Paralegal/Legal Assistant Section to present 'Day of Education' June 10

The State Bar of Michigan’s Paralegal/Legal Assistant Section will present its “2022 Day of Education” on Friday, June 10, from 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at The Henry, 300 Town Center Dr. in Dearborn.

The day will feature various speakers covering a variety of subjects including:

• Market Yourself - Invest in Your Brand, with Kathy Munoz

Munoz’s career transition from paralegal to Master Coach is her “dream come true.” She started her career as a paralegal, owned and operated a legal support business and embarked on a personal learning journey culminating a career change to coaching.  Munoz is a board-certified coach and achieved the highest Master Coach credential from the Behavioral Coaching Institute. For the last 15 years she has taught coaching globally at the International Coach Academy and is an active member of the International Coach Federation and other coaching and training organizations.

Munoz has studied Axiology and is certified in  Targeted Axiology Profiles (TAP) created by Dr. David Mefford, Neuroscience and Brain Health with the Neuroscience Academy and the Wellness Inventory program developed by John Travis, MD, MPH who has been featured in media, including 60 Minutes and the New York Times.  Dr. Travis founded the first wellness center in the United States in 1975.  Munoz is also a Reiki Master and keenly interested in empowering women across the country to lean into who they are meant to be in this world.

Munoz’s business “know-how,” knowledge of the whole person human eco-system, Six Sigma Business Black Belt training, and Agile Coach Framework training is key to ensuring optimal health and business results for those seeking to enhance their personal and professional lives.

• Probate 101; A Probate Primer (Part I & Part II), with Charlene Distler

Distler is a paralegal by training and president of Probate Support Specialists LLC with 26 years of experience. Having worked in the probate court, a public administrator’s office (the investigative arm of the probate court), running a county guardianship program, and a successful paralegal support company with 14 employees, she brings a unique perspective to the probate arena.

Sitting on the Attorney General’s Task Force for Elder Abuse is Distler’s current passion, working to bring certification to professional guardians and serve in any way possible to work through the myriad of problems confronting the most vulnerable of populations. She continues to educate and mentor through her position on advisory boards and education of new paralegals and professional guardians.

• Mindset of Success, with Marty Maddin

In this workshop, attendees will learn:

- What’s sabotaging your productivity, peace of mind, and power (energy).  
- The areas of your life that are most important to your happiness and well-being.
- About your Hidden Hardwiring and how to take back control of the ship.  
- How to generate massive energy, action, clarity, and confidence in your life.

Since 2008, Maddin has helped hundreds of individuals and organizations achieve extraordinary results through workshops and personalized coaching programs. His experience includes working closely with CEOs, leaders, and managers at some of the world’s top companies.  Maddin holds psychology and law degrees and is licensed by the State Bar of Michigan.

As one of the nation’s top leadership and performance coaches, Maddin helps individuals and teams:

- Develop clarity, confidence, and clients
- Double their energy, focus, and stamina
- Develop a mindset of success, thereby eliminating overwhelm, confusion, and excuses
- Learn how to read people in order to positively interact with and influence them
- Retain talent and high performers while reducing burnout
- Build more cohesive, effective, and collaborative teams
- Develop more effective, authentic, and confident leaders who inspire, challenge, and lead their exceptional teams

• Canna-Business in Michigan: High Points & Buzz Topics, with Myles Baker

In this presentation, Baker surveys the legal cannabis landscape, highlights interesting regulatory nuances, and offers predictions for the future of Michigan’s newest billion-dollar industry.

Baker is an attorney at Dickinson Wright’s Detroit office. His current practice specializes in regulatory cannabis, commercial litigation, and labor and employment.  In Baker’s few years of practice, he has already become an expert on Michigan’s cannabis industry. Prior to returning to Dickinson Wright, he served as the director of Legal and Regulatory Compliance for Pleasantrees Cannabis Company. Currently, Baker’s primary focus is to utilize his practical knowledge of cannabis operations to provide effective legal counsel and achieve the best possible outcome for his clients. Baker received his law degree from Michigan State University College of Law.

• E-filing in Michigan:  What every paralegal needs to know, with Michelle Rachmaninow and Natalie Walter

The speakers will cover Michigan state courts’ electronic filing system.  This will include on how to file new cases, file motions and other documents and even briefs filed with the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court.

Rachmaninow and Walter will cover how the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan has a lot of e-filing requirements that are not required in other district courts. They will cover how to e-file sealed exhibits or confidential documents through the ecf system, how to open a new civil case and how to properly name parties for the online docket, and how to handle exhibits that must be filed in the traditional manner vs. electronically.

Rachmaninow is a paralegal who has been working with sole practitioner William W. Swor for 10 years. She is an appointed expert paralegal in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan since April 2018. She created her own freelance company, Parliament Paralegal Services, LLC in 2019. In 2020 she became a member of the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project and has currently been a part of two capital defense teams.

Rachmaninow has been a member of the State Bar Paralegal/Legal Assistant Section since 2019, a council member since 2020 and is now the current SBM Paralegal Section chair.  She also sits on the Paralegal Advisory Board for Macomb Community College, as well as being a current student there.  

Walter has worked as a paralegal since 1998, primarily in the areas of employment law and civil litigation in Southeastern Michigan. She currently works as a senior paralegal at Blanchard & Walker PLLC, a boutique employment law firm in Ann Arbor. She is a two-time graduate of Eastern Michigan University and earned her Bachelor’s Degree of Science from the EMU ABA-Approved Legal Assistant Program in 1998 and Master’s Degree of Liberal Arts in Interdisciplinary Technology in 2001.  Walter is currently serving as the secretary for the Michigan State Bar Paralegal/Legal Assistant Section and an active member of NALA – The Paralegal Association.

• Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Open Meetings Act, with John Gillooly and Michelle Dewey

Gillooly is a graduate of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law with further education at Harvard University and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. From 1989 to 1991, he served as the law clerk to Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Maureen Pulte Reilly. Since then he has been employed at the seventy attorney law firm of Garan Lucow Miller PC where he is a past chairman of the firm’s Executive Committee and head of the firm’s eight office municipal practice department. He frequently lectures to city officials across the State of Michigan on topics such as the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act. Gillooly practices in both state and federal courts, and is frequently called upon to represent and defend mayors, judges, prosecutors and police officers in high profile civil cases.

In addition to his work on behalf of several non-profits, Gillooly has served as local counsel for Steven Spielberg’s Starbright Foundation, a non-profit venture which installs and maintains free computer systems in children’s hospitals across the country. Gillooly is also an elected official currently serving as mayor pro tem of the City of Grosse Pointe Farms.

Dewey has more than 16 years of municipal law experience at the City of Adrian. She began her career at the city as a legal assistant, and later added the positions of executive assistant and communications and marketing coordinator.  Dewey processes FOIA requests for the City, and has extensive knowledge of the Open Meetings Act through her work with the City Commission and other City boards. She is also a confidential intermediary for the Lenawee County Probate Court. Dewey joined the State Bar of Michigan Paralegal Council in 2021.

To register for the Paralegal/Legal Assistant Section’s “2022 Day of Education,” visit https://connect.michbar.org/paralegal/home.