Purposes:
The Legal Assistant Division(LAD)
is a professional group of legal assistants whose primary purposes
and goals include:
- Establising good fellowship among members
and members of the legal community.
- Promoting high standards of ethical
and professional competence.
- Furthering education among members
of the profession.
- Supporting and carrying out the programs,
aims and goals of the West Virginia Bar Association
What are Legal Assistants
(Paralegals)?
“A Legal Assistant / Paralegal is a person,
qualified by education, training or work experience, who is
employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental
agency, or other entity who performs specifically delegated
substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.”
(Adopted by the ABA in 1997). With a strong educational and
experiential background, the legal assistant/paralegal is qualified
to provide professional support to the legal profession.
A legal assistant may perform any task delegated from and
supervised by an attorney and which does not constitute the
unauthorized practice of law. A legal assistant cannot accept
a case; set a fee; render legal advice; or make a court appearance.
Legal assistants work continually to maintain a high degree
of competency and integrity within the legal profession through
continuing legal education and submitting to voluntary certification.
The State Bar of West Virginia adopted the American Bar Association’s
1986 definition of a legal assistant at its Annual Meeting
held on July 16-17, 1999. The definition is as follows:
“A Legal Assistant is a person, qualified
through education, training or work experience, who is employed
or retained by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency,
or other entity, in a capacity or function which involves
the performance, under the ultimate direction and supervision
of an attorney, of delegated substantive legal work, which
work, for the most part, requires a sufficient knowledge
of legal concepts that, absent such assistance, the attorney
would perform the task.”
Membership & Benefits Include:
-
Membership in a professional
legal orgainization
-
Networking opportunities with attorneys
judges, legal nurse consultants, and other legal assistants/paralegals
-
Social events sponsored by the Young Lawyers
Division of the WVBA
-
Continuing education through seminars, workshops,
and other educational offerings approved for CLAE credit
-
The Communique, a quarterly newsletter
distributed by the WVBA
LEGAL
ASSISTANT DIVISION
Of THE WEST VIRGINIA BAR ASSOCIATION
PO Box 2162
Huntington, WV 25722
Phones: (800) 944-9822, (304) 522-2652
Fax: (304) 522-2795
If membership qualifications
are met, you will receive a letter of welcome from the Executive
Director of WVBA. The LAD Division Membership Committee will
then contact you.
For more information,
please contact Rhonda Swartz, CLA, at rswartz@kvinet.com
or Jane Lambert, CLA at vjlambert@charter.net.
Membership
Application (PDF 57KB)
Print and mail it to us with your
payment.
|
