50 Years of NALA! Get the Scoop on 2025 From NALA CEO Vanessa Finley

Episode Notes

Transcript

Jill Francisco:

Welcome everyone. Back to the Paralegal Voice. I’m Jill Francisco with my co-host Tony Sipp. Hi. We are so very honored to have Vanessa Finley, CEO of Nala, the Paralegal Association, more commonly known as Vinny. Vinny, welcome.

Vanessa Finley:

Thank you. Thank you. I’m so glad to be here.

Jill Francisco:

We are super excited to welcome you back. It’s becoming our annual tradition to have her on about this time because obviously there’s always exciting things going on with Nyla, but when it comes around spring, it really starts to get moving and shaken. And so we have Vanessa here today to share with us some stuff that we have the conference coming up in the summer. We want to share some deadlines so everybody, the paralegals that are listening can get the inside scoop and the information to get good deals to attend. And also we want to share stuff that’s coming in. New that if you’re not familiar with Nala or you haven’t had time to keep up on everything they’ve been doing, working hard behind the scenes, they have some really awesome stuff coming that can help paralegals. We are going to be talking about some exciting things today, and we’re going to let Vanessa get right in it. So Vanessa, let’s start by talking about the 2025 Nila Conference and Expo.

Vanessa Finley:

Absolutely. So this year we’re going to Atlantic City, and the conference is going to be July 10th, 11th and 12th at the Heroes Resort there in Atlantic City. And this is our 50th, this is our 50th conference. Next month is our 50th anniversary for Nala on April 10th. Very exciting year for us this year. Not only are we having the standard conference with the CLEs and the speakers and the expo and all that good stuff, but we’re also having a fun celebration on Friday, having a gala that evening to really step it up, right, have a good time and party and celebrate 50 years of Nala and 50 years of Nala supporting paralegals in the United States. That’s the new and exciting thing for this year, but we are going to have our regular set of CLEs, so you can earn a 12 and a half CLEs when you attend the conference itself.

You can, when you walk away, you can have those 12 and a half CLEs, but that’s not all drum roll. You do know, yes, drum roll. We again, are going to be releasing the entire conference bundle, and that means all of the sessions are recorded, both video and audio, and we’ll be available on demand for anybody who wants to utilize those sessions and take advantage of those sessions and learn those CLEs. But if you are an attendee, you get that entire bundle, those 42 hours completely free as part of your registration for conference. The only hitch is if you’ve attended the session during conference, you can’t attend it again on demand and get double CLEs. You can only get CLEs once for each one, but that’s not too hard to do. We think it just adds more and more value to the conference and really help encourage people to come because the special thing about conference is that you actually get to talk to your fellow paralegals, you get to meet vendors, you get to talk with folks that are doing new and different things in their work or doing new and different things in different law areas that you might be interested in learning more about and getting into.

So we really think the conference is one of the best ways for you to upskill your networking and your education. So we try to make it as appealing as possible for those who are attending.

Jill Francisco:

I’m going to go ahead and tell you that once you go, I mean, and everybody, we understand there’s life and there’s different things that you cannot always go. Obviously I got involved early on. I think I became a member of NYLA in 2000 and in 2002 I attended my first conference with a long time member that had been going off and on. So I went in 2002 and then I believe I have gone every year since. And granted I was a volunteer and I was on the board and I was dedicated in other ways, not just attending as a member, but it is very, very addicting and to be able to do all the wonderful things that Vanessa just said once a year in my, just to sum it up, it is phenomenal to recharge, recharge, reenergize, and you kind of just sit back and think, okay, I do love this profession. I do love my job because you get out of the day to day that sometimes we may not all and we get to see all the great things and memories and learn new things and network. And I know Tony, you’ve gone what sporadically over the years and you went last year?

Tony Sipp:

I went last year and I tell you, going live, I didn’t know what I was missing and just that energy in that room and just having fellow colleagues and professionals and vendors and everybody, that’s part of the legal profession there. It was moving. It was really moving. I get to speak, I worked with Amy, she’s going to kill. We had a nice conversation, got the highlight with Nala. I highly encourage you to go, my plan is to go this year as well. I see all my fellow colleagues already posting their flight reservations, so I love to see that there’s a lot of benefits as Vinny’s going to talk to you about. I highly encourage you if you can go live, go live. It’s going to be in Atlantic City, east coast. I’m a New Yorker, so I’m all for it. Yay.

