Volume 33, Number 1 Member of California Alliance of Paralegal Associations (CAPA) January 2012 Member of National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) Inside this issue: President’s Message ........................................................ 1 OCPA Net Worth............................................................... 2 OCPA Calendar ................................................................ 3 Article: Paralegal Strategies: New Year, New Start .......... 4 Superior Court Administrative Order ................................. 6 Article: OCPA 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Alicia A. Roane, CP ............................. 7 Article: Paralegal Practice Tip: Billable Hours ................... 9 Article: How the Cloud is Impacting Legal Departments within the Healthcare Industry ..................... 10-11 NALA News ...................................................................... 12 OCPA Board of Directors .................................................. 13 OCPA New Member Statistics .......................................... 14 OCPA Corporate Sponsors, Sustaining Members ............ 15 The following officers were elected to serve on the 2012 Executive Committee: Julianna Hallsted, ACP, Vice-President of Administration; Kai Wil- liamson, Vice-President of Policy; Tonya Ander- son, Secretary; Vicky La Celle, CP; Treasurer; and Maria Conzelman, CP, NALA Liaison. Julie Hallsted was re-elected as CAPA Primary and I will serve as our CAPA Secondary. We wel- come the following new directors to the 2012 board: Milady Cambare, Elizabeth Ornelas, Cindy Mascio, ACP, Lorena Hughes, Carolyn Yellis, ACP and Susan Schwartz. We’re glad to welcome back the following returning directors: Tanya Chopra, Rafia Aleem, Janine Fountain, Kerry Swancott, Julianna Hallsted, ACP, Kai Williamson, Vicky La Celle, CP, Maria Conzelman and Tonya Anderson. Finally, we say goodbye to the following directors who will not be returning this year: Ruzel Maca- daey, Frances Poseto, CP, Sheri Webb and Julie Thornton. Thank you all very much for your dedi- cation and hard work, you will be missed! Retreat: The 2012 Board of Directors and Commit- tee chairs will meet on January 14, 2012 at Boom- er’s from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the annual re- treat. We will spend the day discussing OCPA’s goals and plans for 2012, and having a great time participating in a few activities! Everyone is wel- come to attend. February Kick-Off General Meeting: On Wednesday, February 8, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Mari Frank, Esq. will discuss “Identity Theft: Protecting Yourself, Your Clients and Your Office” at the Radisson Hotel Newport Beach. The cost is $30 for members and $40 for non-members PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Happy New Year! I can’t be- lieve it’s already 2012. I am very excited and honored to be invited back as your President and I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for OCPA. Thank you to everyone who helped with the canned food drives and fundraisers this year. With your help, the OCPA was able to donate $2,575.11 to the Orange County Food Bank. Let’s strive for even more success in 2012! The Orange County Paralegal Association’s Annual Meeting, Elections and Holiday Party was held on November 16, 2011 at the Radisson Hotel Newport Beach. Hon. Robert Thomas swore in the 2012 Board of Directors and Alicia A. Roane, CP was presented with OCPA’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations, Alicia! You have made us all very proud. Disclaimer: The articles contained in this publication have been prepared for and are intended to provide information useful to members of the Orange County Paralegal Association (OCPA) and the legal professional community, at-large. The information presented is not to be taken as legal advice nor do the views represent a statement of OCPA policy. Cover Art: Courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Transcript
Volume 33, Number 1 Member of California Alliance of Paralegal Associations (CAPA) January 2012 Member of National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA)
Inside this issue:
President’s Message ........................................................ 1 OCPA Net Worth ............................................................... 2 OCPA Calendar ................................................................ 3 Article: Paralegal Strategies: New Year, New Start .......... 4 Superior Court Administrative Order ................................. 6 Article: OCPA 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Alicia A. Roane, CP ............................. 7 Article: Paralegal Practice Tip: Billable Hours ................... 9 Article: How the Cloud is Impacting Legal Departments within the Healthcare Industry ..................... 10-11 NALA News ...................................................................... 12 OCPA Board of Directors .................................................. 13 OCPA New Member Statistics .......................................... 14 OCPA Corporate Sponsors, Sustaining Members ............ 15
