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62580.01The roles and responsibilities carried out by legal support staff are integral to a successful law practice. This paper focuses on communication strategies that strengthen working relationships with lawyers and offer practical tips for using CanLII, including basic searches, filters, and MyCanLII features that help streamline case-pulling tasks. These materials were presented at LESA’s Effective Legal Support: Law Office Fundamentals webinar on May 13, 2026.
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62530.05Organization is key to being an effective lawyer. It is a crucial skill in the management of a busy practice. This paper explores the importance of file organization with helpful tips and examples. These materials are part of a collection presented at LESA’s Family Law Conference (Kananaskis) program in Kananaskis on October 24–25, 2025.
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62530.04Creating and maintaining a good filing system is instrumental to moving any file forward. This paper explores strategies for developing a well-organized filing system to help improve overall efficiency over time. These materials are part of a collection presented at LESA’s Family Law Conference (Kananaskis) program in Kananaskis on October 24–25, 2025.
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62530.01These materials are part of a collection presented at LESA’s Family Law Conference (Kananaskis) program in Kananaskis on October 24–25, 2025.
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62456.07Unbundled legal services offer significant advantages for certain and provide flexibility and affordability, empowering clients to better control their spending while tailoring legal support to specific tasks. Unbundled legal services also provide a number of benefits to legal practitioners including access to a large and growing market, a way to differentiate from competing firms, and the possibility of remote work. This paper explores these and other aspects of unbundled legal services. This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s Alberta Family Law Institute: Survive, Strive, Thrive program in Calgary on November 28–November 29, 2024.
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62387.01This paper provides strategies and best practices for legal writing in Alberta, with topics including three principles of legal writing, drafting emails, drafting blogs, and practicing your writing. This paper was presented at LESA’s Effective Legal Writing Skills webinar on April 16, 2024.
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62402.02Designed specifically for legal support staff across a variety of practice areas, this paper explores how to build your own digital notebook using Microsoft OneNote, and how to organize your schedule and tasks using Microsoft Planner. This paper was presented at LESA’s Tech Tips for Legal Support Staff webinar on April 3, 2024.
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62402.01Designed specifically for legal support staff across a variety of practice areas, this paper explores helpful tech tips when using Microsoft Word Mail Merge and Adobe PDFs. This paper was presented at LESA’s Tech Tips for Legal Support Staff webinar on April 3, 2024.
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62370.01Legal research is a critical part of the legal profession as it provides the framework for legal advice, and it creates and confirms the advice lawyers give clients. This paper outlines common legal databases, and examines key steps in the legal research process. This paper was presented at LESA’s Legal Research Skills for Internationally Trained Lawyers webinar on October 11, 2023.
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62329.03Legal assistants and paralegals are extensions of their responsible lawyers. At times legal support staff may be called upon to support lawyers in conducting legal research. This paper introduces legal research at a foundational level and serves as a starting point for junior legal professionals seeking to gain more knowledge in this area. This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s Law Office Fundamentals for Legal Support Staff program in Edmonton on May 26, 2023.
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62329.02Understanding the roles and responsibilities as a legal support staff is essential to a successful practice. This paper discusses communication and time management skills, including communication between legal support staff and “their” lawyer(s), how to work with difficult personalities, how to communicate with other legal professionals, and best practices for efficient time management. This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s Law Office Fundamentals for Legal Support Staff program in Edmonton on May 26, 2023.
