The Year Ahead For NALA, Plus A Preview Of The 2024 Conference

Episode Notes

Transcript

Jill Francisco:

Welcome back to the Paralegal Voice. It’s Jill Francisco and my awesome co-host, Tony Sipp. Hey Tony.

Tony Sipp:

Hi.

Jill Francisco:

So happy to be back together here. We’ve been busy out and about and we’re back together. And then we are super excited to have with us today Vanessa Finley, CEO of NALA. Woo.

Vanessa Finley:

Hey, I’m so glad to be back. Yay.

Jill Francisco:

Yes, it’s our annual tradition.

Vanessa Finley:

Indeed.

Jill Francisco:

We brought Vanessa on today. I’m sorry, let me just go ahead and say this. I call her Vanessa just because that’s what I’ve called her and it’s just I’m a problem child, so I can’t get over it. But there’s another Vanessa that works in our NLA headquarters, and so Vanessa has taken on Vinny, yes.

Vanessa Finley:

And Vanessa was there for, has been there now 25 years. So I wasn’t going to bold in and say you find a nickname.

Jill Francisco:

She definitely has the seniority. So just for our listeners, if I’m saying Vanessa, I’m talking about Vinny. If I’m saying Vinny, I’m talking about Vanessa. So we’re so excited to have Vanessa here with us and we’re going to talk about a lot of things, Nala, but we’re obviously going to highlight our awesome annual conference and expo that’s coming up in July. We want to hurry up and get all this information to our listeners because we have some deadlines that they can get, some good deals and some new options that we’re going to have Vanessa explain. So Vanessa, why don’t you just tell us a little intro about the conference coming up in July?

Vanessa Finley:

Alright, so it is our 49th annual conference, so that means next year’s our 50th, so we are excited, but 49th conference for Nala and we are in Louisville, I’m sorry, Louisville. Louisville, you’re supposed to say it.

Jill Francisco:

Louisville. I mean, who knows?

Vanessa Finley:

I’ve been corrected multiple times. I think it’s, I’ve been told, if you say Louisville or even Louisville, you are clearly not from that place. Yes, but Louisville, Kentucky, July 11th, 12th, and 13th, and we have 14.5 CLEs that you can get while attending the conference itself. And as in the past two years, we are hybrid and that means that you can attend virtually or in person and if you attend in person, part of your registration gives you full access to the recording bundle of all of the CLEs that are being provided. They’re usually ready about September. You can then have those for a full year to access all of the CLEs, even those that you weren’t able to attend in person. We have a fantastic keynote speaker this year who’s going to be talking about AI and the role of AI within the legal profession, how paralegals are going to be impacted and frankly, how we’re all going to be impacted.

She has her AI clone that she’s going to be talking about and sharing. So I’m intriguing you with that. I’m not going to tell you anymore because I want you to come and learn about it. And then of course, probably one of the more exciting things is our charity this year is for Hank’s sake, and Hank the Horse is the namesake of that charity and they focus a lot on children’s literacy, supporting veterans, doing all kinds of things around the holidays and helping families. And that is the charity we’ve selected this year so that those who attend, we ask if you consider providing a donation and supporting the cause. And Hank’s going to be there. You all going to get to meet Hank? He’s going to be there all three days. I am so excited now met Hank and I’m in love. And so definitely want to encourage you guys to come because it’ll be a great opportunity. Obviously you’ll be able to get pictures and things like that too. That’s

Jill Francisco:

Super fun.

Vanessa Finley:

So serious stuff and fun stuff. Come and enjoy it all.

Jill Francisco:

So let me just touch on one thing. I’m going to have Vanessa go back in there. I know she has a little bit more to tell us, but I think that I want to give Nala and Vanessa a big shout out because to make sure that everybody understands the absolute value of if you pay to go in person and you get your 14.5 CLEs or maybe you’re enjoying the social aspect a little too much or normal for some of us and you don’t exactly get your 14.5 in person, then you are going to get, like Vanessa said, all those recordings. And in the past, those who are veteran Nala attenders or just connected with Nala for many years know that that used to be a whole other huge expense almost. Basically to pay the exact same amount that you pay for registration. Now that is included, which is just phenomenal.