The following officers were elected to serve on the 2012 Executive Committee: Julianna Hallsted, ACP, Vice-President of Administration; Kai Wil-liamson, Vice-President of Policy; Tonya Ander-son, Secretary; Vicky La Celle, CP; Treasurer; and Maria Conzelman, CP, NALA Liaison. Julie Hallsted was re-elected as CAPA Primary and I will serve as our CAPA Secondary. We wel-come the following new directors to the 2012 board: Milady Cambare, Elizabeth Ornelas, Cindy Mascio, ACP, Lorena Hughes, Carolyn Yellis, ACP and Susan Schwartz. We’re glad to welcome back the following returning directors: Tanya Chopra, Rafia Aleem, Janine Fountain, Kerry Swancott, Julianna Hallsted, ACP, Kai Williamson, Vicky La Celle, CP, Maria Conzelman and Tonya Anderson. Finally, we say goodbye to the following directors who will not be returning this year: Ruzel Maca-daey, Frances Poseto, CP, Sheri Webb and Julie Thornton. Thank you all very much for your dedi-cation and hard work, you will be missed! Retreat: The 2012 Board of Directors and Commit-tee chairs will meet on January 14, 2012 at Boom-er’s from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the annual re-treat. We will spend the day discussing OCPA’s goals and plans for 2012, and having a great time participating in a few activities! Everyone is wel-come to attend. February Kick-Off General Meeting: On Wednesday, February 8, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Mari Frank, Esq. will discuss “Identity Theft: Protecting Yourself, Your Clients and Your Office” at the Radisson Hotel Newport Beach. The cost is $30 for members and $40 for non-members
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Happy New Year! I can’t be-lieve it’s already 2012. I am very excited and honored to be invited back as your President and I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for OCPA. Thank you to everyone who helped with the canned food drives and fundraisers this year. With your help, the OCPA was
able to donate $2,575.11 to the Orange County Food Bank. Let’s strive for even more success in 2012! The Orange County Paralegal Association’s Annual Meeting, Elections and Holiday Party was held on November 16, 2011 at the Radisson Hotel Newport Beach. Hon. Robert Thomas swore in the 2012 Board of Directors and Alicia A. Roane, CP was presented with OCPA’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations, Alicia! You have made us all very proud.
Disclaimer: The articles contained in this publication have been prepared for and are intended to provide information useful to members of the Orange County Paralegal Association (OCPA) and the legal professional community, at-large. The information presented is not to be
taken as legal advice nor do the views represent a statement of OCPA policy.
Cover Art: Courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
OCPA Compendium January 2012
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OCPA Compendium January 2012
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JANUARY-MARCH 2012
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Paralegal Strategies: New Year...Fresh Start
Contributed by Vicki Voisin
As 2012 begins, it's tempting to make resolutions for the New Year. Organize your office? Increase your billable hours? Lose weight? Be on time for work? Sit for a certifi-cation exam? Whatever you have in mind, read on... It's common knowledge that resolutions rarely work. All those good intentions seem to fall by the wayside by the middle of January...all that's left are guilt and regret that once again you're not able to keep your resolutions. By next December you'll be making the same resolutions all over again. It's time to change the pattern. Resolutions don't work because they're usually a very broad statement: This year I'll lose 20 pounds. This year I'll learn to speak French. This year I'll look for a new job. You've got the want down...you know what you want to do. The problem is, you're only looking at the big picture. Instead of making resolutions, set goals. A goal is some-thing you commit to fully and work toward all year long. Take a few minutes right now to visualize your top three goals for 2012. Then write those goals down on a paper. Make a plan. Once your goals are set, decide what you have to do to reach each one and then plan each step to-ward your goal from beginning to end. For instance, if you want to learn French this year your first step might to be to search for a class. The next step might be to enroll in the class. The next step might be to buy your your study materials. The next steps would be to attend each class and do your homework. Do you see how each step you take helps you reach your end goal? This process will work for any goal you might want to reach. Take this one step further. Schedule each step in your planner...make an actual appointment. This ensures you will set aside the time to accomplish each step. Don't make the mistake of putting the steps on 'to do' lists be-cause a 'to do' list is just a wish list and you will invaria-bly run out of day before you run out of list. The 'to do' list just goes on and on. Your planner is a real guide for accomplishing your goals. Your challenge: Plan to make 2012 your best year ever. Take a few minutes to set your goals. Break the goals down into achievable mini-goals. Decide when each mini-goal must be accomplished to reach the main goal by the
end of the year. Enter those mini-goals in your planner. Make appointments with yourself for completing each one. If you do your planning and then do your scheduling, you can accomplish absolutely anything you want and this time next year you'll be celebrating the fact that you actually reached your goals.
