Paralegal pointers

Our Annual Conference was held on 21 April 2016, at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow. First, a big thank you to all members who attended and supported us. Our conference seems to grow bigger and better every year.

The day was packed with sessions, with more than 20 speakers providing outstanding CPD, covering conveyancing, executries, civil law, criminal law, debt recovery and licensing, along with two generic CPD sessions. Our second word of thanks, therefore, must go to all the speakers for their time and their invaluable support.

Some of the more memorable moments were the criminal court role play session led by Gary Munro (SSSC), when delegates played the roles of defence counsel, prosecution team, and witnesses for both defence and prosecution. This was made even more interesting thanks to David Glancy (procurator fiscal) and David Nellaney (Digby Brown), who, having already given their own informative presentations, played the roles of judge and accused respectively – probably the most eloquent accused to be charged with theft of a newspaper and a packet of chicken fillets!

Special thanks should also go to Donald Reid (Mitchells Roberton), whose straightforward, to the point, no holds barred presentation addressed many of the issues facing conveyancers in recent times. We appreciate in particular his personal support and validation for the role paralegals play in the workplace.

This year also saw the presentation of our first SPA Paralegal of the Year Award, which was kindly sponsored by Millar & Bryce. The winner was Sharon Such and the Highly Commended Award went to Muhammad Bilaal Shabbir. Well done to both. Prizes were also donated by the Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow, and the Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling. Entry forms for next year’s award will be released through our website later this year.

Finally, our conference is only made possible by the generous support of our sponsors. Our main sponsors were Scott & Co, and Millar & Bryce. Further sponsors were Dual Asset and Optima Legal, and our event brochure was sponsored by Registers of Scotland. We cannot thank our sponsors enough for their continued support, not only of the conference itself but of the role paralegals play every day throughout Scotland.

Our committee is already preparing for Conference 2017; suggestions for areas of CPD we could provide will always be welcome.