That was Vanessa’s brainchild. I love her for that. She knows I called her five minutes after it was released. I was like, this is amazing. Because somebody can get that 47 credits. I mean, you only need 50 to get to renew for five years to renew your CLE, renew your certification through NA. But the other thing is it provides me, what I love the best is that I always had to choose when I came to conference, you have to choose. You sit down, you’re excited to choose, you choose what you want to go to and you’re excited whether it relates to your field or whether you’re like, Hey, I’m going to learn something new, however you choose. But the big thing is now you don’t have to choose. It’s amazing that then I can come home and I’m sitting there and instead of listening to a podcast or instead of listening to watching a show or whatever, you can just play that and it’s amazing. Then you can just be like, who cares? Or honestly, if you don’t like it, hey, sorry guy, I’m done. I’m not listening to your speaking anymore. You can move on and

Vanessa Finley:

No skin off your nose,

Jill Francisco:

Right? It’s just phenomenal. I to just emphasize the greatness and the value of that. I mean, it’s just phenomenal. It really is. So kudos. Kudos. I love it.

Vanessa Finley:

Wonderful. We aim to please

Jill Francisco:

Just back up a little bit about how the virtual and how the in-person, because I don’t like people that they get confused on if it’s everything that aspect.

Vanessa Finley:

Absolutely. So last year we had a little bit of confusion because we tried to communicate to the two groups in the same way. And we’re like, okay, wait a minute. We really do need to break out the way we talk with our virtual people and our in-person people because people were getting confused which ones are live, which ones can I see and which ones can’t I. So number one, obviously we do have that. The main schedule, if you go onto our website, which is nala.org n ala.org, on that banners, that is the conference. So you can just click on the main banner, but you can also get to it through education dropdown, but you’ll have actually many versions of the agenda there. And the reason is that we have many different types of people attending. We also have single day passes. So if you can only come Thursday or Friday or Saturday, or you only want to come to the one day because you found something very interesting on that schedule and you’re there in the area, by all means can do a single day pass as well.

So all those agendas are broken down by who you are as an attendee. But in general, the way it is set up is that for all the CLE sessions that we have, so the day one is when we have the annual meetings and we have our leadership panel, we have our keynote, we have our big CLE during lunchtime. We’re all together on that Thursday that day one, and then that’s day two and day three. Friday and Saturday is more breaking into those individual CLE sessions. You get to pick, as Jill was saying, be frustrated that you can only go to one, but then realize, okay, I can get it on the recording. So I’m okay. So we will have five of those sessions going on at a time, and three of those five will be broadcast live stream to those who are attending virtually. So I strongly, strongly, strongly encourage you to get familiar with the agenda, understand where the icons are, the live icons and things like that so you fully understand which ones you can and can’t attend as a virtual attendee. And of course if you’re in person, you get to pick any and all right,

And we’d like you to come in person, but if you cannot, please attend virtually.

Jill Francisco:

And thanks for that, Vanessa, because like I said, I want people to understand, I mean, maybe there is a rhyme or reason. I’m obviously not on the inside of Nala as I used to be, but to choose which ones are live. I think all the cp,

Vanessa Finley:

All of the, so we have a single CP track, and yes, all of those are going to be live streamed. You are teaching two of those, I understand, right?

Jill Francisco:

Yes. I’m teaching different ones this year. I don’t know what you guys are doing. I’m doing ethics and American legal system this year, so I’m super excited about that. I always put a big emphasis on ethics, whether you just started yesterday or whether you’ve been here for 27 years, or Tony, how long you been around 17 years? It’s like ethics, ethics, ethics all the time every year. So anyway, I’m excited to be teaching that and sharing that, but it’s a good to know that virtual or in person, you can get all the cp. So if you’re coming to prepare for the exam for that purpose, you’re good to go whether you’re in person or on virtual. But the other ones, I mean, I don’t know, how do you choose?