Vicki Voisin, The Paralegal Mentor, delivers simple strat-egies for paralegals and other professionals to create success and satisfaction by achieving goals and deter-mining the direction they will take their careers. Vicki spotlights resources, organizational tips, ethics issues, and other areas of continuing education to help legal professionals reach their full potential. She publishes a bi-weekly ezine titled Strategies for Paralegals Seeking Excellence. More information is available at www.paralegalmentor.com
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OCPA 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Alicia A. Roane, CP It was during a very quick dinner meeting of the Life-time Achievement Award Committee that Alicia A. Roane, CP was chosen as this year’s recipient. When the waitress came around to take our food order, the decision had already been made and we had moved on. Deciding this year’s recipient was, as you can imagine, a no-brainer. The Lifetime Achievement Award is OCPA’s highest honor, and is granted to a person who demonstrates: (a) dedication to the paralegal profession and to the progress of the OCPA; (b) contributions to the growth and development of the paralegal profes-sion; and (c) extended community development. Ms. Roane not only meets these criteria, but exceeds them by leaps and bounds. Alicia’s dedication to the paralegal profession and her ability to represent the best in the paralegal profession are just two of the many reasons that Ms. Roane was selected. In her many years in the legal field, she has shown great growth. She started her legal career as a receptionist in a small firm, and her hard work and ded-ication lead to her promotion to a paralegal position. In her current job, she plays an integral role in educating legal professionals and law enforcement officials about the practical use of DNA technology in criminal law cases. In addition to helping prosecute cases, she also works on the Innocence Panel in which convicted crimi-nals can appeal to the District Attorney's office and have their cases reviewed with the use of DNA technol-ogy. Convicted individuals have been set free after DNA technology has proven their innocence, and Ms. Roane has a role in this process as part of her job with the District Attorney's office. In fact, she was recog-nized for outstanding service to the DA’s office, and was nominated for the award by her attorneys. It is clear that the DA's office values her as an effective member of their legal team. Additionally, Ms. Roane has shown amazing dedication to the progress of the OCPA. She served on the OCPA Board of Directors for many years and has held a multi-tude of offices, including President, Student Liaison, CLA Class Instructor, and Conference Chairperson. She was instrumental in coordinating the return of the Ca-reer Conference many years ago. During her Presiden-cy, Ms. Roane also launched the Electronic Compendi-um as an option to reduce OCPA spending. This move laid the foundation for going fully electronic with the Compendium, which has allowed OCPA to offer a rec-ord number of Scholarships to our members and Or-ange County paralegal students. Through her many
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positions within the OCPA, she has certainly contribut-ed to its progress in significant and lasting ways. Demonstrating Ms. Roane’s contributions to the growth and development of the paralegal profession is an easy task. She teaches a paralegal class at Irvine Valley Col-lege, and is a regular guest speaker at for classes UCI Extension. She has also spoken about her job to entry level students at colleges all around Orange County, and to the ALA’s Legal Secretary training course, providing them with valuable insight into what it is like to work in the criminal law field. A former student of Coastline Community College herself, her commitment and leadership to all students is amazing. She volun-teers at Coastline Community College, Platt College, Santa Ana College, University of Irvine, and Irvine Val-ley College, to name a few. Students who have an inter-est in the field have also been accepted to work as in-terns with the DA's office. Ms. Roane understands the need for students to explore their interests in deciding their career paths, and she promotes the idea that they should take the time to explore different fields when they can. Furthermore, Ms. Roane serves on the Advi-sory Board of several paralegal programs in Orange County. The final criteria used to determine the recipient for a Lifetime Achievement Award is involvement in com-munity development. Not only does Ms. Roane remain active in volunteering in different capacities with the OCPA, and is a proud and dedicated member of the hard working team at the District Attorney’s office, but she also volunteers her time to mentor children several times per month. Furthermore, Ms. Roane acts as an auxiliary Board Member and regular volunteer for the Brockman Institute – an organization dedicated to providing at-risk and low-income students with hands-on experience and educational opportunities to increase their chances at success in life. It is our honor to recognize Alicia Roane, whose leader-ship with OCPA, and lifetime of dedication to others is the very purpose for the Orange County Paralegal As-sociation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Paralegal Practice Tip: Billable Hour Goals? Do the Math! Contributed by Vicki Voisin
Most firms set annual billable hour goals for attorneys and paralegal. Reaching those goals is very im-portant for a variety of reasons, the primary one being to demonstrate value to the firm. If you do not break down the billable hour goals into 'chunks,' it's a good possibility that come December 2012 you'll find yourself falling short of the goal or scrambling to do two months' time in one month. Neither is good, one is virtually impossible. Instead, you need to do a bit of math and some simple planning NOW to be sure you meet your goals 12 months from now. As always, I'm dedicated to your success!