Vanessa Finley:

Bringing them home. One thing I want to add about is because Tony talking about having coming last year, one thing that I, because I’ve been to a lot of conferences in my day, I to say when there are new people at Nala, you’re only new for one hot second because once you get there, you are so welcomed and members, the longtime members like you, Jill, are so focused on those new members and helping them feel part of the fold and really engaged. This is not a cliquey group that you can’t bust in. It is such a welcoming environment and you will not regret going. That’s all I can say.

Jill Francisco:

Thank you. I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. So definitely messages try to attend in person, but Vanessa will probably discuss throw in there if you absolutely cannot. There is still an option, I believe, to get the information.

Vanessa Finley:

Yeah, let me hit on that because big question we’re getting this year is are we doing a hybrid conference? Because the last four years we have done a hybrid conference. What that means is we had in person and then virtual attendees, of course, that was the pandemic that brought all of that about people were very grateful we were able to do that and really help people get engaged at a level. They just simply weren’t able to be able to come in person. We are not doing a hybrid this year. There’s a lot of reasons why not, but some dwindling interest and costs are the primary factors, but we hear you loud and clear that those who cannot come for whatever reason, it’s the timing, it’s the time away from the office, it’s the cost, all of those things. We will be creating a curated set of packaged bundle webinars from the conference that will be theme-based.

And so you will have a handful of different packages you could pick from based on, let’s say I’m making up a topic, but let’s say on ai, everything that was around ai, and we might be able to roll in some other of our on-demand webinars to really make that a meaty package for those who are unable to come in person but still want that timely information. So that will happen post-conference. The one thing you can do pre-conference is if you want to get the best rate possible to get the full bundle, you do have to purchase that prior to the conference. So if you go on our website, go to the conference area, it’s all laid out, but if you want to purchase that bundle in advance and get the very best price on all of the hours, do that now. Or you can wait to post-conference and then we will share with you the different lists of curated bundles that we’ll have.

Jill Francisco:

That sounds awesome. And I think she’s getting ready to, so I’m not spoiling any praise, but she’s going to give a date and I’m assuming that date is for what you just talked about, purchase the full bundle also before that date. So give us those good deals.

Vanessa Finley:

The early bird date for everything is May 7th. So we’re about what, six weeks, seven weeks away from that. And so at that point, all rates go up. So everything’s at an early bird rate right now. For example, if you are a member, you get the $629 rate and then it goes up to 6 99 after the early bird. So it’s a pretty hefty discount. So we really encourage you to get into the early bird. Same with the bundle. I don’t have that price right in front of me, but if you go online before May 7th, you’ll get the absolute best price on the post conference bundle if you’re unable to attend.

Jill Francisco:

That’s a great idea, Vanessa. I mean, Vanessa, I have to tell the listeners because those who Dunno, I was in on this hiring Vanessa, and so I always love it when Vanessa is just proven us all right every day that we made the right choice. But one thing that I remember, it was not too long after, it might’ve been the year Vanessa, that I was done being president, so maybe 21, 22 ish, and I get the annual conference brochure and I’m looking at it. And that’s when you did that awesome thing to give attendees in person attendees the bundle, which those of you that are listening and been around the block a few times in reference to the conference know that you could never do that. You went, you went. And if you didn’t, you bought the bundle after the fact

Vanessa Finley:

For several hundred dollars.

Jill Francisco:

Yes, for several hundred dollars and it was all or nothing. It was, and I’m not saying that’s bad because again, better than nothing, our mission is paralegal education. So that was fine. But doing that to me, I literally was like OMG that is phenomenal and phenomenal to know that it is so valuable that CLE is so valuable. It’s not like they’re just kind of whatever CLEs, I mean they are so valuable. The speakers, the topics, the presentation, everything is just top notch. And so to have the confidence, and that’s really what I was looking at Vanessa, is the confidence to just say, you know what? We’re going to give this. We’re going to give this because that had not been done. So just remember I give Vanessa a little kudos on that. And just like your bundles now, I mean in reality, all you’re really doing is making more accessibility for somebody that wants it. And that’s our point. So thank you.

