Karen Tynan, an employment law specialist who counts local wineries among her clients, represents Los Angeles-based porn stars, producers and talent agencies in their bid to make sexually explicit movies without using condoms.

Ms. Tynan is a Sonoma County attorney who flew out of Sonoma County to Las Vegas for the annual porn industry’s convention where she will be on a panel discussing workplace safety issues.

English: Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County

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One might think this female attorney and mother of a teenage girl would never be caught working to assist the porn industry who are often accused of being sleazy and demeaning to women but she has no problem reminding people that porn is a legally protected form of expression. She also says that encouraging teenagers to practice safe sex and advising adult performers are two different things.

Ms. Tynan has plenty of support at home and counts people such as District Attorney Jill Ravitch as a friend. She’s a past leader of Sonoma County Women in Law.

Sounds to me like a very interesting woman with a very interesting practice.

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Remember Bonnie Sweeten the paralegal who faked her and her daughter’s kidnapping? U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. ruled Wednesday that she had stolen over $1 million monetary loss which allows federal prosecutors to seek a sentence of 102 to 121 months.

Sweeten used a complex series of frauds to obtain the $1 million, starting in 2004, when she was working as a paralegal in Bucks County for now-disbarred lawyer Debbie Carlitz. About $640,000 was taken from law firm accounts, while an additional $280,000 was stolen from an elderly relative’s retirement account. Sweeten was arrested in 2009.

Her family claims that she is sorry and realizes she made a mistake and they have no idea why she did what she did.

It is sad when someone stoops to stealing from their employer and the employer’s clients and even worse when that person is a paralegal.

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Category: Family Law  2 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I have had a busy year and we are only at day 22 of the new year! As many of you may recall, I work in Family Law. At the end of 2010, it was a pretty calm end of the year moving into 2011. The end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 has been crazy busy for the firm I am with.

We have had more restraining orders and custody issues than I can recall in quite some time. I mention this because today I realized that I have been so busy I haven’t had time to update my blog and I feel a little guilty.

I am hoping to get it together and get back into the swing of things and get my blogging back on track. Hope all of you are having a great start to your New Year!

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Category: Family Law  2 Comments

I am on day 3 of my 5 day time off from work. It has flown by so quickly, just like 2011. I spent this morning reflecting on this past year and the changes that have occurred in my life.

I have an awesome job working with the best people! Our office moved in 2011 with only a few minor hitches. The new office space is fantastic and our clients love it too!

My adult sons are healthy, my youngest is doing great now that he is on his insulin pump (I don’t think he will mind if I share this). My grandchildren are all happy and healthy and growing up faster than I would like them too, lol. My mother and step-father are also doing well although they are still living so far away in Oregon. My best friend of over 33 years is still my best friend and is always there for me! I have many friends around the globe who care about me as well.

English: Wikipedia Happy New Year

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I have a lot to be happy about and am blessed to have everyone in my life, including all of my paralegal friends, here and at home. Yes, I have been a lucky woman in 2011 and am looking forward to a wonderful 2012. I hope all of you have a wonderful, happy and prosperous 2012 as well!

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John Parker, a paralegal in Hempstead, NY, has been facing tough times since paid with a fraudulent check when he worked as a security guard for what he thought was a friend. This story caught my eye and I had to share it. 

John took a part-time job during the Summer of 2010 to help supplement his income as a paralegal when his new son was born. Seems the check he received was fraudulent, unbeknownst to him. He used the $4,600 paycheck earned over the summer to pay bills and school supplies for his daughter from another relationship.

The bank contacted him about the check but he was unable to pay it back right away and then the police showed up at his work to arrest him. His then employer helped him out by paying the money back to the bank and John paid semi-monthly payments to his boss to pay back the loan. John’s luck continued in a downward spiral and he eventually fell behind on his rent due to the high payments to his boss and eventually received an eviction notice. John managed to find another part-time job, but still was not able to catch up.

