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10/13/2024 0 Comments

I AM FOUNDATION

This year our annual fundraiser is for the I AM Foundation.

The I AM Foundation began with the need to lead, encourage and motivate at-risk youth and students in underserved communities to see themselves greater than their circumstances. The I AM Leadership Institute teaches at risk youth skills to help them rise above their circumstances. They are taught about money management, the value of real estate, how to assess and overcome obstacles they encounter and so much more. The Foundation strives to teach these students transferable skills related to real world experiences. (Learn more at: https://theiamfoundation.org/)

We had the privilege of hearing the founder of I AM Foundation, Elijah Dormeus, speak at our Summer Social. He had to overcome so many hurdles growing up. He faced the struggles of poverty and racism, growing up in circumstances that were far less than ideal. And he didn’t just talk about overcoming his own challenges. He paid homage to the people in his life that helped him succeed. It was a powerful message. He truly believes in not only finding your own inner courage and sense of worth, but when you find it, using it to lift others up with you. Elijah’s passion and enthusiasm are infectious and we are excited to be raising funds to help such a worthy cause.

We will be collecting donations through our Winter Social including at our Fall Seminar being held on Nov. 1. If you haven't signed up, please make sure you check out our amazing line up of speakers for that event. (https://www.heartlandparalegalassociation.org/events.html#!event-list)

We would love to see you there!

HPA matches the total donations up to $500.00. So bring your checkbooks!

Or you can donate online here: Annual Fundraiser Online Donation

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7/9/2024

Our New President

As many of you know, the Heartland Paralegal Association just elected our officers for the 2024/2025 year. I want to take a few minutes to introduce you to our new President, Jennifer Kempf. Many of you may have met her already. She has become increasingly involved in our organization since joining in 2021. Last year, she served as Vice President 1, and this year she has stepped up to the plate as President.

Jennifer has had a varied career. She started out as a tele-researcher in a call center updating white pages (which I think sounds fascinating), but her favorite jobs were tennis instructor and working at the County Clerk’s office issuing marriage licenses, filing DD-214s and issuing handicap licenses. “Two completely different jobs but both were so much fun.” She loves the work of being a paralegal, the way each day, each case, each client are all different with different needs and requiring the use of different skill sets.

She started her paralegal career in Arizona. In 2018, she left Arizona for Kansas to be closer to family. She started working at Creative Planning where she specializes in estate planning. She gets a special satisfaction from helping people create their estate plans and giving them the power to say what will happen to their estate after they die. She loves it so much that in 2017, she became an Advanced Certified Paralegal in Estate Planning.

She earned her CP through NALA in 2016. Jennifer finds having her CP valuable due to the extra knowledge and continual learning that is provided through NALA. She also enjoys meeting other paralegals at the annual conference and the invaluable network opportunities provided.

Our new president volunteers regularly with the I AM Foundation (https://theiamfoundation.org/home/). The mission of the foundation is to lead, encourage, and motivate at-risk youth and students in underserved communities to see themselves greater than their circumstances. The opportunities that they are providing these students to help themselves grow and learn is absolutely amazing and encouraging. To be a part of these students’ lives even for one day to show you care and are there to help and spend time with them is so rewarding. If anyone wants to volunteer with them at any time, reach out to Jennifer and she will get you information.

Jennifer also enjoys traveling and reading. While she wants to visit as many places as possible, her favorite trip, so far, was to England and Scotland for a Criminal Justice course she took in college. She learned about the United Kingdom’s laws, court system, forensic labs, and prison systems. “The people were amazing over there and it was so much fun to be able to sightsee on the trip while learning.”

Jennifer is an inveterate reader. Her favorite genres are mysteries and horrors and she’s always looking for new recommendations. As with any bookworm, picking a favorite author is nearly impossible, but her go-to authors are Laurel K. Hamilton and Darcy Coates. Recently, she has been captivated by Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing series and she can’t wait for the third book to come out in that series.

We have several opportunities for you to meet Jennifer. We have a CLE meeting on July 24 where Valerie Sprout will teach about Immigration Law and our ever popular summer social will be in August. Come on out and let Jennifer introduce herself!

4/6/2024

Joining the HPA (My story)

I know that when I started writing this blog, I introduced myself, but I did not say how or why I came to the HPA and I thought I would take a little time to tell that story too.

