Volume 3, Issue 1

Paralegal Post • Graduation/Awards Ceremony • New Instructors • OCPA • Online Program • MCLE Require • Summer Courses

Editor Kathy Miller, ACP, CAS

Program Manager Beverly Moss-Jones

Paralegal Administrative Staff Kathy Amoroso Vonessa Low

Paralegal Program Office

949.824.5528 paralegal@unx.uci.edu

UC Irvine Extension

949.824.5414

Paralegal Post Editorial Board

May 2007

We’re on the web

www.extension.uci.edu

Career Center (WOC) Offers Free Program to Certificate Candidates

UC Irvine Extension Certificate Candidates can take advantage of a FREE program offered by the Women’s Opportunities Center (“WOC”)* - the Certificate Candidate Career Program which provides career counseling, workshops, and career resources. This program includes two 1-hour sessions with a career counselor and your choice of any two of the following 2-hour career management mini-workshops: • RESUME DEVELOPMENT: Learn how to develop a professional, attention-

grabbing resume that gets you an interview; • NETWORKING/INTERVIEWING: Learn how to market yourself through per-

sonal contacts and to effectively manage the accompanying stress and anxiety; master asking questions and asking for the job;

• NEGOTIATING: Learn how a company decides what you are worth, the elements

of a compensation package, how to research “going rates,” and how to ask for more;

• CHANGE MANAGEMENT: Learn how to build healthy resilience in times of per-

sonal and professional change; • RESUMES IN MICROSOFT WORD: Learn the skills and knowledge necessary to

use Word to create, edit and format resumes for printing and sending by e-mail; • FINDING ANSWERS ON THE INTERNET: Learn how to conduct intelligent web

searches on any topic, capture the relevant information for storage and retrieval. For more information on this program please call: (949) 824-7128.

SAVE THE DATE! Graduation/Awards Ceremony

June 19, 2007 (Tuesday) - 6:00 p.m. Social Science Lecture Hall

Did you receive your paralegal certificate during the time period of Summer 2006 through Spring 2007? Is so, please make plans to attend the all-UC Irvine Extension certificate program Graduation/Award Ceremony. Family and friends are invited to join

the graduates in recognizing their accomplishments. A reception will be held imme-diately after the ceremony.

PAGE 2 PARALEGAL POST VOLUME 3 , ISSUE 1

New Instructors Christine Garber, B.A., senior paralegal, with Allergan, Inc. will be the Internship Coordinator. Chris received her para-legal certificate from the UC Irvine Extension Paralegal Certificate Program. She is a former OCPA President and previ-ously taught the Fundamentals course. Chris also serves as a UC Irvine Extension Paralegal Certificate Advisory Board Member. The Internship will be offered each quarter. Ron Scott, J.D., CPA, is in-house counsel for Equity Pacific Mortgage. Ron also received his paralegal certificate from UC Irvine Extension. He is scheduled to teach Contracts this summer. Welcome to attorney Gary Lopez who is the executive director for Fremont College and will be teaching Corporate Law. Julie Pierce, J.D., will be teaching Business Law. Julie is a contract attorney performing in-house counsel services for corporations. She is director emeritus for ACCA-SoCal (American Corporate Counsel).

CAPA—June 23, 2007

The California Alliance of Paralegal Associations (“CAPA”) is hosting its 19th Annual Education Con-ference on Saturday June 23, 2007 at the Hilton Harbor Island Hotel in San Diego. The program includes sessions on: Ethics Seminar presented by attorney David Cameron Carr; Real Estate Leasings by Debra Leffler Streeter, Esq.; Family Law—High Conflict Custody Cases by Deena Stacer, Esq.; Pro-bate Litigation by Mary V.J. Cataldo, Esq.; Litiga-tion—Responding to the Crisis Situation by Eliza-beth Balfour, Esq.; Intellectual Property by Dr. James Mullen, III; Environment Law by Kelly Richardson, Esq., KimTayor, Esq., Adrianna Kripke, Esq. and Brooke Roberts, Esq. The Keynote Speaker is San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre. Closing the conference will be paralegal M. Lyn Hall-Fore, CLA. Registration information may be found at www.caparalegal.org.

