"FOR OUR PROFESSIONAL WELFARE":
THE ORIGIN OF THE HAWAII PARALEGAL ASSOCIATION
R. Elton Johnson, III

    A small group of visionary women in a 1976 Cooperative Education class at the new Kapiolani Community College Legal Assistant Program developed a plan. They had concluded that Hawaii legal assistants or paralegals such as themselves needed to come together for their mutual benefit. Though the medical field, for example, had already generated auxiliary professions such as nurses, paramedics, and technologists, relatively few in the legal field yet appreciated the advantages offered by the new "paralegal" or "legal assistant." The national paralegal movement, it is true, was already well established by then, having prompted the formation of the American Bar Association’s Special Committee on Legal Assistants as early as 1968. Paralegal schools were popping up all over the country – including in Honolulu, where classes had begun at the Legal Assistant Program at Kapiolani Community College in 1975. But much in the way of securing a place for new profession remained to be done. In Hawaii as elsewhere, many, both without and within the legal community, had a poor understanding of the paralegal’s function.

    The instructor of the 1976 Cooperative Education class at KCC was Sue Lin Chong, an experienced litigation paralegal who had graduated from the pioneering Institute of Paralegal Training in Philadelphia in 1972 and had been the Executive Director of the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) in 1975. (NFPA had itself been founded only in 1974.) Upon her arrival in Honolulu in 1976, Ms. Chong was employed at Carlsmith Carlsmith Wichman & Case as a paralegal supervisor, and also became the first instructor of a new class at the KCC Legal Assistant Program whereby students entered temporary paralegal positions and met regularly to discuss their experiences with one another. The members of this Cooperative Education class included Janice Cole, Mary Hamasaki, Toni Long, Judy Oh Tanaka, Shelley Teraoka, and Ann Lynn Walser. It was these individuals who initiated the first successful attempt to start an professional association of paralegals in Hawaii.

    On January 18, 1977, forty women attended a "Forum III" meeting at the U. H. Law School, to carefully plan the organization of the paralegal association, including the structure of its committees. These ideas developed throughout that year, during which these individuals were already working together effectively to further their profession, even as they strove to organize themselves more formally. In November and December of 1977, Ann Lynn Walser, a paralegal at Mau White & Yee, corresponded with several mainland associations, including the San Francisco Association of Legal Assistants and the Philadelphia Association of Legal Assistants, for information regarding their organization, newsletters, and their positions on such issues as certification and a code of ethics. Ms. Walser also requested information of the National Federation of Paralegal Associations and the National Association of Legal Assistants.

    It was by such sustained efforts by motivated individuals that the Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants (HALA), now known as the Hawaii Paralegal Association (HPA), was formed. The Association was founded without fanfare on January 21, 1978. Its first meeting was held at the Kaimuki Library Conference Room on March 4, 1978, with twenty-five in attendance. These women meant business. As reported the following month in Volume I, Number I of the Association’s newsletter, Bette Steele discussed the issue of whether the HALA should remain simply an association or become a nonprofit corporation, and they voted unanimously to incorporate. The Steering Committee suggested the goals for the new Association:

1) Promote and maintain high standards in the legal assistant profession.
2) Inform members of developments in the legal assistant profession.
3) Encourage the continued education of legal assistants.
4) Promote education in the use of legal assistants.
5) Inform the general public of the role of legal assistants in the delivery of legal

services.

The committees, many of which had really already become operational by then, gave their reports at this first meeting. Besides the Steering Committee, there were established the Job Bank Committee, the Community Education Committee, the Procedures Manual Committee, and the Newsletter Committee. A Membership Committee, a Standards Committee (to address such matters as the interpretation of the by-laws and the monitoring of issues affecting the profession), and a Program Committee (to present speakers and activities of interest to the profession), would soon round out the first standing committees.

    The Community Education Committee reported that demand for speakers to inform community groups about paralegals was increasing. The Procedures Manual Committee reported that its first efforts would be directed toward adoption and probate manuals, to aid legal assistants in their work, to train legal assistants, and to guide attorneys in their use of legal assistants. The Newsletter Committee reported its plan to distribute a bimonthly newsletter, and made an appeal for help. Those present at this first March 4 meeting of the Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants also defined membership classifications, outlined projected areas of expense, and decided to elect a Neighbor Island Representative.

    HALA’s first elections were held on April 22, 1978; the first officers and directors were: Ann Walser, President; Diana Fujimori, Vice President; Bette Steele, Secretary; Ellen Mann, Treasurer; Margaret Saunders, Job Bank Director; Shelley Teraoka, Newsletter Director; Frances White, Community Education Director; Valerie Bavero, Procedures Manual Director; Judy Oh, Program Director; and Ann Doyle, Neighbor Island Representative. HALA’s first Board of Directors Meeting took place on May 6, 1978. As President Walser would report to the general membership at HALA’s First Annual Meeting in January of 1979, it was the first administration’s responsibility to "set up house and establish its order." At its nine meetings during the first seven months of HALA’s existence, the Board thus especially directed its efforts toward preliminary administrative matters that would make possible progress toward realization of the Association’s goals. During that first year, the Board finalized and filed the Association’s Petition and Charter of Incorporation and its By-Laws, opened two Association bank accounts, rented a post-office box, printed membership cards and stationery, established relations with other paralegal associations, organized HALA’s central files, and set policies regarding representation from the Program Committee, HALA fund-raisers, office terms and responsibilities, procedures for nominations and elections of officers and directors, and distribution of newsletters. The decision process for such matters was often tedious, but necessary for the effective management of the Association.

