Utah Bar Paralegal Division

by: Shari Snell Faulkner

Officially, a probate is a court procedure to (a) determine the validity of a will; or (b) determine legal heirs, if no will. A probate proceeding also names a personal representative to perform fiduciary roles in settling a decedent's estate. Whether or not a court proceeding is necessary, unofficially a "probate matter" in a law office would include such things as:

filing the necessary documents with the court
assisting the personal representative to inventory all of the probate and non-probate assets
paying final expenses and debts of the decedent
filing an estate tax return, if necessary
filing the necessary income taxes
preparing an accounting
distributing the remaining assets to the proper beneficiaries

by: Peggi Lowden, CLA-S

To get the most from an experienced and trained legal assistant1 in litigation practice, an attorney may need to open their practice to the pain of change. This will however lead to the benefits of change. The benefits are many. The most prevalent is an optimization of two valuable resources in litigation law practice - Cost-Savings and Efficiency. Cost-saving and efficient task delegation to accomplish the law firm's goals are for the benefit of client services. While cost-savings and efficiency are improved, economic and service benefits are realized by your clients.2 Incidental to the process of improving client services is an increase in the law firm's bottom line of potential earnings.

by: Lucy A. Knorr

Can your family law practice function in your absence? If you find yourself scoffing at the idea of taking time off during the middle of the week to attend a seminar, volunteer at your child's school or ski in the middle of the week, you may find the ideas about utilizing legal assistants in this article especially helpful. The last time the lawyer I work for was gone for a few days, both her secretary and I remained extremely busy, and I billed as many hours as when she was present. Working at that level is very fulfilling because it feels like you are an essential part of a team. Granted, if there was an emergency where a client required immediate legal advice we had another family law attorney who could help. However, the point is, when you utilize your legal assistants effectively, they are happier in their jobs; and it allows you the ability to manage your time and to choose whether you want to service more clients, attend a seminar or take that ski day. In preparation for this article, I spoke with several family law legal assistants to gain additional perspective on legal assistant utilization. Our conversations about utilization fell primarily into the three categories of work delegation, communication and relationship style.

by: J. Robyn Dotterer, CLA - Legal Assistant Division Utilization Chair

In the upcoming months the Legal Assistant Division of the Utah State Bar will be contributing articles regarding utilization of legal assistants in a number of practice areas. Our goal is to assist the legal community in understanding the role we can play in all areas of the practice of law. In the December, 2002, issue of the Utah Bar Journal Marilu Peterson, Division Chair, provided the Utah State Bar Guidelines for the Utilization of Legal Assistants.