On April 18, 2022, our founding attorney, Douglas G. Jackson had the opportunity to guest lecture at the locally prestigious St. Petersburg College. The course was Introduction to Paralegalism, and the topic for this specific class was one which Mr. Jackson exudes great passion. The topic was Legal Research and Writing.
Mr. Jackson knows that legal research and writing is arguably the most important aspect of practicing law well. In fact, he is so passionate about this that he is on the editorial committee of the Paraclete, which is the St. Petersburg Bar’s publication specifically written for lawyers. He demands great written legal product from this firm, and even achieved a 4.0 for his Seminar Paper in law school, which was the first 4.0 ever given by that law professor.
However, despite his passion, Mr. Jackson knows that teaching the topic of research and writing can be boring to the students. That’s why, Mr. Jackson’s approach to his April 18, 2022 guest lecture was a more pragmatic approach than one of mere theory. He started the course with why great research and writing will make a paralegal better than his or her peers, why it correlates with more money, why it correlates with more versatility, and how it can even give a paralegal greater control. When talking about how research is done, Mr. Jackson focused on the collaborative nature of research and how finding out things, even factual things, can be fun and make or break a case. Mr. Jackson stressed that we shouldn’t think of it as research and writing, but really of learning and communicating because that’s exactly what is being done.
Finally, Mr. Jackson shared some of the more interesting stories of some of his cases and stressed that these cases might not have been interesting if the research wasn’t done to uncover these interesting facts. Overall, the students seemed to be interested in what would ordinarily be a dry topic.
Mostly we are pleased to report that though the class did not end until after 9:00pm—yes, we know that our founding attorney can talk quite a bit, and in this case for hours—not one student nodded off during Mr. Jackson’s entire guest lecture about research and writing. That alone, this firm considers a win for Mr. Jackson. Jest aside, however, the firm is excited that its attorneys are engaging in educating the future of the legal profession, which will ultimately help even more people achieve justice.