Vanessa Finley:

Well, we choose because, well, we try, well, I don’t know if you recall you old timers, right? As we say, who’ve been around for a minute.

Jill Francisco:

Thank you. So

Vanessa Finley:

We used to, you’ll have every session was repeated twice or was repeated at least once, sorry. So provided twice so that people could hit that one that they couldn’t get in the other session. Now you might be a little more frustrated to find that maybe you can’t hit every single one you want to hit, but that’s because we have so much going on. We have so many different opportunities, so many different types of people attending that are coming to conference for all kinds of different reasons. We have the round tables that will be going on during lunch like we did last year. And so you have to pick and choose because you just simply can’t do it all. So the way we choose for the live stream is we try really hard to hit almost every session being delivered in a live stream at some point. I think we had one that maybe won’t hit the live stream, but we really tried to make sure that at some point during those three days, you’re going to be able to access each one of the sessions.

Jill Francisco:

That’s great. I should have known that Vanessa had a rhyme or reason. But anyway, let’s take a quick break here to thank our sponsors and we’ll be right back. Welcome back to the Paralegal Voice. I’m Jill Francisco here with my co-host, Tony Sipp, and we are talking to Vanessa Finley, the CEO from Nala. We were just rounding up all the awesome opportunities, CLEs social network, so much fun. This is a fun and learning experience. I can’t even emphasize that enough, but Vanessa needs to tell us about how everybody can get to attend, whether it’s virtual in person, however you can do it. She’s going to tell us the best ways to get a good deal and to make sure you get signed up in time.

Vanessa Finley:

Alright, so obviously it all starts by going to our website, which is nala.org. nala.org. Again, main banner will be the conference, but also under education, you’ll see the conference link in there, you’ll see a number of cards that you can select that are broken down by all the different components of the conference. And obviously in there is a registration one. So that’s where you go to register. If you register by May 10th, you get the early bird discount. So now’s the time. You’ve got a couple of weeks, I think now until May 10th, and you want to go ahead and get yourself registered because you do get a nice discount by doing it early for those who are attending virtually. If you order the bundle, which is that package bundle that I talk about, all those people in person will get at no cost. If you are a virtual attendee, you get it at a significant discount and you save you 50 more dollars if you actually purchase it before the conference itself.

So we’re really trying to find ways for you to be able to get in there. So if you’re virtual, you can go and sign up as virtual, purchase the bundle in advance, get that $50 discount and I think you’ll be pleased at the price that you’ll pay for all of that information and all that access. And if you’re having any problems at all, please don’t hesitate to call us or email us. We have membership services reps at the ready. Truly if you get our voicemail, it is really because we are on another call talking to someone or maybe we might be all in a meeting. That could be the case too, but we are just simply not available to grab the phone that second, we will get your recording. Please don’t hang up, leave a message. We will get back with you. Don’t just keep trying to hit get us leave a message, we will call you back.

And then of course you can also email us [email protected]. So we are glad to answer any questions that you have if you’re trying to save even a little bit more. If you take advantage of our group rate, so five or more folks from the same entity. So even an affiliated association can claim this group discount if they’re there representing their association, but five or more from the same entity company, you get $50 off of each registration, not after five, but all of them that are five or more. Trick is before May 10th. If you want to do group, you’re going to get a nice discount. And if you want to go ahead and order bundle in advance, if you’re virtual, do it in advance as well. That is going to be your absolute best savings.

Jill Francisco:

Well, those are awesome. I’m super excited. Tony has been a virtual attendee in the past. He could talk about how he felt about that just in case there’s somebody that’s on the fence or whatever. And then Tony’s going to be in person this year, super excited. And so Tony, maybe just touch on that so our listeners can kind of get a feel of both aspects. I mean obviously I was virtual too because those of that don’t know. I had to do the first virtual conference. I’m still nervous about it. My hands are still sweating, but I feel like it got us off because who knows if we would’ve ever gone

Vanessa Finley:

Virtual

Jill Francisco:

Or hybrid. It’s so scary. Believe me, Vanessa and I were scared. I mean we were scared, scared.

