Paralegal pointers

Conference highs

One of the Scottish Paralegal Association committee’s biggest tasks every year is to plan and deliver an annual conference for the SPA membership providing useful and accessible CPD. This year’s conference took place at the Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow on 19 April. It was a great success with more than 30 speakers, 150 delegates and 15 exhibitors. It was a very informative and interesting event. The SPA committee would like to thank all of our generous sponsors and in particular our main sponsor First Scottish, our excellent speakers, the staff at Grand Central Hotel and everyone else who participated. Without the generosity of all of our sponsors, the committee would not be able to host events such as this.

With the help of our continued sponsorship, the SPA website scottish-paralegal.org.uk/ is being renewed, and the conference was the perfect opportunity to show delegates a preview of it. At the time of writing the website is now live with more content and features being added all the time, and the committee hope that you will log on to see all the new features that have been added to make your browsing experience more interesting and informative. It is a more powerful website and will let us be more interactive with you. It is a great way to keep up to date with news about your association and will have details of useful upcoming CPD, SPA and networking events. Please check it out and let us know what you think.

The very best

At the conference each year the SPA presents a Paralegal of the Year Award to showcase the fantastic work that we paralegals do. This year the calibre of entrants was exceptional as always. Louise Dallas of TLT LLP was named SPA Paralegal of the Year. Louise commented: “I am very proud to be a paralegal. The level of work undertaken by paralegals is instrumental and I am very encouraged by the recognition being given to paralegals.”

John Paul Sheridan, managing partner Scotland at TLT, added: “Very many congratulations to Louise Dallas for this notable award. As team leader, Louise manages the CDR team in our Glasgow office and, over the past six months, has been instrumental in launching TLT Collect, a debt recovery service, which is handled exclusively within her team. We are delighted for Louise and pleased that her commitment has been officially recognised by this much deserved accolade.”

Fiona Nicoll of Blackadders was awarded runner-up. Fiona said: “A huge thank you also for my award. I am very humbled and honoured to have received such an award from an association which recognises and puts paralegals in such a good light within the Scottish legal profession. I am very proud of my membership with the SPA and even more proud to be recognised for my contribution over the years.”

Lindsay Darroch, partner of Blackadders, observed: “Fiona is a longstanding and loyal member of the firm who has gone above and beyond to give our clients great service and positive solutions. We are delighted that her efforts and dedication have been recognised by this prestigious award from the SPA.”

The committee would like to congratulate again the winners and to thank everyone else who took part.

Still to come

The committee is looking at the possibility of holding an autumn conference in Dundee in October/November this year. Plans are at a very early stage and full details will be shown on our website as soon as they are available. If you would be interested in attending this conference, we would be pleased if you would email us to let us know, and also let us know what practice area you work in so the conference can be tailored to suit those attending.

We have had some very successful “meet and greet” events over the last year and are planning to hold several more in the coming months. These events are free of charge and award a minimum of one hour of CPD. We hope to visit Ayr in the summer and full details will be posted on our website shortly. If you would like us to host a meet and greet in your area please let us know.