After I graduated from the Paralegal Studies program at Johnson County Community College, I found myself missing the interactions with fellow paralegals. I also missed learning about different areas of the law, both seeing how it differed from the class action/complex civil litigation field that I worked in, and the intersections, where I could learn about different tools, and areas and tasks that helped me in my own work. I attended some meetings at the various paralegal professional organizations in Kansas City, and I enjoyed those experiences. Technically, I’m not eligible for membership in the KPA because I live and work in Missouri, though they were all very lovely to me when I attended events and I think they would have been willing to try to find an exception for me (and presumably for anyone else who wanted to join). The KCPA is very large and I always felt a little overwhelmed there. Though, I was never made to feel unwelcome. If I had the time, I would probably join all three.

In the end, I chose the Heartland Paralegal Association. I attended JCCC’s paralegal program back in the day when Anita Tebbe was in charge. For those of you who don’t know, Anita Tebbe was the heart of the program for decades until her retirement, and I had the great pleasure of taking several classes she taught. Of course, when she retired, I attended her retirement party and there I met Tomi Holt. We got to talking and she invited me to attend an HPA meeting. Tomi just made me feel so warm and welcome, and I took her up on the invitation and haven’t looked back.

I’ve been involved with the HPA in one capacity or another for the better part of 10 years, and I always enjoy being involved with the HPA. The HPA isn’t a large organization but in some ways, I feel like this just means its members are more dedicated and it’s easier to make the connections I’m looking for in a professional networking organization. I enjoy attending meetings, happy hours, and outreach events, and over the years, I have met and connected with so many people from all over the legal world in Kansas City (and beyond). And I hope that I make all our guests feel as welcome as Tomi made me feel.

1/5/2024

Happy New Year!

Looking back, 2023 has been a great year for the Heartland Paralegal Association! We had a full slate of community outreach projects. In the spring, we worked on building a ramp with HopeBuilders for an east Kansas City homeowner that made it possible for her to stay in her home. This summer we helped out at Flourish Furnishings, a not-for-profit furniture bank which helps the housing insecure make homes.

We had some great CLE presentations: Bradley Farris taught us about real estate and the sticky legal scenarios that can come up in real estate transactions. Jennifer Kempf helped us navigate the line between being a useful paralegal and being guilty of the Unauthorized Practice of Law. The Fall Seminar had a fabulous slate of speakers including Jerry Bell (Elder Law and planning for retirement); Anne Bradley (civil rights in public education), and Darryl Burton who shared his harrowing story of being wrongfully convicted by an indifferent criminal justice system and incarcerated for decades in an aggressively hostile penal system before being acquitted.

We weren't all work and no play! We had two fantastic socials: the Winter Social in February and our Summer Social in July. It's been great to get out and catch up with old friends and meet new people face-to-face.

And we are working on an equally spectacular 2024. We're lining up some great speakers to teach us about all sorts of relevant and timely topics. Keep your eyes open for upcoming announcements on those events.

We are also in full swing starting the New Year off right with our Winter Social on January 30. Join us at the Brew Lab for appetizers and drinks and a chance to meet your fellow paralegals!

Register Here! 2024 Winter Social

We are also presenting our annual fundraiser donations to the Alzheimer's Association. It's not too late to donate. If you are a member, you may donate online Annual Fundraiser Donation. You may also send your donations to Kate Stuart (c/o Horn Aylward & Bandy, LLC, 2600 Grand Blvd., Ste. 1100, Kansas City, MO 64108). Or you may bring your donations to the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

Here's to a sociable and connected 2024!

10/11/2023

Word Formatting Tips

A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a colleague and I mentioned that I am a fan of the single space between sentences (rather than two spaces), because I can use the find and replace function to change two spaces to one, but “finding and replacing” one space with two is slightly more problematic (even finding a period followed two spaces and replacing it with a period followed by one space is problematic). My colleague was surprised because she had never realized that you could find an replace the number of spaces. She thought that the find and replace function was restricted only to words or alpha-numeric combinations. And I thought, how many people don’t know this?

It's true that you can find and replace almost anything using the find and replace function in a Word document: text, numbers, two spaces with one space, ASCII quotes with curvy quotes, a hard return for a paragraph return.

Other functions I am a big fan of in Word are the ruler to set my paragraph return indentations, the line spacing function in the “Paragraph” pop up menu; and the orphan/widow function also in the “Paragraph” pop up menu.