    The Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants’ Petition and Charter of Incorporation, which were filed with the State of Hawaii Department of Regulatory Agencies on May 29, 1978, publicly declared the five Association goals (listed above) that had been proposed by the Steering Committee in March. When Ann Walser wrote to the National Federation of Paralegal Associations Executive Director on June 23, 1978, it was as President of an Association that had been but a dream less than a year before: "Since our last correspondence . . . I am pleased to announce that the Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants has been incorporated as of May 25, 1978 . . . . We look forward to establishing and developing a long and rewarding professional relationship between our associations."

    During its first year of existence, HALA not only accomplished preliminary business, but also made significant strides toward its specific declared goals. Though the formal adoption of its own code of ethics and responsibility would not come until much later in the Association’s history, the Association’s first professed goal, namely the promotion and maintenance of high standards in the legal assistant profession, was immeasurably advanced by the very formation of an professional association for paralegals in Hawaii, and by the organized and conscientious efforts of the new Association’s officers, directors, and members. Progress toward the second goal, that of informing members of developments in the legal assistant profession, was realized via the five newsletters published during the first year, which included pieces on paralegal fee recovery, on the positions on the paralegal certification issue taken by the two national paralegal organizations (the National Association of Legal Assistants and the National Federation of Paralegal Associations), and on the non-lawyer practice issue in the light of the responsibilities of such paralegals as HALA member Anna Manis Tabor at the Honolulu field office of The Nature Conservancy and in the light of the "judicial scrivener" profession in Japan, and as played out in certain other states in this country.

    HALA’s third professed goal, of encouraging the continued education of legal assistants, was furthered during the first year by the newsletter announcement of educational events including Kapiolani Community College’s schedule, scholarship opportunities, and its publication of reviews of books of interest to paralegals and Hawaii legislative news. The paralegal education goal was also furthered by the presentation by Judge Betty Vitousek at the First Annual Meeting, and the Association’s support of Kapiolani Community College’s Legal Assistant Program. Progress toward HALA’s fourth and fifth goals, the promotion of education in the use of legal assistants and the education of the general public regarding the role of legal assistants in the delivery of legal services, were advanced by the part played by the Procedures Manual Committee in the finalization of the Probate Practice Guide for Legal Assistants, which would not only aid legal assistants in their work but also guide attorneys in their use of legal assistants, and by several speaking engagements in the community by HALA members.

    As a result of such efforts, the membership of the Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants tripled in its first year of existence, from nineteen members in March, 1978 to sixty-one members in January, 1979. In her 1978 Report to the members at the First Annual Meeting on January 27, 1979, President Ann Lynn C. Walser outlined certain recommendations for HALA’s second year, based on HALA’s five professed goals. With respect to the goal of promoting and maintaining high standards in the profession, President Walser recommended that HALA investigate the question of national affiliation, noting that HALA had already received invitations from the two national organizations. (Though the new Standards Committee investigated this question carefully in 1979, HALA did not join a national organization until ten years later, in 1989, when it became affiliated with NFPA after about a year of careful study.) Toward the goal of better informing members of developments, President Walser recommended a comprehensive study of legal assistants’ status in Hawaii, so that members’ efforts toward advancement would be founded in more certain knowledge of current paralegal salaries and responsibilities. (This was indeed realized in impressive form with the publication of the Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants Survey Analysis, finalized and published in June, 1980.) President Walser expressed her hope that HALA would continue to offer programs which further the goal of the continuing education of legal assistants. She also complimented those involved in the production of the Probate Practice Guide for their dedication in that first effort toward the goal of promoting education in the use of legal assistants, and expressed the hope that the goal of informing the general public about the role of the legal assistant in the delivery of legal services would be served by the development of an outreach program staffed by more Community Education Committee volunteers, so that they would not just be responding to invitations, but seeking opportunities to explain the paralegal’s role in the delivery of legal services.

    "HALA’s existence is not just an accident but an accomplishment for our professional welfare," observed the first President of the Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants, Ann Lynn Walser, at the Association’s First Annual Meeting. The Association we now refer to as the Hawaii Paralegal Association was brought into existence by the determined effort of many motivated paralegals. And the advancement of paralegals’ professional welfare by a healthy professional association has also meant an improvement in the delivery of legal services to those who may not have otherwise had access to our society’s justice system. As an organ within the body of the greater society, our Association furthers our professional purposes and also futhers the purposes of our community. Let us hope that progress continues to be realized in these complementary purposes as we proceed into the twenty-first century.

The indisputable success of the new association of Hawaii paralegals notwithstanding, by the end of its first year of existence the sustained vitality of the fledgling Hawaii Association of Legal Assistants was already a matter of concern to its first leadership. President Ann Lynn C. Walser’s careful assessment of this problem at its first manifestation possesses a certain poignancy and relevance undiminished twenty years later; her remarks are here presented in their entirety.