Vanessa Finley:

We were terrified.

Jill Francisco:

We were terrified. We thought, who knows, this would be great or this is going to go up and smoke. But anyway, it was actually the highest attendance. It was great that we had ever, and honestly, just think in your mind Vanessa, and I said, find the positives. Just think in your mind no matter what, no matter how our education reached more paralegals and that’s the bottom line. I don’t care if you were in the next room and just didn’t want to come over and join us, I don’t care. As long as you were on there and got the education, that’s our purpose. And so it made Vanessa and I super happy, super pleased that we reached more paralegals. So I was scared to death doing the virtual. Hopefully Tony had a better experience doing the virtual.

Tony Sipp:

Be honest with you, that was my first time being president and I followed your lead. I’m like, okay. So I reached out to Nala and I was like, who did you use for the virtual conference? I was trying to figure that out. Oh, that’s right. I forgot about that Tony. So I was just like, oh, let me find this guy. It didn’t necessarily work out, but it was just something that we managed. We had some really, really excellent paralegals, part of the team that excelled in Zoom, and so we were able to do a virtual conference, definitely not in virtual conference successfully. I really wanted to do in person. So I tried to do last year but didn’t work out. But this year I am definitely going down there and I’m just looking forward to that. I’ve met so many speakers. I know Jill’s going to be a speaker.

I know some of my other friends are going to be speakers that are representing their associations and being part of Nala. So I’m really happy to be there this year. So I really can’t express that enough. I understand some people can’t necessarily make it that year and they might have to do what I did. Do the virtual. If you can do the one day pass, if you’re somewhere nearby, do it. I think it’s worth that experience, but it’s, it’s going to be exciting knowing Jill, knowing you. I’m not worried about how good it’s going to be. That’s not my concern. It’s just like how much am I going to learn and from who and what topics. I’m looking forward to it. I know the agenda’s already up so you can see who’s actually going to be presenting and on what folks, if you don’t have a chance to actually do it in person, do it virtually. But if you can do it in person before May 10th, get your hotel, get your flight, get all that stuff and transportation and make it work. So I’m excited to be there. I’m excited to see you, Jill, in person, Vanessa, to see you in person. I’m really excited to see.

Jill Francisco:

Well, and this is the first conference I think I’ve been going for 23 years, maybe 24 years. Crazy. I think I joined Nala in 2002 and then maybe 2003 was my first conference or something like that. So I’m up there, but this is the first conference I can legit easily drive to. If you weren’t aware. If you weren’t aware, I’m in Huntington, West Virginia, and I live actually at basically exit one. So the next exit on Highway 64 is Kentucky. So I can literally throw stones to Kentucky basically across the river. We’re in Ohio, so that’s why we got the Tri-state area, but it’s literally a little over two hours. That is awesome. So super excited. NALA’s getting a deal. They don’t have to pay me that much to get me over there, as in somebody coming from a further distance. But anyway, yeah, definitely in person, but however you can get there, get there. So just for the record, we will post on, when we post this show, we’ll get all the links and we’ll get Vanessa’s contact information along with mine along with Tony’s. So you guys will have all these links and everything. So you can easily reference after you listen to the podcast to come back and click on those and easily get to these places that we’re telling you to go.

Vanessa Finley:

And may I make a shameless plug, Jill?

Jill Francisco:

Yes, please do. Please do.

Vanessa Finley:

Okay. So Nala is a nonprofit organization and we really do truly try to do things at the best lowest cost we can, but the greatest value to our members. We are very diligent about being good stewards of our members’ dollars. Part of how we can do what we do without breaking the bank for you guys is our sponsors. And so if there’s anybody listening or anybody who’s engaged with sponsors to companies that are eager to get in front of paralegals because who are the influencers in that law department or that law firm? It’s the paralegals. When they’re looking for software, they’re looking for a new program, a new system who’s doing that research of the paralegals who’s probably making the recommendation of what they should decide of the paralegal. So you want to get in front of paralegals if you have something related to the legal industry. So I put a plug out there. Also on the website are ways that you can sponsor, be an exhibitor. If you’re in the Louisville area, we’re going to have a sip and shop and be able to feature some local businesses so people can come and shop your goods and wares.