First, I just love being able to set the paragraph indent tab on the ruler and then not have to think about it. Second, I love to have standard paragraphs that are double spaced, but to have the block quotes be single spaced with the 12 font gap at the end of them without the extra paragraph return. When I click the “¶” button, I want my formatting to be as clean as possible without a lot of extra spaces or paragraph symbols.

Another thing that helps this cause is, of course, the widow/orphan function. Have you ever wanted to keep your signature block all together or the title of the section with the first paragraph of that section? Well, the widow/orphan control is your friend. In the “Paragraph” pop up menu, it is under the “Line and Page Breaks” tab. If there’s a section title that you would like to keep with the section, you put your cursor at the section title and from the menu, you click “Keep with next” and suddenly you don’t have to do anything to keep the section title with the first paragraph of the section, Word automatically keeps them together. If there’s a signature block and you want to keep all the lines together, choose the entire signature block and from the menu, chose “Keep lines” together, and voila. You never have to worry about your signature block breaking across a page break again.

There are a lot of things about Word that I find frustrating and difficult to use. If you use the Table of Contents function, or do any sort of outline-type formatting, you know the pain of trying to get text to automatically format, or conversely to get Word to stop automatically formatting text. But sometimes, Word gets it right, and these four functions are simple automatic formatting functions that make my copy-editing heart go “squee.”

7/3/2023

Search Terms

Today, I want to discuss search terms. In my position, as a civil litigation paralegal, I spend a lot of time searching for all sorts of information on people, companies, issues, news stories. You name it, I’ve probably searched for it.
While each of these types of searches requires their own set of skills, for the most part assembling the terms for the search is fairly standard.

Now, we’ve all taken the class, watched a webinar, or listened to a software developer’s presentation about assembling search terms, using connectors, using each and every one of those “Advanced Search” features. However, I find that so often the complicated searches only really work if you already know what you’re looking for. If, for instance, you know there is an email sent on a specific date, from a specific person, with a particular re: line, then these search terms and connectors can be invaluable timesavers. But for the general or preliminary searches, advanced searches can screen out relevant information resulting in less productive “hits.”

I find the fewer search terms I use, the better. Most of the time when using one or two words, instead of a whole math equation of connectors and unique identifiers, I find information that broadens my understanding of the case. More importantly, it is not uncommon for me to find information that is relevant and pertinent that would have been screened out by a narrower search.

So, by all means, learn how to use connectors, explore the advanced search options, but don’t feel tied to them. Remember that vague and broad have the potential to be exponentially more valuable than specific and narrow. Even if the broader search is too broad, reviewing a few of the results can give you useful terms to use to narrow down the search.

2/24/2023 0 Comments

Tips for Trial

by: Kate Stuart

I’ve been a paralegal for 12 years now, and for a little over 11 of those, I have worked in civil litigation. But until 2020, I had only ever actually attended 1 trial, and that was a bench trial. In 2020 and 2021, I had 4 trials, all of them were bench trials and 3 of them happened over either BlueJeans or Zoom.

2022 was my breakout year for jury trials. I attended 2 jury trials; one of the was a 4-day trial and the other was a 5-day trial. As I navigated my way through this process, I thought that you might find what I’ve learned useful.

I have three “pro tips.” First, be organized. Be organized. The attorney that you are supporting will be working 18+ hours a day. They will be constantly bombarded with questions and thoughts and interruptions by the client; they will be trying to keep up with the witnesses and the evidence presented by the other side. When they ask for something, they may not even be super coherent. Do what you can to help them out. Organization will make your job easier; it will make their job easier.

Second, test your equipment. If you are going to be using any tech at the court house, ignore the fact that the equipment you are using is the exact same equipment you used the last time and that the set up is the exact same set up you used last time. Test your equipment. In courthouses like the Federal courthouses, or like in the new Johnson County, Kansas courthouse, there are multiple options for presenting exhibits, and these options are best explored before the jury is sitting there waiting for the exhibit to come up. I know that this is a rookie mistake, and therefore, I’m sure it should be emphasized all the more.

My third “pro tip”: prioritize researching jurors. Practice researching people, just random people. Know the ends and outs of looking people up on CaseNet, Pacer, Kansas District Court Public Access site, through a search engine and, of course, on as many social media sites as possible. Know how to use these sites as efficiently as possible. Juror lists usually come down at the last minute and you have minimal time to do any research on these random citizens that will decide the outcome of your client’s case. But don’t stop when the jury is selected; spend some time getting to know the public presence of your jurors. Again, this group of people will be in charge of determining the outcome of the case. It’s only polite to make this experience as relatable as possible to them.

