Fall 2004

In This Issue

AALA and MY HOUSE Have a Close Encounter With ABC's EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER President's Message: Another Banner AALA Year! Big Changes in 2005 The New White Collar Regulations: Now Who is an Exempt Employee? Navigating Multi-State Tax Issues Public Relations Checklist for Law Firms Spyware, Malware, Adware, Trackware Profile: Lawyer, Librarian and Knowledge Wizard: Kutak Rock's Nola Vanhoy Does It All Greater Productivity in Less Time Ten Reasons for a Telecom and Internet Service Check-up Community Challenge Weekend Vendor Lunch News from the "New" Editor

AALA and MY HOUSE Have a Close Encounter With ABC's EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER
By: Donna Carson, Founder, MY HOUSE 

MY HOUSE has been a favorite community project for the Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators (AALA) for the past couple of years. Chapter members have devoted considerable time and money trying to support this very worthwhile project. The focus of this group is to care for medically challenged new born babies, who have no place to call home, until they can be moved to a safer environment. Our Chapter has proudly sponsored MY HOUSE on numerous occasions by raising money and working at the facility doing yard work, house cleaning and administrative jobs. Needless to say, we are thrilled to hear that ABC’s EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER is interested in helping them procure a new, larger facility to accommodate their growing needs. Read the update below on the EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER story, as outlined by MY HOUSE founder, Donna Carson.

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President's Message: Another Banner AALA Year! Big Changes in 2005

 As we close out 2004, I wanted to take this opportunity to express my thanks for another great AALA (Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators) year!  This year we continued to make numerous changes as we maintained our position as one of the very best ALA (Association of Legal Administrators) chapters.  We will end the year with over 250 members, making us the 7th largest chapter in the world!

There are two major changes planned for 2005 which I would like to share with everyone.  

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The New White Collar Regulations: Now Who is an Exempt Employee?
By: Dean L. Silverberg, Daniel Abrahams, Mitchell S. Allen, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.

The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) was passed in 1938 as the capstone of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation to help bring the sluggish American economy out of the doldrums of the Great Depression. Revolutionary when created, the FLSA set a federal minimum wage, required overtime premiums after forty hours, regulated child labor and set record-keeping rules for employers engaged in interstate commerce.

On April 20, 2004, more than a year after proposed regulations were issued in March 2003 to the general public for comment, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) released its long-awaited final regulations concerning the exempt status of executive, administrative and professional (“EAP”) and other “white-collar” employees under the FLSA. These rules, which became effective on August 23, 2004, revise the salary levels and the “duties” and “salary basis” tests that white collar employees must meet to be exempt from the FLSA’s requirements for minimum wage and overtime compensation. The new regulations are the first major regulatory overhaul of the EAP exemption “duties” tests since 1949. Also, for the first time since 1975, the regulations increase the minimum salary that an employee must receive to qualify for the exemptions.

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Navigating Multi-State Tax Issues
By: Chris D. Clayton, CPA, JD, Managing Partner, Babush, Neiman, Kornman & Johnson, LLP

Growing a firm is not easy. Growing into a neighboring state may add a myriad of tax complexities. While no one would ever accuse the Federal tax law of being simple, it is nothing compared to the multi-state tax issues that law firms can face. The following is a brief discussion of the some of the issues and complexities you may face.

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Public Relations Checklist for Law Firms
By: Dave Poston, Esq., Poston Communications LLC

Many law firm administrators are responsible for the business development and marketing functions of their law firms. While there are many components to such programs, oftentimes administrators need to respond to the attorney complaint, "How come our competitor is always in the paper?" The answer is public relations.

Public relations goals are accomplished by researching, creating, developing and implementing public relations tactics ranging from media lists, media kits, press releases, expert positioning, pitch stories, byline articles, background interviews and media partnerships or sponsorships, to public affairs, speaking engagements and writing.

The following article provides legal administrators with an overview of the many types of public relations that are being implemented by law firms today.

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Spyware, Malware, Adware, Trackware
By: Kevin L. Dunn, CEO DataTrends Technology Corporation

Like many things in life, we tend to ignore those things that don't directly affect us. Computer viruses have been around since the early 90's but it wasn't until Nimda hit a couple of years ago that a lot of the corporate world found itself in hot water. Spyware is one of those growing threats that many of us tend to ignore or just not recognize. Pop-ups, browsers going to the wrong place, home-page changes by itself, menu items missing, slow-downs (sometimes to the point of being unusable) are all indicators that you've been infected with Spyware.

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Lawyer, Librarian and Knowledge Wizard: Kutak Rock’s Nola Vanhoy Does It All
By: June Bell

Nola M. Vanhoy is a legal administrator, all right, sort of the way a neurosurgeon is a doctor. In a field of specialists, Nola is a specialist’s specialist.

Kutak Rock’s director of knowledge services is something of a matchmaker, pairing lawyers and legal staffers with cutting-edge technology and training that help them do their jobs more efficiently.

“It is a unique job, but it touches on so many areas of law,” says Nola, who holds a master’s degree in library science as well as a law degree. Both are invaluable, whether she’s selling lawyers on a new document-management system or evaluating research software for the firm’s 16 offices.

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Greater Productivity in Less Time
By: Linda Marquardt, Parlance Corporation

In this time of eroding customer service and the constant need for greater efficiency, those of us charged with the communications needs of our practices face an ongoing challenge. However, speech recognition solutions and service can provide a legal practice of any size and scope with the means to ensure both external clients and internal employees can reach each other quickly and efficiently, wherever they are located, and spend less time doing it.

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Ten Reasons for a Telecom and Internet Service Check-up
By: Jonathan Benson

1. It has been a long time.

It is a good idea to establish a plan for your technology review on an annual basis. Perhaps it has been longer than a year since you have reviewed your telecommunications services, your local telephone service, your long distance, your internet service provider, or your cellular provider.

If you are currently month to month on your terms, you may want to consider a request for proposal to see what kinds of special programs might be available to your firm if you were to contract for a two- or three-year term plan for these services.

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Community Challenge Weekend
By: Catherine J. North

The Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators (AALA) joined together in support of MY HOUSE again this year for its Community Challenge Weekend. On Saturday morning, October 16, 2004, 25 members and vendor sponsors gathered at 8:00 AM in the parking lot across the street from MY HOUSE to register, receive work assignments, select the tools necessary for each assignment and socialize over donuts and coffee. As the sun came up on a beautiful, but cool morning, we donned our CCW T-shirts, gathered our respective tools, and crossed the street to begin work.

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The 16th Annual AALA Partnership Luncheon is a Sell-Out!
By: Catherine J. North

On September 14, 2004 at the Cobb Galleria Centre, the AALA (Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators) hosted its annual partnership luncheon with 180 members and guests in attendance along with 70 business partners, 36 of which are also 2004 AALA vendor sponsors. During the luncheon portion of the event, Lisa Ford a national guest speaker presented a discussion to the members and vendors regarding “Delivering & Leading Clients”.

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News From the "New" Editor 
By: Debbie Goldman 

Read news from Debbie Goldman who returns to the editor position.

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Editor: Debra F. Goldman (dgoldman@gmlj.com)

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