ParalegalGateway

February 2012: David Johnson

Jeannie Sapp Johnston — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:13:28 +0000

David is a commercial litigation paralegal in the Miami office of the law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey (US) LLP, an international firm with 36 office in 17 countries. His career spans more than 30 years in commercial litigation, including international litigation and trial work: 4 years in Hartford, CT, 6 years in Providence, RI, and 23 years in Miami, FL. David holds a bachelor’s degree in German from Hartwick College, and he acquired his paralegal training primarily through his expanding responsibilities as well as through seminars and other continuing legal education. He handles tasks in all aspects of litigation, including initial filings and prejudgment remedies; investigations to locate parties, witnesses, documents and assets; discovery activities; assistance at trial and with appellate proceedings and post-judgment activities such as garnishment, judgment enforcement, domestication of foreign judgments.

In addition to his regular paralegal duties, he has an interest and expertise in computerized litigation support, which more recently has further developed into management of electronic discovery issues for the cases he handles. David is a long-time member of the South Florida Paralegal Association, the National Federation of Paralegal Associations and the South Florida Litigation Support Professionals, among other law and paralegal-related groups.

Retired Paralegal Preserves County History

Jeannie Sapp Johnston — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:36:09 +0000

A retired paralegal volunteers hours of her time each week to maintain a growing collection of files and photos that document local happenings dating back to the early 1800s.

She can be found at the Pickaway County Historical and Genealogical Library on North Court Street four days a week, and can help any researcher find exactly what they are looking for.

“She has just done an outstanding job at the library. You ask her for any information and she can find it,” said nominator Alice Malott. “I just think it’s fascinating that she is able to preserve that much and inform people of our pasts.”

Malott is talking about Darlene Weaver, the volunteer director of the local historical and genealogical library since 1992.

Using her investigative background from her work as a paralegal, Weaver began researching her own history more than 20 years ago.

While living in West Virginia in the late 1980s, she was unable to work so she began to share her hobby with others.

“I thought I would just research families for other people,” she said. “I had researched my family before that time, or at least started, so I knew a little bit about what to look for. Being a paralegal, I knew how to go to the courthouse and find things. It was just kind of a natural transition from one thing to another. When I came back here, I volunteered at the genealogy library, and I’ve been here ever since.”

At that time, the library occupied a couple rooms at the Moore House. Now, it nearly fills the old Circleville Herald building.

“It was much smaller when I started. We’ve done an awful lot of indexing since that time,” Weaver said. “We started a card catalog to make it easier to find information, and we’ve acquired a lot of books and records from the courthouse.”

Organizing the records from the probate court alone took Weaver and the other volunteers nearly two years to complete.

“We received an award from the Ohio Historical Society for doing it so we were real pleased about that,” she said.

Among her most interesting finds were pension applications from Revolutionary War soldiers.

“It told what they did and where they lived. It described their physical features and gave lots of information,” she said. “It was nice and really interesting.”

Weaver said she will continue volunteering at the library and helping to preserve the county’s history as long as her health will let her.

“It’s certainly not for the money,” she said with a laugh. “It is a passion. It’s something that once you get started in it – we call it a sickness… It’s really an ongoing thing, and I don’t think anyone is ever done with their genealogy.”

Source: Circleville Herald

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Black Hills Paralegal Firm is Growing

Jeannie Sapp Johnston — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:04:07 +0000

A Minneapolis-based paralegal company is opening a new training facility here and beefing up its Rapid City operation to meet the growing demands of law firms that specialize in the field of intellectual property.

Black Hills IP plans to open the downtown Minneapolis office next week and expand its office of 30 in South Dakota by 25 employees over the next year.

The reason for Black Hills’ growth? A trend among patent firms to sever their offshore outsourcing arrangements, particularly in India, said Chairman Leon Steinberg.

“The cost of labor in India is going up — that’s part of the trend — and we’re seeing greater productivity from U.S. workers in large part because of automation,” Steinberg said.

Indeed, Black Hills’ largest client, Minneapolis-based Schwegman Lundberg and Woessner, gradually reduced its presence in India and now does about 95 percent of its outsourced business with Black Hills IP.

“The cost of doing work in the U.S. is about the same as sending it to India,” said Schwegman managing partner Steven Lundberg. “But keeping the work in the U.S. is a lot more convenient.”

Lundberg said the firm went to India in 2000 when it couldn’t find anyone in the United States to do proofreading because the economy was so strong.

Now, with automation, “U.S. workers are twice as productive,” Lundberg said.

Black Hills IP provides paralegal resources to help attorneys in the patent application process, including keeping track of filing deadlines for patent applications, due dates for patent-protection payments and proofreading.

Cindy Eidnes — division director of Beacon Hill Legal, a legal staffing service — said she’s hearing anecdotally that intellectual property firms are bringing their outsourced work back to this country, in part because of quality concerns and the time difference.

“Outsourcing to India is not the be-all and end-all that it was once thought to be,” Eidnes said.

