 |
Debbi Lowe, President (2022) Dallas Area Legal Assistants Association
-DAPA’s 50th Anniversary Celebration – “A Tap on the Shoulder” By: Debbi Lowe Congratulations to the DAPA members and the Board of Directors for an amazing 50 years of service, networking and leadership to the paralegal community and legal industry. I’ve been a proud member of DAPA since 1999. I have been fortunate to see our association evolve throughout the years by staying on top of legal trends and technology. It was an honor to meet and serve with leaders representing DAPA on a local, state and federal level. It brings me such pride to know that during the harsh economic recessions of 2007 and 2020 along with a pandemic, DAPA continued to provide continuing legal education, mentoring, and other pro bono and community services to our members. I have been blessed to have an expansive 32-year career in the legal profession. I started my legal career as a case clerk in the intellectual property law department of a mid-size law firm in 1994. I worked as a legal secretary for a solo attorney from 1995-1997. I went on to work as a paralegal in an asbestos/toxic torts law firm for a decade (1997-2007). I returned to intellectual property law as a litigation paralegal at another mid-size law firm from 2007-2016. I also worked as a healthcare litigation paralegal from 2016-2018. From 2018 to 2020, I worked in “Big Law” as a litigation paralegal supporting the commercial law, employment law, and securities law groups. For the last six years (2020 to present), I’m currently working as a litigation paralegal supporting my trucking and transportation, insurance defense and personal injury law group. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with wonderful attorneys, paralegals, legal secretaries and staff throughout my career. I have learned valuable lessons from each of them. When it comes to the complexities of litigation, I have two rock star paralegal mentors and dear friends, Josey Gonzales and Lori Tiner, who I have leaned on and learned from during my many years as a litigation paralegal. After graduating from college, I knew that I wanted to work in the legal profession but wasn’t sure I wanted to become an attorney. The only thing I knew about attorneys was what I saw on a television show called “LA Law” (Blair Underwood had me hooked from Episode 1!) I decided to work for a few temp agencies in hopes of getting a permanent position with a law firm to see what attorneys were expected to do when they were not in court arguing a case. I landed a temp position at a mid-size law firm as a coffee bar assistant in the housekeeping department. As much as I love coffee, I never thought that I would supply, stock pile, and serve coffee to attorneys for a living! But, to my surprise, it was an opportunity for me to talk to attorneys, legal staff, and executives about their job descriptions, on how a law firm functions, and how each employee’s job was critical to the success of the law firm. I quickly learned that attorneys and the legal staff were more than happy to talk to you if the coffee was hot and constantly flowing! The more I talked to the paralegals, and how they felt about the profession, the more interested I was in becoming one. As soon as a paralegal position became available, I submitted my resume to the human resource manager and told her that I was interested in the position. However, I didn’t have the experience for the paralegal position, but the human resource manager if I was interested in the case clerk position. The intellectual property department needed help, and she felt that I could learn a lot from this group. I happily accepted the position. Although I was so excited to be working in a law firm, I was also scared at the same time. I had so much to learn and little time to learn it. I had no legal experience, and the paralegal and IP team weren’t as open to teaching me the things I needed to know as I had hoped. After working as a case clerk for nearly a year, another case clerk named Sheila White was hired to support the corporate department. I was so excited to see another case clerk at the firm. I reached out to her for guidance and advice on how to navigate my way in the law firm and the legal community. I told her how I was struggling as a case clerk and I wanted to give up working in the legal field. She encouraged me to go to paralegal school and to join DAPA. Sheila advised that paralegal school would help me understand the role of a paralegal and by joining DAPA, I could build networking relationships with other paralegals as well as continue my legal education after paralegal school. After leaving our former law firm, I took Sheila’s advice and enrolled in paralegal school and joined DAPA as a paralegal student. Once I enrolled at El Centro College (Now Dallas College – El Centro), I WAS HOOKED!! I fell in love with the courses I was taking and the paralegal profession. I am forever grateful to my dear friend Sheila for encouraging me to stay on my path! After I joined DAPA, I knew that I wanted a paralegal career! Being a DAPA member fulfilled my passion for learning by attending continuing legal education sessions and conferences in different areas of law. One of my favorite conferences to attend was DAPA’s “Diversity University” conferences. Also, I was able to meet and network with so many incredible paralegals, sustaining members and other legal professionals who are also passionate in growing and moving our profession forward. And out of that passion, along with over 10 years of experience as a paralegal, I wanted to become more involved in DAPA. Although I enjoyed attending continuing legal education meetings and conferences, I wanted to do more. I wanted to learn more about leadership in the paralegal profession and