NALA—July 11 – 14, 2007

NALA is hosting its 32nd Educational Convention and Exhibit in New Orleans from July 11—14, 2007 with educational sessions that include Electronic Data Discovery, Human Resources, Appellate Proce-dures, Disaster Recovery, Elder Law, and Immigra-tion. The NALA annual meeting is also held in con-junction with its annual convention. Details may be found at www.nala.org.

OCPA—September 29, 2007

The Orange County Paralegal Association will cele-brate its 30th Anniversary in conjunction with its annual educational conference. Educational ses-sions are being firmed up. Check out OCPA’s web-site for up to the minute information—www.ocparalegal.org

Rafia Aleem was elected President of OCPA for the 2007 term. Rafia received her paralegal certificate from UC Irvine Extension. She currently is the Paralegal Manager for Green & Hall specializing in business/civil litigation with an empha-sis in construction defect. Rafia also serves on the UC Irvine Extension Advi-sory board and volunteers with the Con-

stitutional Rights Foundation.

Rafia Aleem New President of OCPA

Benefits of OCPA Membership Career Advancement • Annual career advancement seminar • Discounts for Paralegals on CEB Products • Job Bank • Mentoring program for beginning Paralegals Educational Opportunities • OCPA sponsors several sections which meet regularly

including a Student section and feature continuing legal education seminars and workshops taught by attorneys, paralegals, and other professionals.

• Annual continuing education conference to enhance com-munication and professional development of members.

Annual Salary Survey • Each year the OCPA conducts a salary survey of Parale-

gals. The results of the OCPA's salary survey are a mem-ber benefit to only active OCPA members.

Credit Union and Insurance • Members receive discounts on credit cards, favorable loan

rates for auto and home purchases, discounts on eye care and high interest on savings accounts

• Insurance includes medical, disability and life, travel club, and financial planning

Compendium • The Compendium is OCPA’s monthly newsletter for, and

about, paralegals. Only current and active OCPA mem-bers receive the Compendium.

Student Membership • Student membership costs less than voting membership.

Application forms and additional information may be found at www.ocparalegal.org.

Upcoming Paralegal Conferences

PAGE 3 PARALEGAL POST VOLUME 3 , ISSUE 1

At the recent UC Irvine Extension Instructor Appreciation Breakfast, Gary Matkin, Dean of Continuing Education, pre-sented the Distinguished Instructor Award to a team of parale-gal certificate program instructors for their online couse devel-opment: Gary Borquez, June Cheng, Renato Izquieta, Kathy Miller, Jonathan Navarro, Guy N. Ormes and Zachary Zaharek.

The online courses involve non-synchronous sessions and syn-chronous sessions. During the synchronous sessions, students and the online course instructor will log on at their respective computers and participate in discussions and/or online exer-cises with the class. The first two online courses were offered in winter quarter, with the plan that all of the required courses and two electives will be available in the online format within a year. The required legal admissions meeting will also be avail-able as an online option.

UC Irvine Extension ABA Approved Online Program Developers Receive Distinguished Instructor Award

National Paralegal Associations Websites

American Alliance of Paralegals, Inc. http://www.aapipara.org

National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) http://www.nala.org

National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) http://www.paralegals.org

California State Association Websites

California Alliance of Paralegal Associations (CAPA)

http://www.caparalegal.org

Orange County Paralegal Association Website

http://www.ocparalegal.org

Instructors Guy Ormes, Kathy Miller and Renato Izquieta receive award from Extension Dean Gary Matkin

On November 16, 2006, the UC Board of Regents approved UC Irvine’s proposal to host a law school on its campus. When UCI opened its doors in 1965, the law school was part of the original vision for the campus. The UCI Law School will be the first public law school to open in California in more than 40 years. Currently a national search for the founding dean is being conducted and the first students are expected in fall 2009. Initially, classes will be held in exist-ing buildings on campus. Several campus sites are under consideration for the establishment of a new building and law library. The school will seek accreditation through formal approval by the American Bar Association as soon as possi-ble. For more information and to keep abreast of new devel-opments please visit http://www.law.uci.edu