Jill Francisco:

That’s fun.

Vanessa Finley:

And that’s how we can make it affordable for everybody. Yeah, a sip and shopper on Saturday will be the third day. Hank will be there too. So you’ll get to see Hank there too, I know. But yeah, it’ll be local businesses for you to browse, shop and support.

Jill Francisco:

Okay, well that’s great Vanessa. So I think we’ve wrapped up all our stuff about the conference and we’re going to come back and give you a little teaser and talk about a couple other things that Nila has coming up and that they’re concentrating on. That obviously is all about making paralegals better and promoting the profession. So let’s take another break to thank our sponsors. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to the Paralegal Voice. I’m Jill Francisco with Tony Sipp here and our wonderful guest, Vanessa Finley, CEO of Nala. So we kind of wrapped up conference stuff. So all we have to say is get on and get registered. Secondly, we’re going to go on and we’re going to entice you and talk to you about an awesome service that as a paralegal, I think Tony will agree. It’s always hard to find if you’re a paralegal and you want to know, Hey, am I getting paid what I should be getting paid?

Should I get more benefits or am I getting benefits that a lot of others get? So that’s pretty cool and I’m pretty, I’m out of the ordinary. It’s hard to find that information. No one wants to talk about their salary, no one wants to talk about that stuff. And Nala does a great, great service to the paralegal profession by offering their utilization survey every other year. Am I correct on that, Vanessa? That is correct. So it’s current and it’s going to be coming up. So Vanessa, let us know how we can get involved in that and then also on the flip side, get the info. Get the result.

Vanessa Finley:

Absolutely. Okay, so lemme tell you how to get involved first and then I’ll talk about how you get the data on the backend and including now from the previous report. So the way you participate is you click on a link that we send to you and you participate, you answer all the questions to your best ability. There are always options to say, prefer not to answer and get your information in. We typically promote it through email, through our newsletter, through on our website, et cetera. So if you get it in your email and other folks that might be interested in participating, please forward. It is forward bull, I think that’s a word. So it’s not specific to you in your email. So you may forward it if you don’t get it, go to our website in the summer. So the last part of July and early part of August will be the data collection. Of course we’ll be pushing this at conference as well. And so you can go to the website and find the link that way too. Once the survey actually opens, then we collect all the data and then of course we have to massage it and do all that great stuff. And it’ll be available by the end of the, well actually usually January of the next year. So January, 2025 will be the 2024 report. And if you are a member of Nala, Jill, do you know how much it costs if you’re a member of Nala?

Jill Francisco:

I thought, do you get it? I thought you get it free.

Vanessa Finley:

You do. That’s come on. Whatcha

Jill Francisco:

Trying to trick me? Where are you trying to trick me? I’m like, oh my gosh, hold on.

Vanessa Finley:

It’s if you’re a member, it costs you nothing. Now if you’re not a member, you can still access it as well. You can go through our store and purchase it through the store

Jill Francisco:

Still at reasonable price. It

Vanessa Finley:

Is, it’s 79 bucks for really awesome data. Last year or last time we had over 2,800 responses. It’s just growing and growing every year. So free for members, if you cannot find it, even the current one right now on your account, please call us. Please email us. We will direct you to find it. It is in your downloads, in your account, but sometimes that’s a little tricky until you’ve done it the first time, we will help you. Then when the new one comes out, it’ll be free to you too if you are a current member at that time as well.

Jill Francisco:

Now let me just reiterate, I know Vanessa, she’s going to appreciate this. The survey has nothing to do with nothing, zero to do with if you’re not a member, that’s just one of the groups that we get out the information. So like you said, if it comes across your plate or even if it doesn’t, you can get it so you can fill it out because obviously you guys know I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. The survey is worth more the more people you can get to fill it out. And that’s what you want. You want it from different people. So if you’re on east coast like me, send it to whoever you want. Tony’s on a west coast, send it to anybody he knows. Doesn’t matter where the they are because it goes geographical, it goes, I mean this survey is actually, I mean I laugh about it sometimes.

