Paralegal Potpourri Friday: PD Annual Meeting, CPE, Awards, Nominations, Etc.
Happy Spring! It is (finally) time to put away those winter coats and enjoy warmer days with lots of sunshine! Take a minute to catch up on the latest news around the Paralegal Division.
Paralegal Division Annual Meeting
Registration is open for the 2018 Paralegal Division Annual Meeting and CPE. The event is being held May 4 in Pinehurst with a reception on the evening of May 3. Please note we will hold our Annual Business Meeting during the first part of lunch. Member participation is needed to approve Council Member Nominations. We will also honor the winners of the Distinguished Paralegal and Scholarship Awards.
Seeking the next group of Paralegal Division leaders
Would you like to be more engaged in the future success of the Paralegal Division? Are you looking for an opportunity to grow your leadership skills? One way is to serve on the Paralegal Division Council. The Council has general supervision and control of the affairs of the Division. The Council will meet five times between August 2018 and May 2019, including an overnight leadership retreat. We are seeking to fill four Council Member positions to serve a three-year term beginning July 1, 2018 and ending June 30, 2021. If you, or someone you know, would like to serve as a Council member, please submit your application to Annette Phelps at [email protected].
Applications will be accepted up to Friday, April 13, 2018.
2018 Distinguished Paralegal Award
Do you work with a paralegal who goes above and beyond in the office and in the community? Nominations are being sought for the 2018 Distinguished Paralegal Award through April 13. The award will be presented at the Paralegal Division Annual Meeting on May 4 in Pinehurst with further recognition provided at the 2018 NCBA Annual Meeting Awards Dinner on Thursday, June 21, at the Wilmington Convention Center. Access the nomination form here. Share this announcement with your network of attorneys! Better yet, go ahead and print out the nomination and add it to your attorney’s to-do list!
CPE Offerings
Need an hour of Ethics? Don’t forget to take advantage of two, one-hour free CPEs courtesy of the State Bar and NCBA
The Board of Paralegal Certification announced in November 2017 that NC certified paralegals may access two online, interactive one-hour trust account management CLE/CPE courses on the North Carolina Bar Association’s website. A joint project of the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Bar Association, the two courses provide the most current explanation of the management duties for a lawyer’s trust account, and each one-hour course satisfies the provision in Rule 1.15-2(s) of the Rules of Professional Conduct requiring anyone with trust account signatory authority to complete a one-hour trust account management CLE course. Each one-hour course is available through the financial support of the Board of Paralegal Certification and is free to North Carolina State Bar Certified Paralegals until further notice. The production of the courses was sponsored in part by Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company and Old Republic National Title Insurance Company.
2018 IP Institute for Paralegals
Registration is open for 2018 IP Institute for Paralegals at the NC Bar Center in Cary on Thursday, April 26, 2018! Our annual IP multi-track program covers many relevant topics for IP paralegals and administrators of all experience levels who work with patents and/or trademarks.
The seminar offers practice area-specific breakout sessions as well as ethics and technology updates, including the return of additional breakout sessions on IP Basics.
Webcasts
Our lunchtime, one-hour webcasts are returning in April! Be on the lookout for details coming soon!
Tools you can use: Public records search for neighborhood crime
Want to learn more about what is happening in your community? Check out http://communitycrimemap.com/ to check out a variety of crime metrics in your neighborhood.
Spring Cleaning
Spring is a great time to clean out your office. Besides doing a little dusting or rearranging your desk, check if your office or company has a record retention policy. Record retention policies generally describe what is considered a record, how long the record must be kept, and when you can destroy those records. Take a minute to review and follow the policy to dispose of paper (drafts, convenience copies, etc), send closed files off to external storage and more!
Paralegal Division Member Benefit: Jobs
NCBA Career Center
Our online career center averages between four to seven new North Carolina jobs a week! Job-seekers can post their resume online and receive weekly email updates on new postings, and employers with an NCBA membership receive a 15 percent posting discount.
Email questions to Tesha Blancett.