Trial Preparation for New Mexico Legal Assistants
Agenda
Webinar instructions will be emailed before the date of the webinar.
Please log into the webinar 15 – 30 minutes before the start time.
Trial Preparation for New Mexico Legal Assistants
Monday, January 27, 2025
9:00 am – 4:00 pm MST
Overview of a Civil Trial
Presented by: Dynette C. Palomares
- Pre-trial procedure and scheduling orders
- Discovery control plan and discovery overview
- Pre-trial motion practice
- Anatomy of a trial
Assisting with Investigations
Presented by: Stuart R. White
- Summarizing depositions
- Skip tracing
- Coordinating witnesses
- Reviewing pleadings and discovery
Managing Evidence
Presented by: Deena Buchanan
- Types of evidence
- Rules for admissibility of evidence
- Preserving evidence
Effectively Working with Opposing Counsel and Staff
Presented by: Kimberly L. Padilla
- Analyzing methods of communication
- Standards for responding to emails
- Working with the courts
- Maintaining professionalism
Assembling and Using Trial Notebooks
Presented by: Kimberly L. Padilla
- Essentials of a trial notebook
- Organization of a trial notebook
- Uses for a trial notebook before trial
- Uses of a trial notebook during trial
Litigation Ethics for Assistants and Paralegals
Presented by: D. Palomares
- Attorney and paralegal ethical rules
- Specific areas of concern for legal support staff
- Conflicts of interest
- Confidentiality
- Ex-parte communications
- Avoiding the unauthorized practice of law
- Working with clients, courts and opposing counsel
Webinar Instructions
All attendees must log-on through their own email – attendees may not watch together if they wish to earn continuing education credit. HalfMoon Education Inc. must be able to prove attendance if either the attendee or HalfMoon Education Inc. is audited.
Certificates of completion can be downloaded in PDF form upon passing a short quiz. A link to the quiz will be sent to each qualifying attendee immediately after the webinar. The certificate can be downloaded from the Results page of the quiz upon scoring 80% or higher.
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Credits
Paralegals
6.0 CLE Hours (Incl. 1.0 Ethics Hour)
NFPA - National Federation of Paralegal Associations
6.0 6.0 CLE Credits (Incl. 1.0 Ethics Credit)
Continuing Education Credit Information
This webinar is open to the public and is designed to qualify for 6.0 CLE hours, including 1.0 ethics hour, for paralegals in New Mexico. Paralegal certification is not required to participate in this course.
This webinar has been approved by the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) for 6.0 total CLE credits, which includes 5.0 general CLE credits and 1.0 ethics CLE credit.
Attendance will be monitored, and attendance certificates will be available after the webinar for those who attend the entire course and score a minimum 80% on the quiz that follows the course (multiple attempts allowed).
*On-Demand Credits*
The preceding credit information only applies to the live presentation. This course in an on-demand format is not pre-approved by any licensing boards and may not qualify for the same credits; please consult your licensing board(s) to ensure that a structured, asynchronous learning format is appropriate.
Speakers
Deena Buchanan
Founding Attorney with Buchanan Law Firm, LLC in AlbuquerqueMs. Buchanan has handled trucking crash cases, wrongful death, catastrophic injury, and employment cases in more than 20 jurisdictions. As former BigLaw and in-house counsel to a Fortune 500 company, she traveled the country advising corporate executives and litigating multi-million dollar disputes for insurance companies and large corporations. After seeing some very sad results in tragic cases, she left her defense career to represent real people and their families. Now she teaches other lawyers about how to take on these big companies using her training and experience from the other side. Ms. Buchanan has a personal, as well as professional, understanding of personal injury claims, having been a victim of someone else’s negligence herself. She is board-certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy in trucking crash cases, making her one of the first few women in the nation to achieve that honor. In 2024, Ms. Buchanan was elected to the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group Executive Board, which oversees motor-carrier and owner-operator liability legal matters in accordance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.
Kimberly L. Padilla
Partner at Larkin & Padilla Family Law in AlbuquerqueMs. Padilla’s legal practice focuses on issues involving family relationships, including adoption, divorce, and child custody. She received her J.D. degree from The University of New Mexico School of Law. Prior to Larkin & Padilla, Ms. Padilla served as an associate attorney at Atencio Law Office, an attorney with Wolf & Fox, PC, and an attorney with New Mexico Legal Group, P.C.
Dynette C. Palomares
Partner at Roybal-Mack & Cordova, PC in AlbuquerqueMs. Palomares has worked with RMC since 2016. She graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 2015. She briefly worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Second Judicial District, prosecuting domestic violence and DUI cases. Ms. Palomares has extensive experience in
litigation in domestic relations, criminal, and children’s court matters. She is committed to ensuring that clients receive the expert guidance they deserve. She manages a diverse caseload, handling everything from litigation and motions practice to negotiation in domestic relations, guardianship proceedings, conservatorship proceedings, and guardian ad litem work. Ms. Palomares is fluent in Spanish and, in her spare time, she performs and records New Mexico Spanish music and performs with Mariachi Calor.
Stuart R. White
Partner at Liles White PLLC, licensed in Texas, New Mexico and CaliforniaMr. White is a frequent guest lecturer to his peers on his representation of victims of heavy truck crashes and oilfield, pipeline and industrial incidents. His practice focuses heavily on catastrophic truck wrecks and oilfield/pipeline incidents in New Mexico and Texas. Mr. White has never advertised as he believes his work is his advertisement. This has led him to receive client referrals from judges, from jurors that have sat in cases he’s tried, from defense lawyers he’s done battle against, from experts that have been hired in past cases, and from other lawyers. More importantly, a significant portion of his work at Liles, White is focused on representing people referred to him by his current and past clients, who are proud to spread the word about his work for them. The best compliment he’s gotten
as a lawyer is that he doesn’t act like, talk like, or dress like a lawyer. Despite his primary office being in Texas, Mr. White was asked to author the New Mexico Truck Crash Law Overview for the AAJ Interstate Trucking Litigation Group.
6.0 Knowledge Points
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