Annual Seminar
Raleigh-Wake Paralegal Association
1.) Emma J. Smiley – Legal Aid
Title: Legal Issues After Disaster
Learning Objectives: Identify legal issues related to insurance, landlord/tenant obligations, homeownership, and FEMA following natural disasters.
2.) Mayukh Sircar
Title: Demystifying the AI Hype: Understanding the Tech, the Risks and Safe Uses
Description: This session explores Artificial Intelligence as it exists in today’s world. We will discuss what artificial intelligence is, the benefits it offers, the risks it poses and best practices for safe uses of AI tools.
3.) Jayant Joshi
Description: My presentation will focus on how the NC Rules of Professional Conduct may be interpreted to require cite and quote checking of legal documents in the age of AI. I’ll discuss procedure, common issues and pitfalls.
4.) Latashia Baptist
Title: Practical AI for Legal Professionals: From Information to Insight
Description: Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how legal professionals find, analyze, organize, and use information. This session explores practical applications of AI that go beyond basic chatbots and document summaries, highlighting how emerging technologies can support fact development, investigations, document review and analysis, research, and other legal workflows. Attendees will gain insight into current AI capabilities, practical use cases, and key considerations for responsible adoption, while exploring the continuing importance of human judgment, validation, and professional responsibility in legal practice.
5.) Derek Ellington
Description:
This program is designed to give practicing attorneys a working understanding of how electronically stored information (ESI) moves from client engagement through courtroom presentation. Presented by two North Carolina-licensed digital forensics examiners, the session walks attorneys through the practical and legal issues that arise when digital evidence is collected, reviewed, and produced in litigation.
The program opens with an overview of ESI and digital forensics terminology, then addresses North Carolina’s digital forensics licensing statute (Senate Bill 424, enacted 2022) and what it requires of attorneys who retain forensic examiners. The presenters examine Crosmun v. Trustees of Fayetteville Technical Community College, 227 N.C. App. 187 (2019), the North Carolina Court of Appeals decision establishing that ESI discovery protocols must protect a party’s opportunity to review collected data for privilege before production, and discuss how that holding shapes forensic collection protocols in practice today.
The remainder of the program addresses the operational side of ESI practice: distinguishing private from public data sources and the ethical rules that govern collecting each; the mechanics of evidence collection, processing, and native-format production; establishing and documenting a defensible chain of custody; and drafting, issuing, and following up on litigation hold notices. The program closes with a brief discussion of cybersecurity considerations attorneys should weigh when advising clients on secure communication during a matter involving digital evidence.
The content is drawn from the presenters’ direct experience providing digital forensics and e-discovery services to litigation counsel across a range of practice areas, and is intended to be immediately applicable to attorneys’ handling of ESI in active matters.
6.) Jesse Jones
Title: AI in Transactional Practice and the Importance of Personal Touch
Description: As AI reshapes deal-making and document review in transactional law, this session explores where technology adds real value—and where human judgment, relationship-building, and personalized counsel remain irreplaceable to client service.
CLE Hours = 6 (1-Legal Ethics, 2-Substantive, 3-Technology)