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The Reporter E-Letter Articles

05Dec2017

Best Practices for File Naming: Keeping Track of Legal Documents

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By Lindsey Dean You’ve just created an important document and need to save it where it can be easily found and reviewed. You want it to be grouped with other documents in the case, yet easily identifiable as its own file. How should you name your documents to keep things organized and accessible before,
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24Nov2016

Seven Microsoft Word Hacks Every Legal Professional Should Know

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Microsoft Word is one of those programs that you instinctively think you’re a master in because you likely use it almost every day of your life.  Certainly if you had asked me, after having worked with Word for well over a decade, whether there was anything else I could know, I’d have said a firm “no.” If,
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27Jul2016

Six Quick Soft Skill Tips for the Office Professional

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Office and administrative professionals go go go all day. They come in the morning, check their email, then dig right into the tasks of the day. These tasks may vary from dealing with their manager or peers, creating documents and spreadsheets, coordinating projects or events to one of many other specialized projects.
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20Jan2016

What do Lawyers Want from Their Legal Secretaries and PAs?

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On one level, there are as many answers to this question as there are legal secretaries and lawyers. Every working relationship is different, and most of us will have found out that what perfectly suits one relationship doesn’t work at all in another. However, as someone who has worked both as a Legal Secretary and as a lawyer,
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05Feb2015

Optimum Customer Service Skills

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Working as a legal secretary will often mean dealing with clients and customers. As is the case with any service industry, it is imperative to show these clients the highest level of customer service skills at all times, especially considering how handsomely they may be paying for their legal advice and support.
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01May2014

Do You Have a Good Telephone Manner?

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By Quin Hoskins
The skill to portray a good telephone manner is definitely one of the most important to your role in working as a Legal Secretary or PA. How you come across on the telephone affects the professionalism of your firm and, therefore, its reputation. With this in mind,
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01Sep2013

How To – Skills Building Session

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By Alexis Kessler, Baldwin County ALP (Alabama)
We’ve all been there.  You start a new job, maybe your first job in the legal field, and they begin by giving you “basic tasks” until you both feel more comfortable in your skill level. Sounds great, right? Until you begin to realize that your definition of “basic” and their definition of “basic” are two completely opposite things.   
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01May2013

Letiquette – Netiquette

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By Marie Schoenfeldt, PLS, CLA
When composing a letter, be mindful of your etiquette, especially if it is a first contact business letter. Keep the recipient of your correspondence in mind, as well as what and how you want to communicate. If this is your first contact with the recipient,
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01Oct2012

Tools for the Sustainable Law Office

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By The Center for Earth Leadership
To promote sustainable office practices, the Center for Earch Leadership has created six tools for use in a law office setting. Additionally, annotated versions of selected checklists and supplemental materials are available for education of office personnel. Model Office Sustainability Policy.  A key element in any office initiative is a sustainability policy adopted by the management team. 
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01Oct2012

A Shoutout to Paralegals

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By Jamie Collins, The Paralegal Society
Have you had your day hijacked recently? Ha! Of course you have — you’re a paralegal! Let’s face it. We as paralegals are planners. We make to-do lists, organize things (and attorneys), and draw up masterful contingency plans, day in and day out.
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01Jun2012

Why Worrying Well is Good for You

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It is often said that we ought not to worry. In fact, this is far from the case, provided we ‘worry well.’ Our brains thrive on being stretched and on finding solutions to difficulties. When we worry well, we engage both our higher intelligence and our innate creativity, which not only reduces stress but also gives us a sense of competence and achievement.
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01Jan2012

Overcoming Procrastination

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Many people have a tendency to procrastinate. This could be because the task is complicated, you’re unfamiliar with it, there’s a prospect of conflict, or you simply prefer to socialize rather than work! But motivating yourself to “do” rather than “avoid” some tasks will result in higher levels of achievement, satisfaction,
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01Aug2011

Methods of Backing Up Work

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By Sally Jenkins
Do you make regular backup copies of your work? We all know how temperamental computers can be – one minute they’re working fine and then the next they freeze up and refuse to do anything. Usually the ‘turn it off and back on again’ method brings the machine back to life and everything is hunky-dory again,
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01Jun2011

10 Unknown Google Tips

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By Chere Estrin
Someone sent me the following list of neat Google tricks. I wish I could give credit to the writer, so forgive me about that. If anyone knows, let me know. However, here are new ways to use Google that we all can use: Definitions Pull up the definition of the word by typing “define”
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01Apr2011

Fight the Battle Against Clutter

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There are countless declutter gurus online that promise to help you get clutter-free, so which advice is the best for YOU? The truth of the matter is that whatever decluttering technique you choose to follow, it will only work if you really go at it — if you work hard and commit yourself to getting clutter-free.
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01Nov2010

Embracing the Technological Age of Document Management

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Paralegals spend enormous amounts of time dealing with organization, discovery, and other methods of trial preparation. As technology advances, so does the need for increased organization, planning and focus in litigation. Our role continues to evolve with the development and implementation of case management software. The key to case management success is acknowledging that managing each case is similar to managing a complex project and demands the same attention.
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01Sep2010

Staying Productive When You’re Unmotivated – 4 Tips

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We’d all like to fit more into the day. Whether we’re chasing a promotion at work, hoping to ace a class in college, or trying to get our small business up and running, we want to pack as much as possible into every hour. Productivity often takes a nose-dive, though, when we’re feeling unmotivated.
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01Jul2010

Minimizing Interruptions

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By Des Whitehorn, Dedicated, The Legal Secretary Journal, London, England
Have you ever noticed how much more you can get done on the occasional day that you work away from the office? So where does the time go in the office? A “quick” question from a colleague, a phone call,
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01Jan2010

Staying Productive When You’re Unmotivated

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By Ali Hale, Aliventures: Getting More From Life
We’d all like to fit more into the day. Whether we’re chasing a promotion at work, hoping to ace a class in college, or trying to get our small business up and running, we want to pack as much as possible into every hour.
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01Jan2010

Minute Taking

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By Judith Di-Castri
Minutes are a factual, impartial and balanced record of the decisions and summary of a meeting. As such they should be an accurate, brief and clear snapshot of what was discussed, what was agreed, and what action is to be taken, by whom and by when.
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01Jun2009

How to Effectively Handle Privileged Emails

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By Sue Seeley, Manager for Legal Services, IE Discovery, Inc. This article first appeared in ALSP Update – May 2009 During the past fifteen years, e-mail has transformed how we work, emerging from relative obscurity to become the way most of us communicate on the job. Unfortunately for attorneys and litigation support professionals,
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