by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
As early as five years ago, litigants headed to a complicated products liability case would have needed a U-Haul to get all the files to and from the courtroom every day. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but a hand truck did came in handy.
Thanks to recent technological advances, including software, hardware and the modern courtroom, teams of lawyers and paralegals can walk into court with a floppy disk tucked safely into someone’s briefcase rather than 40-pound boxes. From that disk, files can be retrieved, multiple copies produced and power point presentations made, making life easier for all involved, especially for the paralegals who are responsible for much of the leg work and file management.
Unfortunately, too many paralegals don’t know what kind of technology is available or how to use it. And, until now, they didn’t have an organized group with which to share tech-based ideas.
On May 22, Rebecca Rossman, senior paralegal at McGuireWoods, and Francie DePaolo, paralegal and network administrator at Volpe Bajalia Wickes & Rogerson, are co-hosting the first meeting of local paralegals in an effort to formally organize a group that will meet on a regular basis. The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the conference room at McGuireWoods on the 33rd floor of the Bank of America tower. Although the Northeast Florida Paralegal Association already exists, Rossman is convinced there’s a need for a technology-specific organization and, so far, she received a lot of positive feedback.
“There is definitely a need for a local technology group in Jacksonville,” said Rossman, who’s been with McGuireWoods for four and half years. “There is not one for law firms or the corporate legal environment. There is no forum for legal technology. Just by word-of-mouth, I have gotten a 100 percent response. It’s a planning meeting. Where I see
this going is filling the need for a formal group to
be established, but not one in competition
with NEFPA.”
Rossman said the entire legal industry has become so reliant upon technology it’s imperative to convey those advances to paralegals. Between e-filing, state-of-the-art courtrooms, electronic data discovery data bases and knowledge management, paralegals often must be more in-tuned to technology than the attorneys they work for. Unfortunately, Jacksonville is lagging behind. According to Rossman, New York and Miami are two cities well ahead of the curve.
“The practice of law has changed because of technology and it’s having an affect on our job,” said DePaolo, explaining technology also affects judges and every other division of the legal system. “We need to address our needs, triumphs and problems we face; use the group as almost a knowledge base. We’ll use it as a networking forum and see where it leads.”
Both Rossman and DePaolo agree the new organization will appeal to the entire legal community.
“Our firm has donated the use of the conference room for the evening and a lot of our partners, our bosses, have said they want to come,” said Rossman.
“Eventually attorneys may want to join and some have shown interest. Maybe we’ll eventually include vendors,” said DePaolo.