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12/27/2021 Sisters in Law ReviewRecently, 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. 10/5/2021 Software and TechnologyAren’t we sick to death of new software and the constant bombardment of scary clickbait headlines? Headlines such as: Your Client’s Data Is Under Attack – Fight Back; How to Protect Your Data; 10 Ways You Are Making Yourself Vulnerable to Hackers!
Wave after wave of new software, patches and updates and the latest rounds of multi-factor authentication. I hate multi-factor authentication. The sheer volume of texts and/or emails is enough to make me want to run away screaming. But alas and alack, here we are in the information age. We are not just bombarded by new software; we are in a constant state of software transitions and upgrades. Even the old software seems new as the way a software program works or where tools or functions are located is changed. Additionally, in the past year, we have all gone through crash courses on Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms. Personally, I did two trials by Bluejeans. We fileshare; we encrypt; we program. As paralegals, the bulk of this technological work falls to us. It falls to me to know how to use the programs we use, and how to teach the attorneys to use the programs we use. I’m the one who knows how the Zoom conferences work; I’m the one testing the limits of the Bluejeans platform. I’m the one who has done the training on the new document review software. I am the one going through the online tutorials. Tutorials for both new software, such as: Zoom Tutorials, and BlueJeans Tutorials. And tried and true software, such as: Microsoft Office Tutorials. Tutorials can be a paralegal’s best friend, answering questions we didn’t even know we had and showing us better, easier ways to do things we thought we already knew how to do. What I have learned in my time working for a law firm is that being able to work with, learn and use new programs, or upgraded old programs, exponentially increases my value to firm. This means that no matter how much I want to pull my hair out, I volunteer to be at the front of the line when it comes to software demos, trials, training sessions, and tutorials. 6/1/2021 Court Rules and ProceduresToday, I’m going to discuss court rules. When you work in civil litigation, like I do, and when you practice in two different states on both a state and federal level, doublechecking the rules becomes second nature. But, as I learned recently, searching out just the local rules is not always enough.
A couple of months ago, I made two mistakes that involved instructions that were not in the local rules. The first mistake I made was to submit the proposed Scheduling Order in the wrong manner. The local rules of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri don’t say anything about the way to submit a Scheduling Order. However, on the Western District of Missouri Local Rules webpage, under the Procedures tab there is a “CM/ECF Administration Guide” which instructs that unlike other proposed orders, which are submitted to chambers in Word, Proposed Scheduling Orders are actually filed through the CM/ECF system. There is no real way of knowing this without looking at the Administration Guide. The second mistake I made was also in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, but it was in a different case which was a minor relief. I hate making mistakes, and I certainly hate making multiple mistakes. This time it involved the MAP order. MAP is the Western District of Missouri’s “Mediation and Assessment Program.” Every civil case that’s filed in this District is subject to an order that is entered shortly after the Complaint is filed. This order compels early mediation sometimes through a Judge and sometimes parties are allowed to agree upon an outside mediator from an approved list. The order compels mediation by a certain date, and in this case we wanted to extend that deadline. So what did I do? I filed a motion for extension. However, in the MAP Order it clearly states that if the parties would like to request an extension to mediate then they have need to contact the MAP Director. Oh! if only I had read the order. Anyone who works in civil litigation knows that the rules of each jurisdiction are many and various, but we should also remember that the local rules do not always contain all the pertinent information. We all do ourselves a huge favor if we take the time to familiarize ourselves with the websites of the courts we are working in and with the phone numbers and emails to the clerk’s offices, to ensure we are actually in compliance. 4/7/2021 IntroductionHey, everybody! My name is Kate Stuart. I’m going to be taking over the HPA blog, and I thought I would start off with an introduction before we jump into the interesting stuff. I got my B.A. in English from UMKC in 2004, and I graduated from JCCC’s Paralegal Program in 2012. For about 12 years, I was self-employed, but with the 2008 downturn in the economy, I found myself in dire need of a career change. And the thing is, I had been trying to change careers for years by that point. The list of careers I had contemplated and discarded is endless. But now it was crunch time and I really needed to decide. I’m in my car one sunny afternoon, and it comes to me, out of the blue, I should be a paralegal.
Finally! A career choice I could get behind. I was so excited. I did some research and in the fall of 2010, I entered JCCC’s Paralegal Program. About a month later, I had a job at the Hollis Law Firm in Prairie Village working on medical products liability claims. In the summer of 2011, I was offered a job at Horn Aylward and Bandy (HAB) and I have been there ever since. HAB is a civil litigation firm mainly focusing on medical malpractice defense work. My team however works in class action and complex litigation. We also have a strong construction law team. Most of my posts will be about civil litigation paralegals and tips and tricks for the work we do, but if there’s a particular topic you would like me to discussed, let me know and I will do my best to accommodate. I’m excited to be here and I look forward to any feedback you care to send my way. |
AuthorKate Stuart Archives
January 2025
CategoriesCopyright Heartland Paralegal Association.
Heartland Paralegal Association is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization. |
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