My undergraduate degree in Speech and Drama and my law degree from the University of Florida were just the beginning of my education. As the child of teachers who were themselves life-long learners, I am a trained bibliophile as well as a news junkie. I am also what the marketers refer to as an early adopter; my first personal computer was the TRS 80 and my first hand-held device was Apple's Newton. This doesn't mean that I know it all or that I have conquered technology. On the contrary, I freely admit that the more I learn the more I have to learn and what I really know is that technology should be respected at all costs. This is more true in the age of Artificial Intelligence than it has ever been before.

Several years ago I served as president of the Clearwater Bar Association and I have spent the intervening years working towards integrating technology into the practice of more lawyers. (See the photo attached!) I also teach the Technology Enhanced Advocacy courses at Stetson College of Law which has given me the opportunity to help larval lawyers develop organizational, story-telling and persuasive techniques which include technology in all phases of litigation.  For the past several years I have worked with a number of groups to develop protocols for ESI (electronically stored information) including public video cameras. While maintaining confidentiality of client material or put another way-cyber security remains a challenge (The Panama Papers were actually generated from a breached email security system at a Panamanian law firm.) the biggest technology issue for the world since November 30, 2022 is harnessing the beneficial powers of generative AI while remaining aware of the pitfalls of over-reliance on this new opportunity. Solving the technology issues of the legal system should provide lots of employment opportunities for tech savvy paralegals for the next several decades whether sorting electronic discovery or designing chatbots for firm websites!

Thanks to my participation in the Clearwater Bar Association I served as commissioner on the Florida Bar President's Special Commission on Paralegal Regulation which resulted in the Rule 20 scheme of volutary regulation for paralegals.  When the rule was adopted there was much skepticism about the interest of paralegals in the State of Florida in voluntarily sumitting themselves to the regulation of the Florida Bar.  A huge number of paralegals throughout the state have embraced this program proving their interest in professionalism and the seriousness of their commitment to the profession. I believe that this is a watershed moment in the development of the paralegal profession. Many of my students and former students (well, you are always my student......) are extremely active in local, state and national professional organizations.  I could not be more proud of them.