Jodi Standke of Talon Performance Group, a legal and corporate recruiter, agreed that overseas outsourcing is not as cost-effective as it used to be.

“But I also think there’s a bit of patriotism at work here and businesses want to send a message that they are using U.S. people and U.S. resources,” Standke said.

Most of the Black Hills management team is in Minneapolis. Steinberg, once with the Minneapolis law firm Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, said the firm acquired the paralegal outsourcing business from Schwegman in May.

The Minneapolis office will serve largely as a training facility and provide some administrative services such as sales and marketing. Production duties are performed in Rapid City.

“We couldn’t find enough people in Rapid City to do the training,” Steinberg said. “There’s a more robust community in Minneapolis than Rapid City when it comes to intellectual property.”

Source: StarTribune

Paralegal Student Realizes It’s Never Too Late to Start Over

Jeannie Sapp Johnston — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:50:18 +0000

It’s never too late to start over, and 43 year-old Loganville resident Kristine Bratcher is evidence of that as she finds herself in her senior year at Emory University in a certificate program to become a paralegal.

What all she does in a day to help put food on the table, continue her education and support her husband and 11-year-old stepson in general is equally impressive.

Bratcher found herself at her peak with her law enforcement job as a police lieutenant in Winder and after 11 years retired in 2009 from the force to pursue a new chapter in her life.

During her time in the force, most of her work was in the field of domestic violence and that’s something she plans on keeping as the centerpiece of her new career.

After retiring, Bratcher was faced with the disposition of the downturn in the economy.

She needed a job and one she could be in charge of while she was working her way through school.

“When I was in college, the first time I had worked with Avon as a recruiter I remembered they started a company several years after I left it and I went to see what they were evolved with,” Bratcher said.

This company, a sister company with Avon, was Mark Cosmetics.

Bratcher applied in October last year to join Mark Cosmetics and the rewards have been great. Her investment to begin selling was just $20.

“I’ve been the top seller ever since I started in the areas I cover in Georgia and No. 4 in the country,” Bratcher said. “Most of the sales I’ve gotten are from me wearing and showing. Someone at IHOP saw the ring I was wearing and couldn’t wait. I sold it right then and there

“The cool thing about Mark is its not like Avon. We have a website for each of us. You give people your website, they go on and shop on there. It’s very easy and simple. Great thing to give go at,” she said.

The reward of her sales is a $1,000 average per month.

Bratcher now holds a mentor sales manager position with the company and takes weekend sales trips once or twice a month to oversee different sales areas.

“With Mark I’ve been to New York, Michigan and Dallas.”

But wait — Bratcher is in college as well.

“I went into the certificate program to be a paralegal because its something I’ve been interested in before my law enforcement career,” she said.

For three hours a night on Mondays and Wednesdays, Bratcher goes to Emory to take classes. After graduation she will be applying for law school.

But this whole journey of going back to school hasn’t been an easy one for her.

“I made really good grades the first time I went to college. Now, coming back, it is much more difficult,” she said. “Now I have to really study and try to get a grasp on the information.”

She confesses there are times she’s wanted to pull the plug on finishing but determination stops her.

“There have been times I have wanted to quit but the amount of determination and what I’ve put into it or what I can get out of it keeps me in it.”

Making an impact in the community and the idea of a steady income also keeps her motivated.

Bratcher plans to stay rooted in using her degree to help those that have been sexually assaulted — in fact, she is part of an internship program in Winder doing just that now.

“I started to work with volunteers at the sexual assault center. I work on cases there. It’s kind of like a ‘cold case’ thing. We reopen the case and see if we can get the police department motivated to try again,” Bratcher said.

Bratcher plans on staying with Mark even into law school for a few reasons, but for one most important to hear.

“Mark has a program called mPowerment. Its a dating domestic violence charity that they do and 100 percent of the profits from items sold under this program go to domestic violence and dating violence,” she said. “A huge reason I picked Mark out of all the companies —besides that Avon is behind it and its trendy — is that this is near and dear to my heart.”

Bratcher said its neat to see the continuations of what Mark is doing and to be a part of it.

For her Mark has been an inexpensive investment that brings in good money.

“We have been able to just pay for a weeks vacation to Virginia. We are going to Washington D.C. to see family and see the sites. We wouldn’t have been able to afford that without Mark.”

Source: The Walton Tribune

2012 Paralegal Superstar Calendar Now Available

Jeannie Sapp Johnston — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:37:33 +0000

The new calendars are here!! The new calendars are here!! Keeping track of important dates on your calendar is easy when you can view 12 months of inspiring images that reflect twelve of the best and brightest Paralegals of 2012. This high-quality calendar is printed on thick 100lb cover weight paper and adds impact to any room.

Each page measures 11″ x 8.5″
Measures 11″ x 17″ when hung on wall
Full bleed dynamic color
100 lb cover weight high gloss paper, wire-o bound
January 2012 – December 2012, 2013 preview, US holidays marked

Be sure to check it out and purchase one for yourself or your favorite paralegal today!!