Commission for Advanced California Paralegal Specialization

1. Commission for Advanced California Paralegal Specialization “CACPS”

2. CACPS BOARD • HAZEL LANGE, CP - CHAIR & CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER • MARY THEROUX, CP - SECRETARY • LANA CLARK, ESQ. - ATTORNEY • MICHAEL I. ZWEIBEL, ESQ. – ATTORNEY • CATHERINE DURGIN, CLA, CAS - PARALEGAL • VACANT – PARALEGAL EDUCATOR • VACANT – PARALEGAL EDUCATOR • DELAINA FINCH, CACPS ADVISORY CHAIR

3. CACPS’ Role • The California Advanced Specialty Program (CAS) is administered under the direction of CACPS. • CACPS oversees the CAS certification program in California. • CACPS is composed of three paralegals, two attorneys and two paralegal educators.

4. CAPA’s Role • Maintains a code of ethics which California Advanced Specialists adhere to. • Assists CACPS for the promotion of the online assessment program. • Contributions from CAPA and individual California paralegal associations fund the online assessment program.

5. CACPS Advisory’s Role • Attends CACPS Board meetings in an ex officio capacity • Liaison between the CACPS Board, CAPA and the Advisory Committee • Reports back to CAPA to encourage support, assistance and feedback on the activities of CACPS

6. CACPS Advisory Requirements: • Appointed by CACPS and elected by CAPA • Must sign confidentiality agreement with CACPS • required because of the confidentiality and integrity of the educational assessments and proprietary ownership of the ACP assessment modules of NALA and the CAS assessment modules of CACPS. • Expenses budgeted with CAPA

7. NEW PHASE DEVELOPMENT • CACPS works with NALA to implement a curriculum-based, learning-and- assessment process on the Internet for the California Advanced Specialty Program

8. WHY CHANGE TO ONLINE CURRICULUM-BASED LEARNING?

9. BENEFITS IN ONLINE LEARNING • Opportunity to participate and to take advantage of the continuing evolution of technology. • Studying online 24/7 allows a flexible schedule for the participant. • Allows learning re-enforcement • CACPS and NALA are re-tailoring the California Advanced Specialty Program to more narrowly focused specialty areas.

10. SURVEY CONDUCTED ON JANUARY 24, 2004 TO DETERMINE ADVANCED LEVEL SUB-SPECIALTY AREAS

11. SUB-SPECIALTY AREAS: • LITIGATION – CIVIL • Personal Injury • Medical Malpractice • Products Liability • Bad Faith • Insurance Defense • Construction Defect • Business Litigation • Environmental Litigation • Employment Law • Labor Law • Employee Benefits

12. SUB-SPECIALTY AREAS: • TRUSTS AND ESTATES • Probate and Trust Administration • Taxes • Estate Planning • Conservatorships - Guardianships

13. SUB-SPECIALTY AREAS: • CORPORATE BUSINESS LAW • Business Transactions • Securities • Mergers & Acquisitions • Business Organizations

14. PR0JECT MANAGERS: • Catherine Durgin, CLA, CLAS • Corporate Business Law • Hazel Lange, CP • Trusts and Estates • Jennifer Rodges, CLA, CAS • Personal Injury Litigation • Stacey Hunt, CLA, CAS • Real Property Litigation • Kathy Miller, CLA, CAS • Discovery

15. PROJECT MANAGER TASKS: • Training session with NALA • Set up certification team of attorneys, paralegals, paralegal educators • Prepared outlines for each sub-specialty area • Draft text and slides for modules • Draft Q & A for the module assessments

16. Get Ready, Get Set, Go! • California Discovery Modules • Deadline – April 2008 • Trusts & Estates Modules • Deadline – June 2008 • Corporate Business Law • Deadline - July 2008

17. Get Ready, Get Set, Go! • Assessment modules submitted to NALA for review. • Assessment modules entered into Eufrates, which is the software for the online website. • Deadline – latter 2008

18. Course Components • Each course includes • Learning contract • Subject-matter content divided into “modules” • Activities that facilitate learning • Module assessments in the form of quizzes • Courses may include • Course glossary • Captured web links

19. COURSE STRUCTURE: • Course is a presentation of text and slides • Each course is divided into 10-15 modules with 12 pages each. • There is a test after each module. • Tests consists of multiple choice or true/false questions. • The online program will tell what is incorrect and will include a link back to a page for more study and review.

20. PASSING SCORE: • You must achieve 90% on all modules • If one does not achieve a 90% score, the module would be reviewed and completed again until the score is achieved. • If you must retake a module, the retake test would be with different questions.

21. Introductory Screen Screen Shots of program for an idea of “look” of program (look at the format only)

22. Content Screen Screen Shots of program for an idea of “look” of program (look at the format only)

23. Module Test Screen Shots of program for an idea of “look” of program (look at the format only)

24. Quality Assurance • CACPS is working with NALA to ensure the quality of the specialty program: • NALA retained Kurt Kraiger, Ph.D., a specialist in organizational psychology and training and development, to develop program standards

25. Quality Assurance • CACPS is taking the following steps to ensure the quality of the specialty program: • Hiring an instructional designer who will be used to: • Ensure that content meets approved criteria • Provide technical editing of text, quality of activities, and quality of assessment components • Develop a framework that will be used by all courses so that participants have similar experiences from course to course (in the same way that every current specialty exam requires a paper test of a certain length)

26. Stay Tuned -- • CACPS plans to launch its first Online Curriculum Based California Advanced Specialty in the latter 2008.