Vanessa Finley:

And that’s our mission. Exactly. Yep. Only other thing I want to mention about conferences that Atlantic City can be a little bit tricky to get to. So I encourage you to spend a little extra time planning your trip because the only flights that fly into Atlantic City are American. And it’s actually a bus that takes you from Philadelphia. It says Airbus. It is a bus and I believe a spirit is the other one. If you do not fly one of those two, you’ll have to fly into Philadelphia. But Nala will be providing free shuttles on Wednesday, the day before the conference and then Sunday from the hotel back to Philadelphia. But you have to register. So if when you register, do it all at once, get on there, get your airfare, get your hotel, and then select seat on the shuttle so that you have a free shuttle to Atlantic City if you land in Philadelphia. So it’s a little tricky, but it’s not overly confusing once you kind of step back and take a look.

Jill Francisco:

Well, and I will just echo for those of you, this is a little fun history. Now, the conference was supposed to be in Atlantic City in 2020, but as you know, Vanessa and I, in about a span of what three months had to plan and get together a all virtual first ever conference for Nala. But earlier in that year, I believe it was, I think it was our spring meeting or maybe it was fall, but here nor there in our contract for Atlantic City was basically they were going to give us a board meeting. And so all the board members at that time, including myself, had been to the hotel in the conference center, did the rigmarole for arriving in Philadelphia, because back then that’s what it was. You arrived in Philadelphia. I mean Spirit Airlines flies into Atlantic City, a direct flight probably from some places like probably Florida or some of the bigger cities.

But back then it was you fly to Philadelphia, Nala provided in conjunction probably with a hotel, I’m guessing the transportation, the bus over there and whatever. Some rented a car, some did different things, some Ubered. But moral of my story here is it’s not like Vanessa said, it’s a little different. Take your time, check it out, it can be done. It’s not anything real crazy and it’s not a big deal before at the hotel. It’s like known. It’s not like other people don’t go to Atlantic City and have to do this process. It’s what you have to do for whatever reason that you’re going over there. So don’t worry about it. Just like Vanessa said, just kind of focus and just take your time and get her stand. Have you ever been up, I mean, you said you’re a New York City boy, Tony, so are you going up to the Atlantic City and getting on the boardwalk or no? Have you been up there in that area?

Tony Sipp:

I’ll tell you right after the break, we’ll be right back folks.

Jill Francisco:

Welcome back to the Paralegal Voice, Jill Francisco. I’m here with my co-host Tony Sipp and our esteemed guest, Vanessa Finley, CEO of Nala. And we were just wrapping up our announcements and fun things about conference. And I don’t want Tony to try to get out of this. I want to know, Tony, have you been to Atlantic City?

Tony Sipp:

Yes, I’m from New York and I went to college in New York City and our road trips were to Atlantic City. So we had a lot of fun is what I’ll say. Going to New York City or Atlantic City back to the city. We had a lot of road trips. So I am excited to be joining again this year as a graduate,

Jill Francisco:

Despite your visits to the city, it’s

Tony Sipp:

My child dopamine for Nala.

Jill Francisco:

So come to conference and maybe after Tony’s had one or two cocktails, you can figure out a little bit more on those visits. Hey, I dunno, could get some info, could not. So let’s move right along. So again, go to nala.org to get some more information and the things that we’ve touched on here to register to get those early rates to learn more. There’s a lot of specifics about speakers topics you can really see there’s a lot of options, there’s a lot of things. And just check it out because you may be pleasantly surprised that there’s a lot of things available that maybe you didn’t plan on. So now onto just Nala, kind of like in general. I mean we do understand that all our listeners are not Nala members and my listeners already used to me plugging Nala all the time, but that’s what happens when one of the host is a past president forever steward ambassador, but this is also for non-members. So Vanessa hit on some of that stuff for us.

Vanessa Finley:

Yeah, well, and I want to say I think one reason you have such an easy time bragging about knowledge is because it is completely member driven. Everything we do is because our members need and or want it. And so I think that it’s a very responsive association because it is the members that are at the top at the governance level and ensuring that we continue to meet the needs of the evolving profession. So it’s because of you guys that it is as awesome as it is. One of the things that we do every other year is a national survey on utilization and compensation. This is something that becomes a member benefit. It is something that is free to our members. Non-members can purchase the report so you’re not excluded from, it’s just an extra benefit if your member. But we did our utilization survey last year and it was just released in January of this year, and it is on our website.

