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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.
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62283.07This paper examines effective writing styles and approaches generally and in the context of affidavits, orders, and concise letters. It also provides tips for written advocacy in summary trials and case conferences. This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA's Refresher 2023: Family Law in Jasper from May 4–7, 2023.
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62320.01There are plenty of opportunities for lawyers to engage in media relations, whether it’s helping a client through a crisis or providing insight regarding legislative changes. This paper explores business development topics with respect to media relations. This paper was presented at LESA’s Navigating Media Relations for Lawyers webinar on May 25, 2023.
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62321.01It is important to know your legal responsibilities when commissioning and notarizing documents. This paper introduces students-at-law, Alberta law school students, and newly called lawyers to the legal concepts and prudent practices relating to the notarization and commissioning of documents, the execution of documents, witnessing documents, and witnessing personal guarantees. This paper was presented at LESA’s Notarizing and Commissioning Documents webinar on May 8, 2023.
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62308.03Successful legal project management (LPM) in corporate and commercial transactions can result in enhanced communication amongst team members and with clients, a reduction in cost overruns, and ultimately, increased client satisfaction. This paper explores legal project management principles and considers how they can be used to improve transactional legal services by legal support staff, whether their firm/organization regularly uses LPM tools or not. This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s Commercial and Corporate Transactions for Legal Support Staff program in Edmonton on February 9, 2023 and in Calgary on February 23, 2023.
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62310.02Legal research is a skill that some people may not associate with the responsibilities for legal support staff. This paper delves into the foundations of legal research within the context of staff who support lawyers. It serves to help establish a baseline and provides useful information to bring legal support skills to the next level. This paper was presented at LESA’s Legal Research and Paperless File Management for Legal Support Staff webinar on January 17, 2023.