John eventually found F.E.G.S. Health and Human Services System, a beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New York, one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. This agency, along with his annual bonus from his paralegal job, helped John catch up on his rent and paid of the loan to his boss and then his landlord raised his rent.

When John received a rent increase he moved to a cheaper apartment and he learned in September that he and two co-workers were going to be laid off. Despite all of this, with the determination of all of us in this legal profession, John is determined to care for his children during these tough challenges even it it means he goes without food so that they do not.

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This comes from my mother via e-mail. My mother is 76 years young and loves to forward me funny (or what she calls funny) stories. This one I liked so much I had to share.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to every historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.

We should’ve known…… Only women would be able to drag a fat-ass man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Image by KeiBi via Flickr

Merry Christmas to all my paralegal friends! I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

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I don’t know what paralegal Alexa Johzen Polar, 34, and elementary school teacher Robin Antonella Pabello, 33, were thinking when they decided to allegedly take a check written for $19,500 to Polar’s employer, change the amount to $285,000 and deposit it into their own account. Why they thought that they could charter a plane and fly some friends to New York City for a shopping spree and put a down payment on a $3.7 million dollar home in California and not get caught is puzzling.

What were they thinking? Of course, they have been charged with forgery, grand theft and grand theft by embezzlement and they each must post bail in the amount of $285,000, with the verification of funds.

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As some of you may remember, we recently hired a new receptionist at our firm.  She is in her mid 20′s and this week will be her fourth week with us. She is doing a great job and picking up our little quirks very quickly. We were all reminded a few days ago how things have changed with office equipment when the receptionist was given a project by one of the attorneys and was asked to type the document and return it.

The "QWERTY" layout of typewriter ke...

Image via Wikipedia

It seems that she has never seen a typewriter let alone used one! They don’t teach it in high school anymore and apparently don’t even explain what one is.

After a quick lesson the receptionist was off and typing and some of us (me) were reminded how long we have been doing this office work. (I actually learned to type on a manual typewriter, does that make me old?) I don’t think so, just well seasoned!

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According to the November 30th USAtoday.com article, “Report: Strippers pose as legal aides at detention center”, strippers, as well as South American pole dancers have been posing as paralegals so as to visit rich drug lords at the maximum Federal Detention Center in Miami.

I don’t know about you, but this kind of pi***s me off!! I’ve worked hard (and still do) to get where I am at in my Paralegal Career.  When “women” do these things with the assistance of attorneys who should know better, it makes those of us in law who treasure what we do, look bad. Let’s face it, lawyers are the butt of many jokes and this act done by several attorneys in Miami doesn’t help the image. Yes, I am outraged, but really, working in law as long as I have, I am not really surprised.

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Shreds

Image by MadMup via Flickr

In a recent article written by Vicki Voisin, regarding a paralegal who donated the firm’s used paper to her child’s school which had client information on it, it reminded me how we can get busy and take for granted the information we have in our care for our clients. You can read her article, Oops! Paralegal Donates Firms Used Paper to School, here.

We just hired a new receptionist for our office who will also be assisting with paralegal duties in the very near future.  Reading the article by Vicki reminded me that I need to go over the confidentiality of our clients information with the receptionist and to take a look at our offices practice of what documents are shredded or not, and what documents are being put in the recycle box.

I believe it is important to ensure that our client’s information is kept confidential, from not leaving the client files laying out for other clients to see when they come in for an appointment to redacting account numbers for bank accounts and credit card accounts, and especially keeping the client’s social security information and even their address confidential when submitting documents to the opposing counsel or the court.

Our attorneys are considered liable for any negligence of their employees, (we the paralegals and anyone else in the office) so this might be a good time for all of us to take a look at what measures we are taking to ensure that the client information is secure within our respective offices.  After all, I don’t want my personal information floating around for anyone to see, so I treat the client’s information as if it was my own, shouldn’t you do the same?

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Category: Legal News  Tags: , ,  Comments off