It’s a multi-page report, all kinds of great data on compensation benefits, billing responsibilities, et cetera. But some of the things I wanted to point out that have come from this report this year, we do know that there’s 375,000 paralegals and growing in the country and they support about 1.3 million attorneys. So that’s about one for every four attorneys. Big thing that came out of it was obviously integration of AI is huge in the field. Limited licensing. So getting folks registered in their state, the states that are participating, getting them licensed and registered to perform legal work outside of the license of an attorney. These are specialized programs and individual states that is really accelerating in our survey, 81% of those participating had an interest in exploring that for themselves as a paralegal. So that’s pretty big. Some challenges that came out from the report are unfortunately an ongoing challenge, a lack of respect from attorneys, a lack of respect from clients.

Those are some common themes. We hear heavy workloads, so having not enough time to get everything done or being asked to do more than you can handle or at least write to the maximum of what you can handle. And then of course, inequities and compensation continue to be seen through the survey as well between white and bipoc, black, indigenous and people of color. So the difference between white and bipoc paralegals and then of course male and female paralegals continue to see an inequity in that compensation. Some highlights though, are we are seeing more and more flexible work are involved in some level of flexible work right now as a paralegal. And when we say flexible work, we’re primarily talking about a hybrid type of opportunity work from home. 75% of those participating said their employer contributes to some form of a retirement plan. That’s exciting.

That’s a number that’s climbing and growing. And then the average bill rates for paralegals right now is an average of $134 an hour. So for those who don’t realize or think that paralegals can have billable hours, you’re wrong. Number two, you really should look into that. And number three, if you’re certified, you actually due to some number of court rulings, which we’ve talked about in the past, you can actually justify a higher rate when you have a certified paralegal than one who is not certified. So that’s yet another benefit to becoming certified, not just for you but for your employer to be able to actually charge higher rates for your billable hours. And then the other thing, of course, childcare and the millennial population is still a struggle. People are still challenged with finding good childcare to help them fulfill their duties at work. I think those are the big things I wanted to highlight. And again, this is free for all members to access whether you’re a member or not. You just go to our store on our website, nala.org, go to the store, which I believe is at the top of the page, and you look for publication and you’ll see the utilization and compensation study report and members, you go and you buy it unquote, and it’s $0. And then if you’re a non-member, you go and you buy it. And I believe it says $79 fee for all this great information.

Jill Francisco:

Well, thank you Vinny. And I’ll tell you what, just for our listeners too over the years or kind of think, well, why do I thinking, okay, that’s great information, but I’ll tell you what I mean, how difficult to find salary information or especially things to do with financial wages and maybe even into the cloud of benefits. And I know that I have used that and directed a lot of people to that survey in the past because it’s something you don’t want to ask somebody that you know right there, it’s kind of awkward, but it’s also phenomenal for you to have and to use and to reference when you go to your employer and you want to use it for you to get more wages, to get more benefits, to get things like that. But then as Vanessa stated, it also, as soon as it perks up and you say, but look at this employer, you can bill more if I have this amount of education, if I have this certification, and they turn around and take that information and have that document to negotiate higher billing rates with their clients. So it kind of perks them up and make some take notice, especially paralegal managers.

Tony Sipp:

Yeah, I actually did use, because Jill and I, we were on the broadcast, we were talking about that, and it was during a time when it was hard to find good people, hire good people, and hybrid was the thing to be. And so I brought it up. I brought it up, I’m like, honestly, the wages out there right now are this. We have to match it. We have to bring our benefits up and our wages up. It worked. It worked. So I mean, it’s not every firm that does that, but if you want good people, hire good people

Jill Francisco:

And pay ’em

Tony Sipp:

The information

Jill Francisco:

And pay ’em. Right.

Tony Sipp:

Put your homework for you. Here you go.

