Sally Andress, RP
Director of Membership
(214) 871-2727
SallyAndress@paralegals.org

August 30, 1997

3M RECOGNIZES PHILADELPHIAN AS 1997 POST-IT FLAGS PARALEGAL OF THE YEAR

The 3M Corporation has announced that Robert E. Shema, a paralegal with Comcast Corporation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been selected as the 1997 Post-it Flags Paralegal of the Year. Shema's review of his contributions as the sole paralegal for the nation's third largest cable company won the judges' nod over five efficient runners-up for the honor. Elements considered by the judges, each an experienced paralegal, were barriers to efficiency, a quality execution of the project by the paralegal, and results achieved through the paralegal's strategies.

"The effective use of time, the ability to meet urgent deadlines, and the ability to juggle concurrent major projects are a constant in the work of a corporate paralegal," wrote Shema. His essay highlighted management of a public debt offering in excess of one billion dollars for each of Comcast's cable and cellular divisions, during which Shema's careful review of documents saved his employer some $150,000 annually in tax planning. In addition to his ongoing responsibility for maintaining the corporate records of Comcast's 400 active subsidiaries, Shema also participated in Comcast's international division's debt refinancing and an estate planning matter between individual owners of Comcast.

"Rob's greatest asset," noted Kathy Hyneman, deputy general counsel of Comcast, "is his ability to look at the overall project and anticipate problems, which allows us to make adjustments in advance and meet all expected deadlines."

Challenging Shema for first place were these organized paralegals:

• Christina Chaffin, a litigation paralegal for the firm of Lewis Friedberg Glasser Casey & Rollins in Charleston, West Virginia, who described how she organized a complex class-action securities fraud case that had lain dormant for three years but was suddenly headed for trial and handed to her to manage;
  
• Dawn Marie Dickey, a part-time legal assistant in the subrogation department of Employers Mutual Insurance Company in Des Moines, Iowa, who explained how she uses time management procedures to streamline the department's efficiency and keep up her responsibilities as a full-time student at Iowa State University;
  
• Patsy M. Knight, a paralegal specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Dallas, Texas, whose supervising attorney, interim Division Counsel Robert Jones, detailed how Knight utilizes her knowledge of contract law, federal acquisition regulations and the federal procurement system to write clear, convincing Agency Bid Protest Decisions within the period mandated by regulations;
  
• William ("Bill") Nichols, a paralegal with the firm of Blackwell Sanders Matheny Wear & Lombardi, LLP, in Kansas City, Missouri, who described how, as part of preparing for a 2,931-exhibit trial, his research on discovery of e-mail resulted in the reluctant production by the opposing side (identified as "Evil Polluter" in Nichols' highly readable essay) of previously withheld communications; and
  
• Glen H. Proctor, a legal assistant for the Latter Day Saints Church in Salt Lake City, Utah, who detailed using his organizational skills on twelve volumes of medical records in a complex personal injury case.

"Striving for continual organization and maintenance of a client's file is critical," wrote Proctor. "Without these basic skills and insight, paralegals are not productive or seasoned."

3M, which in 1988 developed Post-it brand Flags as organizational and indexing tools specifically for the legal market, is rewarding these six productive and seasoned paralegals. Shema will receive from 3M an expense-paid vacation for two, valued at $1,500, to his choice of one of four destinations. Each of the five runner-ups will receive a valuable prize, and each informative essay will be published in the National Paralegal Reporter, the magazine of the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA).

Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, 3M is a diversified manufacturer, supplying some 60,000 products to an array of commercial, industrial and consumer markets around the world. Post-it brand Flags were developed by 3M in 1988 and utilize 3M's famous repositionable adhesive technology. The Flags family includes the original one-inch flags in 10 attention-getting solid colors; two-inch index flags in four colors, each with more space to write on; smaller-size flags in 10 colors; solid-colored medical flags, printed flags with 12 different action-requesting messages and printed flags made specially for the legal market. New to the flag family are arrow flags and printed flag sets requesting signatures, actions or attention. This is 3M's second year to sponsor the Paralegal of the Year contest to spotlight the varied ways in which paralegals contribute to the cost-effective delivery of legal services.

Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, NFPA is a non-profit professional organization representing more than 17,000 paralegals in the United States and Canada. NFPA is the national voice of paralegals and the standard for excellence for the paralegal profession through its work on the issues of regulation, ethics and education.