Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 21, 2011
Southeast chapter of Tennessee Paralegal Association gears up for new year
Erica Tuggle
Laysha McCullaugh is the statewide secretary, publishing chair and Southeast chapter chair of the Tennessee Paralegal Association. Within her organization, she works to bring speakers to the monthly lunch meetings of the association in order to increase membership and provide CLE credit for her fellow paralegals.
- Erica Tuggle
The Tennessee Paralegal Association began with four Chattanooga paralegals who wanted to promote their profession, share information and advice through networking, encourage greater utilization of paralegals and to increase public awareness of the profession. Today, the Southeast Chapter of the TPA is the largest chapter in the state, and it uses monthly lunch meetings at the United Way to bring networking opportunities, CLE credit and information about the profession to paralegals and interested citizens alike.
Laysha McCullaugh is the statewide secretary, publishing chair for the TPA newsletter, and the chapter chair of the Southeast chapter. She says that the chapter chair’s job is essentially wide open, as they decide what they want to make the association be for that year. For her, this means working on several goals including establishing more active members, helping certified paralegals earn CLE by bringing in more speakers, and defining what everyone’s position in the association requires of them. More than this, though, she works to improve the association and give members more of what they need, a task in which member input is vital.
This year, McCullaugh also wants to enhance the networking opportunities for the group and to find several things that can fit into each member’s schedule to where members can still be active, but not have it interfere with their daily life. This is all on top of planning the spring seminar the Southeast chapter of the TPA is hosting in April.
Thanks to TPA email notifications, McCullaugh found out about the paralegal position at Fleissner, David and Johnson, where she now works. She joined TPA and began receiving the emails while finishing her degree at UTC, and after she graduated, McCullaugh increased her participation in TPA and began to attend the lunch meetings regularly.
Since then, she has worked to set up a study group for the CLA-CP test for paralegals to become Certified Legal Assistants and Certified Paralegals.
“It’s been one of the things I wanted to do since I got my CP two years ago,” she says. “It took me seven years to finally decide to take the two-day test, but after I got it, I felt so great. I can’t explain the feeling afterwards. You feel like you know the material afterwards and it is very much worth taking.”
McCullaugh says even with the range of ages in her profession from students to older people, she encourages everyone to take the test for advancement and personal growth reasons.
To be a paralegal, there is a different test that must be passed or completion of a 2- or 4-year degree. From there, paralegals can actually do anything an attorney does (outside of appearing in court) as long as it’s under the supervision of the attorney, she says. This ranges from document preparation, subpoenas, pleading and – McCullaugh’s personal favorite – research.
There are many opportunities for paralegals that grows as time goes on, she says. There is now a local paralegal doing freelance work, since now a virtual assistant can be as far away as California, as the paralegal does their work from home. This is just one option that makes this profession so appealing to students and mothers of all ages, MuCullaugh says.
Real estate is another area that there is specialty knowledge available in preparation for the CP exam.
“As a paralegal, your writing and communication is imperative to know,” she says. “If you are referring to the real estate part, then that is definitely, with the contracts and verbiage, good to know. Even if you are not going to go into the career, I feel it is just something for knowledge, to interpret things, especially when it comes to contracts where you have to read it, break it down and grasp that part before you go to the next part.
“Anyone who has an interest in a paralegal position, career or just about it should always look into it and feel free to ask any of our members what is involved and how they can get started,” she says.
McCullaugh says it is rewarding to work with clients and see that even if she may not be able to fix the situation entirely, she can at least let them know she is taking care of the issue the best she can.
“This is one of the easiest professions [if you like research], and you can get the most joy out of it if you apply yourself,” she says.
The TPA also has a new Web site designed by Nancy Harrison from Everything Just So. This new Web page contains a “Members only” section as well as information on joining TPA. Visit this site at www.tnparalegal.org.
The TPA will be presenting the Judge Neil W. Thomas Paralegal Utilization Award on Law Day at the Chattanooga Bar Luncheon. The attorney recipient is selected from nominations from TPA paralegals. Contact McCullaugh at lmccullaugh@gmail.com for information.
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