Vicki Voisin, The Paralegal Mentor, delivers simple strategies for paralegals and other professionals to create suc-cess and satisfaction by achieving goals and determining the direction they will take their careers. Vicki spotlights resources, organizational tips, ethics issues, and other areas of continuing education to help legal professionals reach their full potential. She publishes a bi-weekly ezine titled Strategies for Paralegals Seeking Excellence. More information is available at www.paralegalmentor.com
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How the Cloud is Impacting the “Legal Departments” within the Healthcare Industry By Valeh Nazemoff. Source: CloudCommons.com As healthcare IT executives continue to explore ways to implement Cloud Computing technology into their or-ganization, there are many considerations that the over-all organization needs to consider that does not involve just the IT department. An organization that had their infrastructure in-house were setting their service level agreements (SLAs) and performance metrics between two groups; the internal IT department with the internal business lines and then with the internal IT department and 3rd party vendors (ex: Marketing department of the organization has response time from their internal IT department for certain applications and then the IT de-partment has response time from 3rd party vendors (i.e. Verizon, Cisco, HP, AT&T, etc)). Now when an organi-zation goes cloud, the organization or business line communicates with the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) who behind the scenes deals with the 3rd party vendor. The responsibility is all on the CSP no matter what their terms and conditions are with the 3rd party. Here we see that the major shift to an external provider automatical-ly draws attention to the legal departments to make sure the needs of the organization are met. Therefore it is important for legal to understand the language of Cloud Computing and be able to distinguish what is in the best interest of the organization based on the terms and conditions set forth. However, this does not start and stop with SLAs and IT performance metrics. The legal department’s need to understand cloud computing terminology is not only to protect IT, but it is also necessary to recognize and grasp the shift that will start to unfold itself within the culture of the organization as a whole. For example, the business users will start and need to use applications that are Cloud based (SaaS) due to the various features, flexibility with integration, performance delivery, and for many more reasons that will be offered by the pro-viders. These applications can be HR, health case man-agement, financial such as a payroll system, marketing, and client management type of systems. External party applications will also be a contributing factor to the way business is conducted as well. For ex-ample, a hospital case management system may need to integrate with an insurance provider’s system to send and receive data through the cloud.
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The important notation here is that while many organi-zations, including medical service providers such as hospitals or insurance, focus on the end user applica-tions and IT departments. They have not paid much attention to the importance in the involvement of their legal departments to avoid litigations and other legal issues that might arise not only from internal sources (ex: HR EEO) but external sources (ex: 3rd party legal complaint) and mandates that are formed from govern-ment or other organizations that play a huge part in the cloud’s privacy, security, and confidentiality. For organizations to be HIPAA compliant, they need to make sure that medical records and data is kept private, which is why the cloud causes some concern to healthcare professional that are considering cloud adop-tion. Can they be sure and confident that the data is kept private and know where the data is (not floating around in some international country)? Legal depart-ments need to be involved to understand the implica-tions and to make sure the 3rd party provider IS meeting compliance. Security, confidentiality, and client privacy are major concerns. The HITECH Act, which was heavily discussed at the summit, requires that cloud computing applications used by healthcare providers stick to HIPAA. HITECH would cause the legal and compliance officers of the healthcare organization to set policies and make sure that they are executed so that legal liability for non-compliance does not occur. In addition there are billions of dollars of federal incen-tives to expand the use of electronic health systems (EHRs) by 2014 with the ability to exchange information and data to and from providers. This also causes the legal departments to have a forward thinking mentality to manage risk and prevent legal issues from occurring. For example, encrypting data file transfers for health related records and preventing unauthorized access. Organizations need to prepare themselves in deciding on how and when to start implementing a new process in their workflow for when to engage legal to describe and review the cloud computing provider’s terms and conditions and the strategic initiatives for what the dif-ferent users within the organization are trying to ac-complish by incorporating cloud computing technolo-gy. Forward thinking needs to take place for how the company wants to handle a situation where the cloud provider has breached their agreement. Should there be
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a “resolution agent” prior to engaging the lawyers or paralegals? What about adding in a role where someone is re-sponsible and accountable within the organization to review the provider’s reports and cross checking that the terms and conditions are being met? Cloud computing will impact the corporate legal department’s need to manage their workload more effectively with the evolution and processes and policies need to be set in place. Legal metrics and reporting will need to be re-evaluated and customized to the specific needs of the organization based on what cloud solution is being utilized to monitor effectively. The healthcare organizations transitioning their IT and /or their business applications to the cloud need to review their overall business processes. Moving to the cloud is not just an IT solution but a solution that involves the decision and involvement of many, such as the legal departments. Valeh Nazemoff serves as Vice President of Acolyst where she is responsible for managing several multi-million dollar projects simultaneously, working with client executives in meeting their strategic initiatives, and helping them plan and roadmap their data and IT performance management while implementing industry standards, best practices, and business process improvement around GRC & Legal. She has also taught several business courses, such as business law, for the University of Phoenix (UOPHX). You can reach her at [email protected] .