It literally surveys everything. Do you have your parking? Are you provided with, I mean it is like the smallest things that you don’t even think about. But then huge things that make a huge difference and the small things do too. And it’s just really nice to know if you look at it and you think I can do better or I need to shop around, it does help you personally. I mean it does or it makes you feel great about what you’re getting because you’re getting something that others aren’t. I mean it’s a great career kind of measuring stick as I like to call it. And so it’s just not to just, and I give it to employers because then let me tell you this, you give it to your employer, they look at the billing part, they look at the billing part, they could set it to their clients and say, Hey, for paralegals that have X number of experience, that have X number of agree, have X certifications, we can get more money for them. And so now the client’s going to pay more, the firm’s going to get more. And then what’s that going to do help you. Clearly you ought to get something out of that. I mean,

Let’s just think about all the advantages of it being very, very valuable. And you know how it is the paralegals or the workers, we’re the ones that got to spread the word. We got to get it out. nala’s doing the groundwork for us, put in the platform, doing the back behind the scenes work because they know how valued it is for us. So please forward it, do anything you can to get more responses, but absolutely nothing to do with Nalo

Vanessa Finley:

And Jill, I want to emphasize what you just highlighted too. And that is there’s billing rate questions as well. So that’s going to be really valuable to your firm and not just to you as the individual paralegal.

Jill Francisco:

Alright, so now let’s get into, I love another thing that Nala has been doing. I think Tony is super interested in this. He wanted to know about it is these awesome core competencies that nala’s coming up with for paralegals and skills and things like that. So Vanessa, touch on that for us real

Vanessa Finley:

Quick. So the professional development committee of Nala, which is one of our standing committees, has been working, gosh, they worked at least 12 to 18 months on this project to really bring together the identifiable core competencies for a paralegal to be successful in a career today. And those can be found on our website for free. This is not something that anybody has to pay for. You don’t have to be a member, but you can go and either just go to our website and search core competencies that’ll pop up through the search, but it’s also under the paralegal information as well. There’s a link under that. But it does outline those core skill sets that paralegals really need to have to be successful. And the reason it’s important is, number one, it helps people who are exploring the career. Is this something that fits with me?

Is this what I want to be doing? Number two, I know I’m not going to shock anybody when I say that there’s a lot of attorneys do. I don’t quite realize what their paralegal can do and allowed to do. And so it is another way to push forth the value of this career and this profession and to help it be more uniform and respected within the legal ecosystem. And then of course, it’s great for educators. We did a presentation with the association that works with paralegal educators a P, and provided a session to their educators about the core competencies. So that’s really a piece that they’re really super proud of. It’s out there and it’s free access to anybody that would like to utilize it.

Jill Francisco:

Tony, what do you think about that?

Tony Sipp:

That’s really great one. I didn’t know that, but I think that’s fantastic to learn that and be able to get involved in a different way. This is great for people that are curious because a lot of times being the position that I’ve been in, people, this is their second or third career, so they’re trying to figure out, is this something right for me or not? I don’t know. Come as you are is what I say. I mean if you’re an accountant, you might be really, really good coming into this profession. You don’t know, but you could be from different areas. This is a great vehicle to let you test.

Jill Francisco:

Well, and how about Tony, when you were to as the paralegal manager, and I think having that list to even guide your role in hiring or like you said, showing that to attorneys, what they should be looking for or what the purpose is. Because again, I’ve been doing this 27 years, I think I’m at a 27th year, and you never stop telling people, telling attorneys, new attorneys, older attorneys, whatever. Hey, no, I could do that. I’m all over that. I’ll get it done. I think that would be valuable in your manager when you were doing that type of thing, don’t you think, Tony? Oh,

Tony Sipp:

Absolutely. And I did do that type of thing. Honestly, I made sure that I got some CPS and acps, at least on my team. I know the importance of that, making sure that you were graduated from an A approved school. So a lot of those things tied into my success and the success of the firm, the success of the team. And I continue to do that everywhere I go. I still look for those people because I know what they bring to the table. And then to be able to say, you’re worth this much. I don’t have to say that’s not Tony saying it. It’s a survey saying it, they’re worth this much and you should maybe start renegotiating certain terms for the paralegals.