how I could contribute to moving our profession forward. I wanted to meet other rock star paralegals like my dear friend Sheila to guide me in the leadership spaces of our profession. I received wise advice, tips and tricks from DAPA leaders Eugene Alcala, Michele Boerder, Cynthia Minchillo and Joncilee Davis, to name a few. I never formally asked these amazing paralegals to be my mentors, but they were definitely mentors in my head! In 2010, I reached out to DAPA’s Programs VP to ask if there are any committees that I could work on. I had more experience as a paralegal but knew absolutely nothing about leadership. The Programs VP directed me to Lan Lam. She was the Communications Director and needed to fill the job bank administrator position. It was easy enough, just post the job ads on the website and collect the money from the ad purchases, got it! It didn’t take a lot of time, and I enjoyed talking to the ad purchasers. I thought to myself, I could do this for many years working in the shadows and be fine. Then, came a tap on my shoulder… Lan was accepting the President-Elect position and needed to fill the Communications Director position. The Communications Director is the board advisor to the website administrator, the newsletter editor, and the job bank administrator. I could handle the job bank but the website, newsletter, the weekly E-News, and attend monthly meetings too? What? Who? me? Lan and Sheila, both encouraged me to take that leap of faith and to accept the position. I realized that if I wanted to learn more about leadership, I had to be around other leaders. To build my leadership skills, I had to ask questions and learn from other leaders. Lan mentored me on how to update and maintain our website and prepare the monthly newsletter and prepare the weekly e-news and e-blasts. When the newsletter editor’s position became vacant, I stepped up and continued to learn how to organize and prepare our monthly “ON THE RECORD” newsletter. In addition to serving as Communications Director from 2011 to 2020, I also served as the newsletter editor from 2012 to 2021. I became more confident serving as Communications Director throughout those years. I was building my leadership skills yet, I was still working in the shadows where I was comfortable, so no need to go any further, I’m fine where I am. Then came another tap on the shoulder… I was asked to serve as President-Elect for the 2021 term. We were in the middle of the Covid Pandemic, still grieving the loss of family members due to Covid, and couldn’t imagine what my service as President-Elect and eventual Presidency would look like. Although I’ve served on the Board for many years but that was a level of leadership that never crossed my mind, nor did I think I had the confidence to do it. After encouragement and guidance from my dear friends and mentors Sheila and Eugene, as well as close family members and colleagues, I accepted the position to serve as President-Elect in 2021 and as President in 2022 terms. After my Presidency, I served as DAPA’s Board Advisor in 2023 and 2024. I was honored to serve on the Board with amazing leaders who were supportive and wanted to ensure that I had a successful presidency. That gave me all the confidence in the world! I look back at my time serving on the DAPA Board with fond memories. I had so much fun planning special events and continuing legal education sessions as well as discussing the issues regarding our profession. I am so glad that I got out of my own way and answered the call to serve on the DAPA Board. I stepped out of my comfort zone and learned how to serve as a collaborative leader. Serving on the Board has shaped who I am as a paralegal and as a leader in our profession. I became more confident in managing cases that I am assigned to at work. I am more supportive of other paralegals when they need assistance with their projects. Finally, I am open to accepting assistance from others with my projects and will reach out for assistance when needed. There are so many nuggets of wisdom that I’ve received throughout years, but I would like to share two nuggets of wisdom that I’ve learned from my work experience as a paralegal and serving as a Board Member of DAPA. First, get out of your comfort zone and network! Be willing to build your network (your tribe or your own board of directors) and your leadership skills. Attend a DAPA event or a section meeting. When you attend an in-person or virtual meeting, reach out to a Board Member and/or another DAPA member and introduce yourself. I know it’s hard for those of us who are introverts to do but the more you do it, the easier it gets! Plus, you are building your network and support. Our profession can at times be difficult to navigate, but having a network and mentors to lean on can get you through the tough times. Second, never stop learning! In our profession, rules, procedures, technology and trends are always changing (for example: are you getting familiar with the rule changes regarding Motions for Summary Judgment yet?), therefore, it is very important to stay on top of these changes to effectively manage our case load and support our teams. Attending section meetings, conferences and other DAPA events is a great way to keep learning and stay on top of changes in different areas of law. Make sure that you are investing in yourself and in your career. My experience as a paralegal, joining DAPA and serving on the Board has allowed me to contribute to moving our profession forward. It is still feeding my passion for learning and supporting other leaders in the legal community. I will continue to invest in myself and in my career. Speaking of investment, DAPA is hosting its Second Annual Continuing Legal Education event in August. I am looking forward to seeing you there! |