Leading the Way - June 2009
In This Issue:
We Can Educate Ourselves From the Experience of Others and/or the Examples They Set.
For example: Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln is remembered as the 16th President of the United States. Before becoming President, however, Lincoln was a lawyer. He had a very diverse practice, taking every kind of claim or dispute imaginable in Illinois. He handled debt actions, divorces, slander lawsuits, and replevin cases involving horses and mules up to and after his famous debate with Stephen Douglas. Lincoln was a trial lawyer and tried more than 1,000 cases to jury verdicts. He used facts, humor, fairness, and simplicity of language to argue effectively before judges and juries. He practiced in log cabins, simple frame buildings, the Illinois Supreme Court, the federal courts in Springfield and Chicago, and even the United States Supreme Court. While Lincoln’s docket would be familiar to lawyers practicing today, not many modern lawyers would be comfortable with such a diverse practice.
If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times. You need to be careful about what you post on the internet! That includes the new NALS Community, too. The NALS Community is new and improved and it's a great place for our members to ask for information, share information, get to know more about your fellow NALS members and vice versa, and get more involved with NALS. It truly is a benefit for our members and we encourage each of you to register and participate. However, as with all social networking sites, you need to proceed with a little caution.
We have all heard someone say “Oh, this is just a job – it’s not my career.” I know you have heard it mentioned time and time again. Do you consider your employment as a legal professional a “job” or a “career?”
Marketing Yourself to Your Employer
To live is to sell. Sounds cold, but it’s true. Personal salesmanship begins in childhood. We hone our salesmanship skills throughout our lives, but need to put these particular skills to work in other areas.
Career salesmen know that you sell yourself first, then the product. People buy feelings. They value -- and pay more for -- the way you make them feel. So, if you “sell” yourself properly, then what is being bought is the way you make your boss or supervisor feel, i.e., you are a competent and trustworthy team player, a valuable member of the firm.
The season of attending our Regional meetings is upon us. We are all encouraged to attend these meetings, but being the professionals we are, we must be prepared. As always, as members of NALS, certified or not, we aspire to uphold our professionalism to the greatest degree possible. We must strive at all times to be law abiding citizens.
To that end, here are some tidbits you might want to consider for your travels.
Every chapter, state, and region does fundraising. As they say, “it is a fact of life.” Fundraising is the creative, energizing, thoughtful-provoking, hard working, never-ending experience of generating much needed funds to establish a scholarship, to develop a new idea or program, to fund an officer to attend a NALS conference or as simple as increasing your much needed treasury.
How Does Paralegal Regulation Affect YOU?
Paralegal regulation is increasingly affecting legal professionals in the 21st century and creates unique challenges wherever it is implemented. Although only a handful of states have followed through on regulating the paralegal profession, there are several other states that are striving for regulation. There is a good chance that in the future, the states that failed to regulate paralegals on the first attempt will try again to do so. Many believe that regulation is one of the most vital issues affecting paralegals in the future.
Excellence: NALS Members in Print
I have once again been prevailed upon to write a column on behalf of the NALS
Text Development Committee, and because of the nature of the work we are doing
this year, I am reminded how many of our members commit themselves to print
each year and how huge their contribution is. You may not be aware how
much writing is actually going on out there, so let me update you:
To toot the Text Development Committee’s horn and get it out of the way, this national committee each year updates one of the NALS textbooks, the Basic Manual for the Lawyer’s Assistant or the Advanced Manual for the Lawyer’s Assistant. A thorough review process including technical review by attorneys and other qualified individuals to assist in keeping our content current and careful proofreading by the committee keeps these books fresh and valuable for those who seek certification or merely information about work in the legal workplace.