Committee Meetings and Minutes

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Paralegal Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	January 29, 2020
Time	12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location	Rio Grande Campus

Members Present
No member attendance has been recorded.
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Item # 0:	Paralegal Dept. Spring 20 Advisory Committee Meeting
Presenter	Shawn Slack
Discussion	For a signed copy of the meeting minutes in pdf format please contact the department at sslack@austincc.edu or 512-223-3713. Members Present: o President, Nova Coker, Certified Legal Assistant, Case Manager at Sharp & Cobos, Attorneys-at-Law, and ACC Paralegal Program Advanced Technical Certificate Graduate o Judge Woodie Jones, Of Counsel, Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend; Retired Chief Justice, Court of Appeals o Megan Becker, Paralegal, Law Offices of Joel A. Levine o Cullen McMorrow, Staff Attorney, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality o Enrique Varela, Assistant Attorney General, Senior Attorney, General Litigation Division. o Mario Aguilar, Austin Community College Full-time Faculty, Paralegal Department o Secretary, Shawn Slack, Austin Community College Department Chair, Paralegal Department o Reagan Wood, Commercial Real Estate Broker, Principal, Land Dev Brokerage o Caroline Taylor, Senior Legal Assistant, Office of the Attorney General Old Business • Program revised to consolidate LGLA elective courses into one category. • Report on ABA Approval Process by Shawn Slack. New Business • Assess Effectiveness of Paralegal Program o Curriculum Planning  The committee reviewed the Course Sequence for the AAS and ATC degree plans. Chair answered questions about prerequisites. Committee discussed and agreed the sequence is rational and did not recommend any changes. o The committee reviewed the department’s written assessment plan and discussed the Current Technology objective. Chair gave update on current technologies being utilized. The committee recommended providing training to students on Adobe Pro Suite, including several specific skills that could be taught. The chair inquired whether an entire course dedicated to adobe training would be feasible or desirable. The committee recommended incorporating adobe training into current coursework for now. The committee also discussed whether Westlaw or Lexis was superior and concluded either was adequate. The committee emphasized the importance of providing e-filing training. o The committee reviewed the internship evaluation rubric and summary of fall ’19 results to assess graduate performance. The committee agreed the evaluation criteria are a good measure for assessing performance at the time of graduation, and thus, program effectiveness. The committee concluded that the reviewed results indicate the program is operating effectively. The committee suggested breaking the summary results by type of firm (such as size, private or public section, civil or criminal) to determine if there’s any differences in employer expectations. o The chair solicited recommendations for practical assignments that might relate to any recent changes and trends in the legal field. The committee suggested assignments related to public information requests, discovery, and calendaring. • Job Market Assessment o The committee discussed the state of the job market and concluded there is high demand for paralegals in the region at this time. The committee reviewed labor market data produced by the college and specific to the paralegal program that suggests the demand for paralegals is higher than the supply from accredited paralegal programs right now. • The committee discussed the current library services available at the Texas Law Library, and the chair gave an update regarding the program’s new Cali.org subscription. • Adjourn

Austin Community College
5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Austin, Texas 78752-4390
512.223.4ACC (4222)

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