SEPTEMBER 2005 AMICUS
Hello Everyone!
MID YEAR/CLA/CP REVIEW COURSE
Don’t forget the CLA/CP Review Court and Mid Year Seminar coming up on September 16th & 17th at the Embassy Suites in Greensboro. The hotel has extended our time to make reservations until September 2nd. Please sign up today!
JAMES BLACKBURN ON “48 HOURS”
As a note of interest, our speaker from the Annual Meeting and Seminar, James Blackburn, will be interviewed on November 5th on CBS television’s “48 Hours” regarding the prosecution of Dr. Jeffrey McDonald.
INCREASE IN FEES
The filing fees for all Courts, Magistrates Special Fees, Miscellaneous Fees and Commissions etc., increased as of September 1, 2005. Contact your county clerk’s office for details and a schedule of fees.
DISTRICT MEET AND GREETS
I will be holding district Meet and Greets entitled “All in a Day’s Work” over the next few months. The dates are as follows:
September 10th - District VI - Golden Corral Buffet & Grill, 4965 University Parkway, Winston Salem, NC - 9:30 a.m. RSVP to Michele Tuttle at
October 8th - District V - Charlotte (Time and location to be announced)
October 22nd - District IV - Greensboro/Burlington (Time and location to be announced)
December 10th - District VII - Asheville (Time and location to be announced)
January 28th - District II -Raleigh (Time and location to be announced)
February 4th - District III - Fayetteville (Time and location to be announced)
February 18th - District IX - Hickory (Time and location to be announced)
DISTRICT IV NEWS
Alamance County Paralegal Association
The Alamance County Paralegal Association will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary on September 20th, 6:00p.m. at Carver’s on Elm in Graham, NC. The guest speaker will be Jim Blackburn, lead prosecutor in the ‘70s Jeffrey McDonald murder trial. He will be signing books at the dinner as well. There is still room for anyone who would like to attend. Contact JoElla Johnson at .
The Alamance County Paralegal Association recently held elections. The officers for the 2005-2006 year are as follows:
President: JoElla Johnson
1st Vice President: Barbara Dodson
2nd Vice President: Ruth H. Goodman, CLA
Secretary: Belinda Ann Thomas, CLAS
Treasurer: Sharon Boger
Parliamentarian: Teresa A. Stacey
Historian: Annette T. Younger
Guilford Paralegal Association
Guilford Paralegal Association (formerly Greensboro) (GPA) seeks to provide networking opportunities for paralegals in the Guilford County area. In addition, our speaker meetings are approved for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit by the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), as long as the speaker's topic is one of substantive law. We also sponsor a student scholarship and work closely with the GTCC paralegal program. We are planning a half-day CLE event to be held in February, and, as the holidays approach, we will be gearing up for our annual charitable activity. Last year, GPA donated over 400 toys to the Fox8 Gifts for Kids drive - and the GPA elves appeared on television! The next meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at the offices of Wyatt, Early, Harris & Wheeler in High Point. Bernadette Murphy of Murphy Moderating, LLC is going to be the featured speaker and will discuss her work using focus groups to aid attorneys and legal staff as they prepare for trial.
GPA is currently recruiting new members and renewing memberships.
Please visit the newly-developed website at guilfordparalegalassociation.org. for more information and contacts.
GPA co-sponsored a free CLE Seminar with Lawyers Mutual and it was fantastic! 100 paralegals (some college/paralegal students and some attorneys came too) attended. It was approved for the NC Bar/NCCP credit (ethics), held at the Koury Center (4 seasons Mall), there were many fabulous door prizes and Lawyers Mutual goodies, and wow, what a spread of food was laid out for everyone! Our speakers were Louise Paglen, Marisa S. Campbell and I MC'd. Also, Diane Boyette with Lawyers Mutual hosted and did a wonderful presentation of gifts, brochures as well as all the behind the scene labor. We at GPA are communicating with Lawyers Mutual at present and hope to develop a tradition of this type of annual Fall presentation, with GPA and other business interests co-sponsoring future events. Additionally, we expect to expand into more Triad paralegal/college programs and reach out to bridge that college grad gap to the real paralegal world through presentations and networking with them. It is very exciting to continue the work we do; however, I truly give credit to the exceptional volunteer work from every present and past GPA Board Member, Chair persons, committee members and especially, every GPA member. Their hard work keeps us going and growing.