Jill Francisco:

It’s a really neat document because I mean, when I tell you, they survey and touch on everything they do, and it’s kind of neat just to know, especially if you’re new in the field, what are even some other things you could ask for or want or would be useful for you? Because if you’re new, you may not even know that having some administrative help is going to be good for you or having do they actually pay for my parking? I mean, it’s from things that are very important to things that you may not think are important, but in the grand scheme of things, they are. So thank you Vanessa for that. And what else is Nala got stern around. There’s so many things we’re going to have, we could do two shows.

Vanessa Finley:

I am trying to prioritize because we do have a ton going on. But the next thing I wanted to share is our resource navigator. That is a new resource for us. If you go to nala.org once again, and at the top you’ll see a tab that says Resource Navigator and solutions hub. Those are kind of tied together. If you click on that resource navigator, you will see, gosh, about 130 different resources, actual true resources that you can download for free from participating companies and vendors. So for example, I’m literally looking at one right now. Workflow automation, the key to a more effective law firm. It’s an ebook, master your law firm’s marketing budget with confidence. Six tips to building better legal documents, an MS word, goal setting checklist for law firms. I mean, these are the kinds of resources that if you go to the resource navigator, you can download for free.

You are providing your contact information to the company, obviously. I mean, that’s the give and take, but they truly are resources available to you to use right away. You don’t have to buy anything or subscribe to anything to get access to these resources immediately. And then a sister product to the resource navigator is the solutions hub, and that is a listing of various vendors that are engaged with Nala. And it’s just a way for you to learn more about the different services and products that they do offer. They’ve been vetted through us and through our partner with this project. So just more and more resources right at your fingertips is what we’re really trying to make available for our members and our non-members. This is for both members and non-members. And that ties in very closely with the paralegal brief. So paralegal brief.com, that is another partnership that we have that pulls together articles, blogs, all kinds of things from the internet into one curated place all about paralegals, so you don’t have to go find it. It’s all right there in one place for you. So that’s paralegal brief.com, and then the resource navigator and the solutions hub you find on our [email protected].

Jill Francisco:

Okay, well, Vanessa, let’s take a quick break and then we’ll be right back to have a closing sadly, but wrap up a few more things that are very valuable to paralegals. Thank you. Welcome back to the Paralegal Voice. I’m Jill Francisco with my co-host Tony Sipp and our guest Vanessa Finley, CEO of Nala. So Vanessa, we were just wrapping up, but I think you have some, maybe a couple more exciting things to tell our listeners that even Tony and I might not know that’s coming down the pike and are available through nla.

Vanessa Finley:

So I really just wanted to touch on our affiliated associations because we have 60 plus affiliated associations across the country, and we work really closely with them. And we really are lockstep in our mission and goals together to support paralegals in the paralegal profession. So we work very well together. And one of the things that we do at Nala to help lift up those affiliated associations and to help students, so it’s a double whammy here, is if a local affiliated association has a student member, if you are a student member of a local association that’s a member of nala, then you actually can join Nala for $5 for the entire year as a student member. It’s a heck of a deal. You get almost everything that you get as an active member. You don’t get to vote. That’s just for the active members. But outside from that, there’s really not a lot that you miss out from being a student member, from being an active member.

So it’s a great way to get involved in your local association and your national association as a student, because I’m telling you, the more you’re doing now as a student and early in your career, the more it’s going to pay off as your career grows and advances. So we want to make sure that students are aware of that opportunity to join their local and then join Nala for $5. Can’t encourage that enough. I also wanted to remind folks that our YouTube channel is still active and vibrant. It is another way for non-members in particular to see what we’re doing at Nala at no cost because we do upload selected things into the YouTube channel so that those who are not members can get insight because we don’t want to be exclusive just for members. So that’s a great way to go to our YouTube channel.

And if you just go and you look for Nala, the Paralegal association, you will find our page. And then the last thing I wanted to offer is for our members specifically, we actually have a webinar that’s being recorded and it will be available on demand for members at no cost and it’s on billable hours. So if you go to our website, I know, click, click, ding, ding, ding, right? That’s a big thing. If you go to our website and go to education and look for webinars or look for billable hours, you can search by key terms that will come up and will be available for members at no cost.

Jill Francisco:

Wonderful. And so Vanessa, just real quick, just to backtrack just a little bit, for our listeners that maybe are not familiar or they don’t know about their local, like I am in Huntington, West Virginia. We have legal assistants, paralegals of Southern West Virginia, statewide. Tony, my West Coast guy is in Laa, which they have numerous more than one NLA affiliate and even other paralegal associations that are not affiliated with Nala, I believe probably. But anyway, if you aren’t familiar, you don’t know if you have one. Nala has a specific place on their website to go to see if there is one.