These are my “pro tips” for successfully navigating a jury trial. Feel free to leave your own pro tips in the comments.

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10/6/2022

Memos

As paralegals we will often be asked to present information in written format, whether it be a quick email or a more formal memo or something in between. I cannot stress enough the importance of clean, concise writing; the use of good, readable font; and copy editing.

A memo, properly, should hark back to those 5-paragraph essays we all wrote in the seventh grade. They provide a solid structure and keep tight boundaries on the scope of the writing.

As Dale Carnegie said, tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said. More than anything, particularly in the context of a memo, this lets your boss know the key conclusion right up front.

Make your memo easy to read. Make sure the font you are using is clean and crisp. A year or so ago, there was a big buzz to make Garamond the new standard font. Garamond is a pretty font, but it lacks crispness and is a little difficult to read for long periods of time. This is something to keep in mind, particularly if you’re a little younger. The older people in your office are going to have problems reading certain fonts. Also, remember is this is a motion to be filed, some courts have rules regarding which font types are acceptable.

And last, though not least, copy edit. Don’t just copy edit your spelling and grammar, but pay attention to your spacing; are you using the same type of justification along all your paragraphs; are you using n-dashes or m-dashes; are your ellipses all the same (either … or . . .)? These are little things that your boss may not even notice, but if they do notice then it will be an annoyance and detract from your message.

4/12/2022

When Attorneys Aren't Reading Your Emails

You know that satisfying feeling when you’ve crafted the perfect email? It says all you want it to say and so eloquently. You send it to your attorney. You wait for a response. You wait some more for a response.

Then you break down and ask your attorney about the email, and they haven’t even read it. “Oh,” they say, “why don’t you just tell me what it says,” they say.

I feel your pain. The desire to sputter and protest. All that time! All those beautiful words! Wasted on a troglodyte who apparently doesn’t read.

Alas! Attorneys are never going to read the long, eloquent, beautifully-crafted email. When it comes to the people who have all the attention span of a five year old on a sugar high, short emails rule.

Here are a few tips to increase the chances that your boss will pay attention to, and maybe even read, your email:
Tip #1: Put the most important information at the very top.

Attorneys are not going to wade through groundwork information to get to the nut. Even if the groundwork is essential for understanding the issue. However, if they read the important information, they may go on to read the rest of the email. Maybe. If it’s not too long and is in easily digestible chunks.

Tip #2: Short sentences. The fewer the words, the better.

Tip #3: Short paragraphs. The more white space, the better.

No matter how much I love the beautiful words and even more the beautiful sentences, one essential key to effective communication is to know your audience. When your audience is an attorney?

Hone your verbal communication skills.

12/27/2021

Sisters in Law Review

Recently, I read Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman.

Hirshman did a nice job fleshing out the women’s rights movement as a backdrop for O’Connor’s and Ginsberg’s experiences and tying that context to their opinions and their work at the Supreme Court.

Hirshman covers O’Connor and Ginsberg from their early lives and education through their time on the Supreme Court particularly in the context of the work they did individually and together on the Court. Of course, O’Connor and Ginsberg were not very much alike. O’Connor grew up on a ranch in the West; Ginsberg grew up in a city on the East Coast. O’Connor was conservative; Ginsberg was liberal. O’Connor spent years working in the Arizona legislature, hardly “practicing” law at all. Ginsberg worked in academia and practiced law at the ACLU.

What I loved most about this book was the way that, though Hirshman was obviously a bigger fan of Ginsberg, she understood and showed that O’Connor’s appointment to the Supreme Court was just as beneficial to women. Hirshman discussed the ways in which O’Connor helped women’s rights just by being a voice at the table. The primary purpose of the book was to show the ways in which Ginsberg and O’Connor were essential to the progress of women’s rights, and equality in general, during their time on the Court.

If you’re a fan of Ginsberg, there wasn’t a whole lot of new material here. If you’re a fan of O’Connor, this book might be something of a disappointment. Hirshman obviously struggled with O’Connor’s legacy. But I would say, it’s still worth reading such an insightful and illuminating discourse on the legacy of the first two women on the Supreme Court.

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