RESOLUTION NO. FOUR: CREATION OF PARALEGAL DIVISION

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Delegates of the Oklahoma Bar Association that Article II, Section 1 of the Rules Creating and Controlling Oklahoma Bar Association, as published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal and posted to the Web site www.okbar.org, be amended by adding a new subsection to create a Paralegal Division. (Submitted by the Legal Assistants Services Committee. Adoption not recommended by the OBA Board of Governors.)

Section 1.B: Paralegal Division

Legal assistants/paralegals may affiliate and participate in the Oklahoma Bar Association with limited rights and privileges as provided by the Bylaws of the Oklahoma Bar Association.

A legal assistant/paralegal is defined as a person qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated legal work for which a lawyer is responsible, and absent such assistant, the lawyer would perform the task.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that contingent upon approval of the aforementioned proposed change to the Rules Creating and Controlling the Oklahoma Bar Association that Article X-C be added to the Bylaws of the Oklahoma Bar Association ; to wit:

Article X-C: Paralegal Division

The Paralegal Division of the Oklahoma Bar Association shall consist of those individuals who are qualified legal assistants/paralegals according to the Minimum Qualification Standards for legal assistants/paralegals adopted by the Board of Governors. A legal assistant/paralegal shall not hold him or her self out to the public or imply in any manner whatsoever that he or she is entitled to practice law in this state. The Association retains the right to deny or revoke the privileges of any l egal assistant/paralegal that violates the Rules or Bylaws of the Association. [The elected Chair of the Paralegal Division will hold an ex officio position on the Board of Governors but shall have no voting rights.] The Oklahoma Bar Association shall establish the yearly dues for members of the Paralegal Division.

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