News

Thank you so much for your insight, Marilyn!

🌸 Mark your calendars! The CCPA is hosting a Summer Social. This is a FREE event with food and drinks included!

🌸This event is open to all legal professionals of the central coast!

🌻 Where: Libertine in downtown SLO
🌻 When: September 27th from 6pm -8pm
🌻Cost: FREE

🌸RSVP by emailing info@ccpaslo.org with the subject line “Summer Social RSVP”. Include your full name & if you’re a member of the CCPA or not.

Hope to see you there!🌸🌞🌻

⚠️JOB ALERT⚠️

In Trust Legal is looking for a Legal Document Assistant/Legal Secretary (Full Time)

⚖️About In Trust Legal⚖️: In Trust Legal, Inc., is a registered Legal Document Assistant in San Luis Obispo County. We are not a law
firm, and we are not attorneys. Upon customer requests, we prepare estate planning documents written and
approved by attorneys and we also prepare small estate and probate proceedings.

⚖️Job Responsibilities:
• Prepare trusts, assignments, wills, powers of attorney and deeds
• Prepare probate and small estate transfer forms using Westlaw Form Builder
• Prepare pleadings for probate and QDROs
• Proofread all work prepared by you and others for accuracy
• Review Probate Notes and prepare timely supplemental pleadings
And more!

⚖️Job Requirements:
Must know keyboard by touch with minimal to no errors
• Organized and focused with ability to prioritize and multi-task
• Superb written and oral communication skills
• Excellent proofreading with attention to details
• Experience with MS Word, Adobe, Excel, and Mac (preferred, but will train)
• Experience with Westlaw Form Builder and Odyssey (preferred, but will train)
• Notary public commission is preferred, or willing to become a notary
• Working knowledge of estate planning and probate is preferred
• Must be confident to work independently

⚖️Pay: $20 – $25 per hour, based on experience.

⚖️Apply: Please send cover letter, resume and references to Carol Ramirez cramirez@InTrustLegal.com

Small Los Osos estate planning law firm seeks experienced legal secretary/legal assistant for full-time position.

– Knowledge of estate planning, trust and probate law preferred, but not required.

– Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills, and an ability to handle multiple tasks and prioritize as necessary to meet deadlines.

– Strong organizational and word processing skills with attention to detail a must. Happy disposition a plus!

Job responsibilities include (but are not limited to):
$ Managing attorney calendars
$ Screening and transferring incoming phone calls
$ Coordinating and scheduling meetings and appointments
$ Drafting, revising, formatting and finalizing various documents
$ Interacting with clients, attorneys and others in person and by phone
$ File upkeep and organization
Notary public commission or ability to obtain such commission is required.

⚖️This is a full-time, in person position (9:00 to 5:00) with competitive salary and benefits.

⚖️Interested candidates should send a resume and cover letter to:
dms@gccattorneys.com

⚖️Welcome back to A Paralegal’s Perspective!

⚖️This Month’s Interviewee: Stacey Hunt

1. How did you discover the Paralegal profession?

⚖️ I had been working as a travel agent after I graduated college.  Although I was getting to travel a lot, I wasn’t making much money.  A girlfriend who was a legal secretary was expecting her first baby and was looking for someone to help out her attorney while she was on maternity leave.  Although I didn’t know a pleading from a hole in the wall, I could type, so he hired me.  After my friend came back to work they kept me on part time, but I needed full time work.  I got hired as a legal secretary at a bigger firm, which employed paralegals.  I remember thinking, man I would never be a paralegal, they have to know too much and they work so hard!  Six months later one of the paralegals left and they asked me to fill her position.  I was terrified, but I said yes.  Then I decided I’d better go back to school and get my paralegal certificate (that was before B&P 6450), so I did, and never looked back.

2. What is something you wish you knew before joining the legal profession?

⚖️ I wish I had known how amazingly fun and interesting it would be, or I would have done it from the beginning.  The law affects all of us every single day, and it is ever-changing and never boring.  I loved not only the mental exercise, but also helping people get themselves out of whatever trouble they were in.  It has also been an amazing career, that not only provided me an interesting living, but allowed me to go in all kinds of directions, such as writing, lecturing, and teaching.

