABA’s House of Delegates approved updates to the Model Rules of Profes-sional Conduct to acknowledge that information is stored digitally as well as in paper files, clients communicate electronically as well as by phone calls, and email isn’t the only method of electronic communications.
New commentary language added to Rule 1.1 (the duty to provide competent representation) re-quires lawyers to keep abreast of the benefits and risks associated with technology, according to new commentary language added to Rule 1.1 on the duty to provide competent representation.
It's paramount for a serious Paralegal to join a Paralegal association for many reasons.
Below are my Top Four.
4. Employment Opportunities: Paralegal associations offer many employment services which are exclusive to its members.
3. Camaraderie: Most seasoned Paralegals ap-preciate the ability to pass the "torch" to their younger and less experienced counterparts and you can find many seasoned Paralegals within Paralegal associations. But the camaraderie doesn't stop there, fellowship among Parale-gals is aplenty. Whether you are just breaking into the Paralegal field or want to network within your practice area, association member-ship will prove to be a valuable resource for you.
2. Networking: Paralegal associations offer endless networking opportunities, support to one another as well as informational, operational and transactional changes in your respective practice area.
DRUM ROLL PLEASE.......the number one reason for joining a paralegal association is the ability to obtain Con-tinuing Legal Education credits or CLE(s).
1. Continuing Legal Education: Paralegal associations require that its members maintain a certain standard within the profession. They do this by imposing a minimum CLE requirement to sustain membership. This re-quirement helps its members maintain a high level of professionalism. This truly serves to assist a Paralegal with staying ahead of legal changes whether those changes exist within federal statues or state law.
The group rate is $185 per night plus taxes/single or double Please visit https://resweb.passkey.com/go/NFPA2013 or call 877-901-6632 to make your reservation. Reservation cut-off date to guarantee a room is
September 13, 2013
Thursday Education Seminars Early-Bird before 8/3 After 8/3
It is insulting that the work of a paralegal would be classified as a “routine and repetitive” job, similar to those of a meter reader. The American Bar Association defines paralegals as performing specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. Working as a parale-gal is not just a job, but a career. It’s doubtful meter reading can be considered a career.
The reality:
Paralegal jobs will not be obliterated by technology. Instead, technology will change paralegal jobs, as well as paralegal responsibilities and skill requirements. But what’s new?
From the time this profession emerged in the 1970’s, paralegals have had to deal with change. The unwritten rule has always been that you either kept up or you were out of a job.
From the manual typewriter to the good old Selectric to today’s desk tops, iPads, laptops, and smart phones, paralegals have accepted new challenges and met expectations. Often it is the paralegal who introduces the new technology to their employers and then trains the staff to use it.
One more thing: the legal field will always require the human touch. Software cannot soothe clients, decide what must be done, or run by itself. Software cannot deal with court staff. Software cannot be relied upon to be correct. A good example is your spell check! The training and expertise of the paralegal, as well as the ability to deal with people, will always be needed.
What should you do?
Don’t be frightened by these headlines. Instead, do what you have been told to do over and over again:
Observe trends in the industry. If business is slow in your focus area, take necessary steps ensure you will have a job, perhaps in another specialty area.
Never stop learning; take advantage of CLE opportunities.
Pursue professional certification.
Become an expert in your focus area. This will require work on your part which might include pursu-ing advanced certification, returning to college, and keeping up with new rules and case law.
Be the one establishing systems and routines that will help your employer.
Watch for new technology, adopt it, and learn it. Never — ever — refuse to use it.
Use social media. It’s here to stay, folks, and it’s a great networking tool, as well as an excellent way to learn about new trends, technology and tools.
The bottom line? Remember that headlines are designed to grab your attention. Lately, they have caused paralegals to fear for their future.
Don’t fall for this! Instead, study and interpret the materials yourself so that you can make wise deci-sions. Then follow the steps above so your career will continue to move in the right direc-tion: forward.
Vicki Voisin, “The Paralegal Mentor”, delivers simple strategies for paralegals and other profession-als to create success and satisfaction by setting goals and determining the direction they will take their careers. Vicki spotlights resources, organizational tips, ethics issues, and other areas of con-tinuing education to help paralegals and others reach their full potential. She is the co-author of The Professional Paralegal: A Guide to Finding a Job and Career Success. Vicki publishes Paralegal Strategies, a weekly e-newsletter for paralegals, and hostsThe Paralegal Voice, a monthly podcast produced by Legal Talk Network.
More information is available at www.paralegalmentor.com where subscribers receive Vicki’s 151 Tips for Your Career Success.