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Hello from NALA! Contributed by Maria Conzelman, CP Happy New Year OCPA Members! I hope you all en-joyed the holidays with your family and friends. Facts & Findings Now in Digital Format Great news! The NALA Facts and Findings publica-tion is now in a digital format. Beginning with the November 2011 issue, NALA members can now download an advance copy of each issue of Facts & Findings in digital format. A link to the most cur-rent issue in digital format can be found on the NALA web site under Facts & Findings, current issue page. Members will be required to login with their user name and password to access the file. With this new format, members may read the mag-azine on their desktop computers, as well as mobile devices. The digital format features handy options such as live links to web sites of advertisers and search functions. Smart phone and tablet users can add a F&F icon to screens so that access to the cur-rent issue is just a touch away. The new format will not replace the print copy but is being introduced as an added feature for all members and subscribers. As each issue is re-leased, former issues will be accessible via the Facts & Findings Archives. A note about the Archives. The archive for mem-bers is a great source to use to look up articles on specific subjects, or by specific authors. This can be helpful in preparing for a class, looking up tips, or finding that one article you need which title you forgot! Access to the archives is found through the NALA Net page on the web site (under Members Area) and from the Facts & Findings tab/Facts & Findings Online. NALA Members Featured on the Paralegal Voice, Legal Talk Network! Want some tips from the experts about how to get ahead in the paralegal profession? In the November 9, 2011 edition of The Paralegal Voice, co-hosts Lynne DeVenny and Vicki Voisin, ACP joined NALA President, Karen McGee, ACP and Charlsye Smith Diaz, Ph.D., as they looked at career develop-
ment and how to advance in the paralegal profes-sion. They covered key topics including creating professional resumes, obtaining professional certi-fication, and networking at CLE programs. The program was taped October 25, 2011. You can find it using this link: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/paralegal-voice/2011/11/career-tips-how-to-advance-in-the-paralegal-profession/ Spring classes offered by NALA Campus Live NALA will start January off with another impres-sive program line up! The new courses include programs for preparation for the Certified Parale-gal Exam, and advanced programs in real estate, intellectual property, administrative law, and liti-gation. The program brochure will arrive in early January - in time for you to plan your CLE sched-ule for 2012. Registration fees are $80 per course for NALA members, and $105 for non-members. Active members: your NALA CLE Gift Certificate will cover the cost of one course. Till next month--
Maria
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Contact informa on of board members and commi ee chairs published in the Compendium are subject to the policies of OCPA. Use of contact informa on of board members or commi ee chairs for purposes of solicita on for business, personal gain, or distribu on of such informa on to third par es for the same is strictly prohibited.
If you have any questions regarding publication requirements, please contact Krystal Pazanti at [email protected]
COMPENDIUM - November/December 2012 Volume 33, Number 1
Committed to Excellence through Education,
Certification and Ethical Responsibility
The Compendium is the official publication of the Orange County Paralegal Association (OCPA) P.O. Box 8512, Newport Beach, CA 92658. Postage Paid at Newport Beach, CA.
A subscription to the Compendium is provided as a member benefit of OCPA. For further information about all the benefits
OCPA has to offer, please visit our website at www.ocparalegal.org.
