In the new year, LESA is offering a File Organization for Legal Support Staff program to help support staff new to the legal community (or those wanting to revisit the fundamentals) to develop strategies for keeping files organized from start to finish.
Presenter Susan Willgren – a litigation paralegal at Miller Thomson LLP – offers you an examination of file organization best practices and tips that you can implement, regardless of the area of law in which you work.
Although Susan works primarily in litigation, her experience gives her a wealth of knowledge to share about file organization strategies in various areas of the law.
I have been working in the legal industry since the mid-80s, so over 30 years now. In that time, I’ve worked and touched on almost every area of law, but the majority of my work has been in the litigation field. … Since 2008, I’ve also been teaching with some of the legal assistant programs, sharing the wealth of knowledge and helping the next generation get into the career.”
Program Topics
You’ll find all the details in the program brochure, but, in general, the seminar covers the following topics:
- New client files
- File opening considerations
- Limitations
- Print and digital organization strategies
- File management strategies
- File closing processes
As Susan explains, the discussion of these fundamental topics will be broad enough to touch on all areas of the law – making it useful to support staff in many different areas.
I am going to try to keep it on a higher level, touching on all aspects of law, so it doesn’t matter what types of law you’re practicing in. … I’ve done litigation for most of my career, but, because I’ve taught and worked in the other areas, I can speak to these other areas quite fluently as well. … It’s just the actual organization limitations that would be specific to one area of law or the other.”
Program Takeaways
For Susan, clarity is the one key takeaway that sums up what people will find most valuable about this program.
There are all these different areas that we’re going to touch on, but hopefully it will all meld into a nice, neat package so that, when they come across these things in the office, they’ll say ‘I remember that’ and there will be some clarity and something to draw back on.”
To help assist attendees in having something to draw back on, Susan will provide some practical resources that you can take back to reference in the office.
I will be giving samples of forms. Of course they will change from office to office, as most firms don’t have the same form, but, where possible, I will use forms that have been created by government bodies so that they offer a little more consistent of a place to start. There will be checklists and sample retainer letters. Anywhere that I’m able to pop in some tangibles that they can take away, I will do so, so there will be forms and checklists for sure.”
Register Online
You can register online to attend File Organization for Legal Support Staff in Edmonton (January 19) or Calgary (February 2). The special early bird registration rate ends on December 15, so register now to take advantage of the savings.