Vanessa Finley:

Nala.org. We’ve said it a hundred times, but that’s the whole landing page. And then across the top, towards the down a little bit on the crop is affiliates. And if you click on the word affiliates as a menu, and then you will find the second box says, find or join your local NALL affiliate association, click on that box and they’re ordered by state and all their links to their websites are all there. So you can learn about your local affiliate join and then come and join Nala as well.

Jill Francisco:

Yeah. And actually, am I wrong? I mean, I don’t want to say this wrong, so I’m going out in a limb, but is it 25%? Yeah, that they save

Vanessa Finley:

Now? Yep. So if you are a member of a NALA affiliated association, and that gets to us from the affiliated association, so we know it in our records. If you are a member, then you get a 25% discount on the annual membership to nala. And when you are a member, when you join as a member, you get an $80 education voucher. That means you can use that $80 for any of our educational pieces, including conference and including our A CP, our advanced certified paralegal courses. You can use that $80 every year. You get $80 education vouchers as part of your membership. So then you think about the utilization and compensation survey, which is a $79 value. And then all the discounts you get, I mean, it literally is all, is paying you to be a member when you think about it, right?

Jill Francisco:

I mean, it sounds funny and you hear people say that, but no, honestly, they are. Even how they’re so generous with the past presidents. They give us the honorary membership and they still give me the coupon, and I didn’t, and I’m so excited because I pick a couple webinars because they’re so reasonably priced that perked my interest and I get in on ’em that way. So please check it out. It’s not going to harm you. I mean, I get on my Forever education soapbox, and it just, to me, NLA kind of goes in with that and will support you for a lifetime. I mean, there’s members that are longer than me, are less than me, but I mean, you can’t go wrong. It’s really there to support you in all stages of your career. And like I said, it’s still what you put in it. I mean, you have to connect yourself, you have to reach out, you have to put some effort in. But phenomenal resources, phenomenal.

Vanessa Finley:

And Jill, I’m always surprised at the number of people who don’t realize we are a nonprofit. We’re a nonprofit association. We are not out here making money. I’m not making money by selling stuff to you guys. Our role is to provide education certification and advocacy for paralegals and the paralegal profession. That’s all that we do. Every bit of money that comes in is doing just that. I am surprised at how many people think we’re like a for-profit company, but no, we are here fulfilling a community need and we just raised the money we need to do the work.

Jill Francisco:

Perfect. So anything else that you want to mention right now, Vanessa will sadly get ready to wrap it up because I know we could do many shows on all the things that NYLA has going on. And we also will put in the information, they’ll put a link so with our listeners, you get the show, you’re following the show, go to the Legal Talk Network website and Vanessa will provide some links there and a contact information, all those good things that our listeners can use to follow up and take advantage of the things that Vanessa has talked about today. So anything else, Vanessa?

Vanessa Finley:

Nope. I’m just so thrilled to be here. Just appreciate the invitation as always.

Jill Francisco:

Thank you so much. And I know Tony agrees. We had a great time last year and we did a live episode. We

Vanessa Finley:

Was that last year or the

Jill Francisco:

Year before, I don’t know, year before. But anyway, we’ll definitely try to have a presence up in Atlantic City. And we loved the people that came by, and actually it was fun to hear from our listeners and to see them at nyla taking advantage of another resource because the Paralegal Voice is here too, to talk and bring things to your attention and listen to the paralegal’s needs and get Tony and I’S 2 cents on it and go with it and then form your own opinion or look into it more. It’s just information sharing, communication for paralegals. So anyway, thank you so much, Vanessa.

Vanessa Finley:

My pleasure.

Jill Francisco:

And Tony,

Tony Sipp:

Thank you. Thank you, Vinny.

My Pleasure. Absolutely.

Jill Francisco:

Thank you to our listeners, and please follow us after you listen to this episode and you think it’s awesome, follow us and please return to listen to another episode. So it’s Jill Francisco and Tony Sipp signing off Paralegal Voice. Talk to you next time.

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