For the second consecutive year, the Bar Association of San Francisco’s (BASF) Paralegal Section successfully presented its months-in-the making educational conference on Saturday, August 15. This year’s conference focused on ethics and wellness.

The selection of wellness as a topic for the conference was somewhat fortuitous, as self-care has become a hot topic for many who have been working from home for the past several months due to COVID-19.

The coronavirus pandemic initially presented a logistical challenge to the section’s executive committee (ExComm)—how to present a conference in the age of stay-at-home orders? Once the ExComm realized that an in-person event would not be safe or possible, its members worked together quickly to organize an entirely online conference that exceeded expectations.

Over the course of several hours, professionals from locations all over the Bay Area presented five Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars, four of which were eligible for legal ethics credit. Additional segments on wellness and mindfulness were peppered in-between the CLEs to give attendees a chance to relax and re-center themselves from the comfort of their own homes.

The educational program included:

• California Rules of Professional Conduct and Ethical Implications During the Pandemic, presented by Carol M. Langford
• Mind Your Ethics and Make Your Best Record, presented by Dorothy Proudfoot, Kelly Bryce Shainline, Lori Cummings
• Judd, Elizabeth Patterson Harvey, and Ana Fatima Costa
• Ethics in Everyday Practice, presented by Paul DeAngelis
• Ethical and Efficient Records Retrieval Experience, presented by Heidi Cornell and Wendy Stephens
• From Frazzled to Focused, presented by Sarah Tetlow
• Mindfulness and Wellness segments, presented by Joshua Hathaway

These professionals ensured that the conference was not only designed to meet the educational needs of attorneys and legal support professionals, but that the event was an enjoyable experience for the attendees. The ExComm would like to thank them for their time and effort in helping to create this conference.

The conference could not and would not have been possible without the generous support of BASF staff, especially Raquel Cabading, Peter Gillen, Jordan Bañez-Ching, and Donia Abdelameed. The ExComm is deeply indebted to them for their patience, hard work, and commitment to the ExComm’s conference idea. They were instrumental and essential in helping to create, plan, and execute this online conference—a first for the section and for BASF.

In addition to the tremendous support received from BASF and the conference speakers, several generous sponsors made certain that the conference was a success: Cañada College (Gold Level Sponsor), Divergent Language Solutions (Gold Level Sponsor), Hersh FamilyLaw Practice (Silver Level Sponsor), Fink Family Law (Silver Level Sponsor), MacroPro, Inc. (Silver Level Sponsor), Deposition Reporters Association (Silver Level Sponsor), and the San Francisco Paralegal Association (Supporting Sponsor).

The day came to a close with a festive and lively post-conference trivia event sponsored by Divergent Language Solutions.

The Paralegal Section ExComm now looks ahead to 2021 and a potential third annual conference. Whether it be by Zoom or in-person, the Paralegal ExComm will definitely deliver the goods.

About the Author:

Javier Morelos is the Chair of the Paralegal Section Executive Committee and Firm Administrator at Hersh FamilyLaw Practice.