Jill Francisco:

Yeah, that’s just another great thing that NALA offers. And like I said, it’s awesome. I mean obviously it’s a benefit and maybe you’re connected a little bit more if you’re with nla, but that’s for paralegals. I mean that’s just going to propel paralegals in general. So please, member non-member, please go check that out and see what it can do for you because it’s a valuable piece of information. And then lastly, we could keep Vanessa on here for hours and hours, but we don’t want to wear her out. A couple other things I just wanted her to touch on at the end. I know that when I was president, we started getting into YouTube because we know that videos is where it’s at. People like to watch the videos. And so NALA has a YouTube channel, so go onto YouTube and hit that subscribe button and follow them. I love that. But then also they offer something else on there, Vanessa, that you just started doing with your DEI under your DEI goals.

Vanessa Finley:

Yeah, so the DEI committee is also one of our standing committees, which by the way became a standing committee under the leadership of Jill Francisco. So thank you for that. The talk about a legacy that you just get to leave behind, which is awesome, but the DEI committee does these micro talks, and so it’s really an attempt to provide a short 20 to 30 minute conversation with somebody in the field that we are interested in. So we had Michael Holberg speak about accessing justice and information around that. We had folks talking about social justice and innocence projects and things like that. And then this most recent one, we actually connected with Ohio Equality Ohio, and this one was on allyship with LGBTQ plus clients and really how to understand them coming into your practice. And perhaps they may have been traumatized within the system for a variety of reasons and how we can help to not re-traumatize and to understand the circumstances that those clients are coming to you with. And Shavonne Boyd Nelson was awesome in this micro talk and that is on the YouTube channel. So if you go to YouTube and you search for an paralegal association, you will find our page right there, our channel and for the micro talks.

Jill Francisco:

Awesome. Thank you Vanessa. I appreciate that. It’s super important. It’s a thing that Tony and I think both to wrap it into everything because people don’t really realize it affects everything. And so we just want to keep want to bringing it up and tying it together. And just as you touched on lastly, I want to get our listeners a little bit of information about this. I love this accessing justice and expanding the role of the paralegal. And I know NALA continues to monitor that stuff. And when I was president, what an 18 to 20, it was coming to the forefront. We had the limited licensed technician, legal technicians, and you had states that were gung-ho. Now those states aren’t now new states are. It’s kind of coming around and I know that you guys are monitoring that and I try, I think we had a couple shows talking about that. But again, because Vanessa knows how I am, I tried to go and say, Hey, that’s fine. Who cares? It’s another part of a paralegal kind of skillset that if you want to do that, hey, great, fine. But it’s not threatening what paralegals do, in my opinion.

Vanessa Finley:

No, it’s definitely expanding what paralegals

Jill Francisco:

Do. And if you want to do it, great. If you don’t, you still have your value. One’s not better than the other. It’s just more ways for when you have that basic paralegal skillset that’s so valuable. It applies to so many things. So yeah, Vanessa, just touch on that just a little bit about this accessing justice and expanding the role of the paralegal.

Vanessa Finley:

And as you said, there are more and more states that are really delving into this with some greater success than others, but there’s at least 17 states right now that are very aggressively engaged with expanding the role of paralegals to address sort of this donut hole concept of people who don’t qualify for indigent or otherwise low income services and who also can’t really afford more traditional attorney services however they need representation. And especially in places like landlord, tenant relationships, administrative law, family law. So you’re getting the picture of the types of roles we’re talking about paralegals expanding that role for them to represent clients who really frankly just go unrepresented or represent themselves. That’s a really critical role when you think about the client. Now, from the paralegal’s perspective, what’s exciting is it does expand a career path, a career role. It doesn’t negate anything anybody’s doing now.

