Karen Hawkinson received her MLIS from Berkeley in 1995. T he days when secretaries only answered phones and typed letters are over.
New technologies continue to transform the ways all law firm personnel do their jobs.
Secretaries today may find themselves with the tools, abilities, and desire to expand their skills and responsibilities. Attorneys may view online cite checking or docket pulls as another computer application easily and appropriately done by competent secretaries. In an increasing number of firms, desktop access to electronic information and user-friendly interfaces are opening the door to resources that have traditionally been the domain of librarians. Martindale-Hubbell and directories on the internet provide quick answers to common requests for attorney backgrounds or contact information. Electronic databases and windows software can make cite checking, pulling bankruptcy dockets by case number, cases by citation or corporate records by business name, fairly straightforward.