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One event can change a life. The starry-eyed teenager from a rural Arizona town had dreamed of becoming a professional actress, but her father died when she was sixteen, and her whole world changed. There was little money for college, and the mother needed her daughter close to home.
The mother was employed as a legal secretary, and the attorney for whom the mother worked offered the daughter a job in the law office as a file clerk and errand runner. Thoughts of professional acting receded, as the daughter became fascinated with legal work. The daughter attended a legal secretarial course in the “big city” and completed the 18 months worth of studies in half that time so she could return home to be near her family.
With school behind her, the daughter went back to work full time as a legal secretary for the attorney who had given her a start in the legal field. The mother and daughter enjoyed working together for ten years and grew to be best friends. After the mother’s retirement, the daughter continued to work for that attorney until he left the firm over 30 years later. She is still employed at the firm, although now as a paralegal with tremendous responsibilities in multiple areas of law.
Jill Hale is that daughter. In 1977, Jill joined a national legal support association that is now called NALS...the association for legal professionals. She attended meetings, seminars, and legal training courses, eventually becoming an instructor for the NALS Educational Institute, sharing knowledge with others around the country. Although she has not had the opportunity to return to college full time to earn a degree, Jill has never stopped learning. Her efforts to continue to grow in her chosen career have included studying for and passing three national certification examinations and writing study course materials for two of those certification programs.
After serving in offices at the local, state, and national levels of NALS, Jill served as national president during the 2001-2 fiscal year and continues to be active in NALS today. She currently serves on a national committee to monitor activity across the country regarding certification and regulation of paralegals. She is also a member of the National Association of Legal Assistants and the National Federation of Paralegal Associations. These multiple memberships provide her with a wide range of information about trends in the paralegal profession.
Roberts & Carver, PLLC, the firm in which Jill has been employed for so many years, is a general practice law firm. Jill’s main areas of responsibility are business entities, real estate transactions, estate planning, and probate. Jill says she is blessed to work with wonderful people in so many areas of law, making every day a new adventure. She has been married for over 30 years to her motorcycle buddy, Richard, and she continues to perform with a chamber singers group, a clogging team, and in plays at the community theater to fill that old desire from her childhood.
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