3. How do you think the new advancements of AI will affect the legal industry?

⚖️ AI could be a great tool for the profession, as long as it doesn’t make attorneys and paralegals lazy.  They still have to fact check to make sure the information the computer is spitting out is valid.  There may be a period of time where people will think they don’t need an attorney, because they can just get their answers from the computer, but after they get burned a few times, they will be back.  I did read a very interesting article about an experiment done in a criminal courtroom, where the researchers fed the fact scenarios from several hundred cases into a computer to see if it could come up with a better decision than the judge.  The idea was, using the AI would eliminate bias and sympathy that would be exhibited by a human judge and reach a truly impartial decision.  The final result was, the AI “judge” did do a better job than the human judge in calculating which defendants were lying or would commit a subsequent crime.  When I ask my students in my Law Office Technology class if they would be willing to be judged by an AI judge, most of them say no, they would not trust it and would prefer a human, and the fallibility that would come with that.

4. What is the most interesting type of law to you, and why?

⚖️ Wow, that’s a tough one.  I would say the most interesting law I have ever done is attorney malpractice defense.  To win such a case you have to show that even if the malpractice had not occured, the client would have lost the case anyway, so there were no damages.  That means you have to pretend to try (or retry) the underlying case to see what the result would have been.  It’s quite a mental exercise!  Probably the most fun type of work I have done is intellectual property work.  It is such a positive, constructive type of work as compared to litigation.  People are creating and inventing things.  Having worked on getting an invention through the US Patent Office and then seeing that product on the shelf is very rewarding.

Thank you so much Stacey for being this months interviewee! Until next time… 🙂

DANIELLE E. PLEVEL
A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION
1320 Osos Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Tel.: (805) 781-0330 / Fax.: (805) 781-0331
DaniellePlevel@gmail.com

Family Law Paralegal Wanted (San Luis Obispo – Downtown)
– Danielle E. Plevel, A Professional Law Corporation is seeking an experienced paralegal. This is a 3/4 time position with flexible hours, competitive pay, health insurance, reimbursement, paid time off, and parking at our downtown office. We believe in a good work-life balance and having a positive work environment.
– The candidate must have: a paralegal certificate and ideally would have experience in family law and/or juvenile law. Experience in using Word Perfect, Essential Forms, Excel and Odyssey E-file is preferred. The candidate must have strong organizational, communication, and grammatical skills. We are seeking an individual that is self-motivating and able to work independently.
– Job responsibilities include: answering telephones and emails, assisting clients in a professional manner, organizing client files, drafting pleadings and correspondence, preparing financial disclosures, assisting with discovery, maintaining calendar and meeting deadlines, preparing exhibits, filing pleadings.
Please email a resume and references to DaniellePlevel@gmail.com.

Full-Time Trust Administration Paralegal

Job Description:

Stephen K. Hall & Associates, a well-established law firm specializing in estate planning, probate, trust administration and elder law, is seeking a full time (37.5 hours per week) Paralegal. Experience in estate planning/trust administration required.

Job Responsibilities:

Duties and responsibilities include file set-up, collecting asset information, marshaling those assets for re-titling, drafting affidavits, deeds and assessor documents, notarizing documents with clients, working with clients, beneficiaries, advisors, CPAs and other professionals to complete trust administration for upwards of fifteen or more matters at one time, answering phones, greeting and assisting in-office clients and various office support assignments both in and out of the office (personal vehicle is necessary).

Ideal Candidate’s Talents:

Pro-active thinker, strong ability to work independently, self-directed, exemplary customer service and communication skills, professionalism, flexibility, attention to detail, organized, strong multi-tasking and time management skills, excellent typing skills and computer literacy. Experience using Word Perfect, Time Matters and Time Slips is a bonus! Current Notary Public certificate preferred, but not required, however, candidate will be required to obtain Notary Public certificate.

Why our Firm may be for you:

Competitive salary, stable firm with long-term track record of success, excellent work-life balance, paid holidays and vacation, health, vision and dental insurance after 90 days.

Please forward cover letter, resume and references to: kelly@skhassociates.com with subject line: “SLO TA.” Please do not telephone nor deliver documents directly to the law office.