UCI Law School Plans

National/California Paralegal Association Websites

Effective January 1, 2007, California paralegals must now complete 4 hours of continuing education in Ethics every two years and 4 hours of General/Substantive Law every two years. To be eligible to receive MCLE credit, the courses must meet the requirements of California Business & Profes-sions code section 6070. OCPA, CAPA, NALA and other pro-fessional paralegal associations have become California MCLE approved providers so that many of their courses meet the standard to offer approved MCLE credits. As a reminder, California paralegals who have obtained fur-ther professional certifications such as the CLA/CP, ACP or RP have additional continuing education requirements.

MCLE Requirements Change for California Paralegals

REMINDERS: Certificate Requirements - Candidates for the certificate must be officially admitted into the program and complete a total of 30 units (300 hours) of instruction with a grade of "C" or above in all courses. Certificate candidates must complete the program within five years of taking their first course. NOTE: A “C-” or below is not a passing grade. Free Career Counseling and Workshops Available - Paralegal cer-tificate candidates (both men and women) are eligible for free ca-reer counseling and workshops through the Women’s Opportunity Center. Call 949.824.7128. Certificate Candidacy - Certificate candidates must apply for admis-sion into the program before completing the third course in which they enroll - applications are available on the web. Paralegal Certificate Forms: All Paralegal Certificate Program forms are available online at:

www.extension.uci.edu/courses/certificate/paralegal.asp

ONLINE COURSES • Information Session Wed. 6/6/07 11:30—12:30 p.m. • Introduction and Fundamentals

of Legal Assistantship Synchronous sessions: Wed. 6/27—9/19/07 7:30—8:30 p.m. Holiday 7/4/07 • Contracts Synchronous sessions: Tues. 6/26—9/4/07 7:30—8:30 p.m. • Legal Research Synchronous sessions: Mon. 7/9—9/17/07 8:30—9:30 p.m. • Civil Litigation II Synchronous sessions: Thurs. 7/12—9/20/07 6:30—7:30 p.m. • Intellectual Property Synchronous sessions: Wed 6/27—9/19/07 6:30—7:30 p.m. No meetings—7/4/07; 7/11/07; 8/8/07; 9/12/07

GROUND COURSES • Legal Admissions Meeting Mon. 6/19/2007 RSVP 949.824.5528 • Fundamentals of Legal Assis-

tantship Wed. 6/27-9/5/07 • Legal Writing Mon. 6/25—8/27/07 • Civil Litigation I Tues. 6/26-8/28/07 • Civil Litigation III Tues. 6/26-8/28/07 • Corporate Law Mon. 7/2-9/10/07 • Ethics for the Legal Assistant Tues. 6/19/07; Thurs. 6/21/07; Sat. 6/23/07 • Family Law Wed. 6/27-9/5/07 • Paralegal Internship Tues. 7/3/07; 8/7/07; 9/4/07

Paralegal Certificate Program Office P.O. Box 6050 Irvine, CA 92616-6050 949.824.5528 paralegal@unx.uci.edu

Paralegal Post story ideas welcome. Please submit your ideas for future articles to paralegal @ unx.uci.edu

VOLUME 3 , ISSUE 1 PARALEGAL POST PAGE 4

Request for Certificate - All requests should be filled out when you are completing your final course. Please allow three to four weeks after grades are in for certificate processing. To re-quest your certificate, complete a Request for Certificate form and return it to the Paralegal Program Office.

Summer 2007 Schedule Announced

June 23, 2007 is California Paralegal Day

ONLINE COURSES ABA APPROVED

UC Irvine Extension’s Online Courses are ABA approved. How-ever, you are limited to 15 online credits that can apply to your parale-gal certificate.