And you think about the legal ecosystem and you have all kinds of levels of medical support staff, gosh, even the folks, the custodians, they’re important to the medical team, but it goes all the way. And then you might have a nurse practitioner and then a physician’s assistant, and they all have different duties that they can do. And historically, as with the medical field, you had doctors who were the only ones that could prescribe and recognizing the need to expand that to others. So physician assistants, nurse practitioners, we are seeing that exact same evolution in the legal field in that lawyers are seeing the need to have more and more people who can support the work that they’re doing or step in where they simply can’t because there’s too much demand or frankly, they maybe don’t want to work with clients in that particular space. That’s okay, but maybe a paralegal can who’s licensed in that state. So it’s a really fascinating point for the profession of paralegals. I mean, I know I could talk all day about it. It really is fascinating to me. But we are definitely monitoring this. And beyond that, we are involved with many leadership groups and policymaking groups around this issue. So that’s yet another area that Nala is here fighting for you guys on behalf of the paralegal profession.

Jill Francisco:

And I have to give a shout out to my girl, Alicia Mitchell. Yes, doctor, doctor. Now. She’s a doctor.

Vanessa Finley:

She just defended. Yes. I

Jill Francisco:

Have to give her a shout out because she’s doing such big things with her access to justice things in North Carolina. And I always know I talked to her. I mean, she’s really probably the first one that when I was in that position, I needed some background and I went to her and like Vanessa said, all the different areas of law. But not only that, it’s rural areas like people that just don’t have, there’s so many towns and areas that don’t have that. And you may have a paralegal or you may have a paralegal that’s nearby. And like you said, I mean, I’m sorry, this is a paralegal show. This is not an attorney show, and we all know that we’re going to plug the paralegals whenever we want, but the paralegals are the ones that would go above and beyond if somebody really needed help.

Tony and I are traveling, we’re traveling, we’re calling, we’re zooming, we’re doing whatever we can do. And again, not to down attorneys, we need them to, they’re an important part of the process, but paralegals have that act, giving, sharing, helping. I just think that’s naturally in our nature. And so just look at it not as a threat at all, look at it as it’s another way to help, it’s another way to do good things in this world for people that need it to supply people with basic needs. I mean, why should your economical or your geographic location or anything influence your access to get

Tony Sipp:

Access to

Jill Francisco:

W Health Representation?

Vanessa Finley:

Yeah,

Tony Sipp:

Access to justice. And I mean if the pandemic didn’t prove anything to us, it proved that the lack of access to justice. So this could be a series of episodes for the show, but I’ll just say that that’s definitely something I’m passionate about. And having access to justice, it’s something that I deeply care about. I’m glad that now is doing that. Jill, you and I started our first DEI committees being president where we were, and we continue to live that goal every day. When you have that kind of commitment, it’s not something that just goes away. It’s something that’s just a part of you. And it’s just so great that you made it part of the body of Nala. So I’m proud of you. I’m proud of Vanessa for keeping it running. I can’t say I want to be more involved because that’s something that’s one of my core competencies that I care about. So

Jill Francisco:

That’s all true, Tony, and I appreciate it. So anyway, yeah, I think we’re going to put that on our list, Tony. We’ll have a whole new show of accessing justice. That’s definitely something we could concentrate on. And Vanessa, we appreciate all you do. I appreciate everything you do, and I appreciate you coming on today and giving your time and your effort and spreading the great things that NLA is out there doing. And like I said, we’re going to post the Legal Talk Network is awesome. They will get, the show will be posted, you guys will be able to listen to it. And we will also have all those links and information that you can circle back and get so you get all that you need easily and quickly to take advantage of everything we’ve discussed today. So anyway, thanks again, Vanessa. I really appreciate it and I’ll see you soon, thankfully, in Louisville.

Vanessa Finley:

Yeah, we’ll be in person

Jill Francisco:

and you’ll see Tony and I both there and we hope to see a lot of our listeners there, whether virtually or in person. But anyway, great talking to both of you today and we hope to see you next time on the Paralegal. Voice. Thank you.

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