Sarah Bella: Good morning everyone. Welcome to our very first LinkedIn Live LLP session for 2025. I’m really, really excited to have our three panelists on today. They all have a part in the Colorado Bar Association and all the new things that are coming through for the LLPs and kind of learning more about the Colorado Bar as LLPs, as paralegals, and even as attorneys. My name is Sarah. I am an LLP for Modern Family Law in our Denver office. We’ll just kind of go around the panel and introduce yourselves. Veronica, we’ll start with you.
Veronica Gonzales: Hi everybody. I’m Veronica Gonzalez. I’m an LLP at Juniper Family Law.
Sarah Bella: Hannah.
Hannah Schoeninger: Hi everybody. My name’s Hannah Schoeninger. I’m an LLP with the Jane Law Group.
Sarah Bella: Amy.
Amy Sreenen: Hi everyone. I’m Amy Sreenen and I’m the Director of Sections and Committees for the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations.
Sarah Bella: I want to thank you guys for being here. This is wonderful. I can’t wait to get more of an insight into what the Colorado Bar does, can do, and will be doing in the future for everyone involved in the legal community. So I think we will go ahead and start with understanding the role of the Colorado Bar Association in Family Law, opened up to whoever wants to start.
Veronica Gonzales: I think that’s one for Amy. Huh?
Sarah Bella: I know. I was looking at Amy.
Amy Sreenen: I just don’t want to step on any toes. Yes, so the family law section of the CBA is one of the largest, it’s one of the three biggest sections. It has 1400 members and it’s one of our most active sections. They do two CLEs a month. One is virtual only. It’s like a lunch and learn and is free for section members. The other is a hybrid option and is $15 if you want a lunch or free if you want to just Zoom into it. That section does judicial endorsements in order to try and get more family law practitioners onto the bench so that they can manage those cases better than what I have heard happens frequently these days. They also have a mentoring program, which is very cool. It’s run between the section and camp, which is that Colorado attorney mentoring program. They have an expert directory on their website with all of the… So when I just had seen something in the Thrive Post of someone looking for an expert, there’s a full list of everyone you might need posted on that website, so that’s super helpful.
The council also keeps a very close eye on any legislation that will affect the practice of family law and they step in and amend or testify when they need to to get that to be where everybody wants it to be and that it is good law and works in the practice of law for family law. And then the last one is we have a bunch of discounts. There’s discounted CLE programs, there’s discounted publications, law practice management stuff, software, billing software, travel stuff. We have all kinds of discounts that you get with your CBA membership, and you can be kind of part of the LLP, part of the bar without being part of the family law section. But I think right now, it’s going so hand in hand that it just makes sense to do both.
Sarah Bella: It really does. I think it sounds like there’s a ton of advocacy out there for anyone in the law industry. LLPs, this is a great resource. We are always looking for experts. We’re always looking for… I know there’s a lot of LLPs right now looking for mentorship, so please reach out to Amy if you have any questions about that. Hannah and Veronica, do you want to add anything to that?
Veronica Gonzales: I think the CBA has been very welcoming to LLPs. I think that it’s a good way to get together and definitely have some mentors and learn about how people are practicing in family law. And the CLEs have been great. I like the in-person ones. The Zoom ones are great for lunch. I mean, it’s a lot of learning, so I’m excited for more to come with our LLP sections.
Sarah Bella: I agree.
Hannah Schoeninger: In terms of the Bar Association and family law, they’re probably the biggest resource for us practitioners to pour our CLEs and to stay up to date on all of the changes. I know the CBA is where we get a lot of our information on any rule changes, new case law, not to mention our listservs that we have going on. Those are great community resources and the Bar Association kind of manages that. So yeah, the CBA I think is a very big integral part of the family law legal community as well as LLPs and integrating us in family law.
Sarah Bella: I agree. I agree. We greatly appreciate all of the resources that have been provided to us this far and can’t wait to see where it keeps going. Maybe this is another question for Amy. What was the CBA stance on the LLP section and the LLP program in general in Colorado?
Amy Sreenen: The CBA has been super welcoming about it. I mean, Maha Dave Stark and Judge Arkin, I mean, they came to every board meeting, every section meeting. They just spread the word. They really made sure they explained it. I mean, obviously we had a few folks that were not super supportive of it, but the bar overall was very, very supportive of it. And even currently the CBA, the DBA and the family law section as well as the ethics committee are all updating their bylaws to include LLPs as part of those groups.
Sarah Bella: Wonderful. And Hannah and Veronica, I know that you two are both very, very heavily involved in the committees and subcommittees. Is there information that you have regarding the LLP subcommittee, committee and what kind of things you are looking for from the LLP community to kind of get that rolling and established and supporting all of our LLPs throughout the state of Colorado?
Veronica Gonzales: Yeah, it’s being established right now. We’re working on getting the section up and running. We have a proposal that we’ve been working on and we’re going to present that here soon so we can get everything started. Personally, I’ve reached out to pretty much almost all of the LLPs. I’m not going to say every single one, but personally through LinkedIn or text message or email or something, just trying to find out if they’re interested in leadership. I know down in El Paso County, they have a LLP section for the El Paso County Bar Association that I’m going to meet with Cindy soon and talk to her about that because she’s the chair of that. Just to get some ideas of how they’re running their section.
I’ve been in contact with some of the Western Slope LLPs and we have conversations sometimes and they’re looking for mentorship, but from the LLP community, I would say if you’re not already part of the CBA, join the CBA. You’ll get into our listserv and as soon as our section is up and running, you can be in there. It’s going to be a community where we can all come together and support each other, I mean more than we already are now, and have events specific LLP catered CLEs and things like that. I think it’s just going to be a way for us all to stick together and support each other.
Sarah Bella: Wonderful. Hannah, do you have anything to add? I know that you’re also working hand in hand with Veronica, which is [inaudible 00:08:45] in this role.
Hannah Schoeninger: Yeah. Veronica and I are co-chairing and proposing a subsection, LLP subsection to the family law section within the bar. So we have the Colorado Bar Association, the family law section, and then we’re hoping to be a subsection within the family law section. We really don’t want to separate ourselves. We don’t want to create a whole new section within the bar. We really want to stay integrated with family law because that’s what our license is, and we don’t want to feel like a separate area, separate practice type because we are practicing under the same rules and using the same case law that attorneys are using in family law. So it’s really important for us to stay integrated, and Veronica and I are working on our proposal to submit to the family law section, and we hope to have more updates soon.
Sarah Bella: Wonderful. That segues perfectly into my next talking point. How is the CBA encouraging collaboration between the LLPs and attorneys rather than having it as a competition? Kind of like Hannah was saying, the LLPs want to be integrated and we don’t want to form our own section. We want to be part of the family law. How is the CBA supporting that?
Amy Sreenen: Well, as they were talking about the Thrive platform is our… They’re communities. And so what we did was we created an LLP community so that LLPs can kind of talk amongst themselves, but they can also cross post to the family law section or the ethics committee or whoever if they have a specific question that needs an answer from one of those groups. So really the Thrive platform is a great place to really be able to collaborate with anyone who you think might be helpful with whatever your question is or your case or whatever. And the Thrive platform also acts as, you can market your events there. It’s got a library, so if you all have a form or something that you’ve used that you want to share, you can post it there and then everyone can have access to it from the LLP community.
But we’ve kind of done it both ways because we kind of wanted the LLPs to have their safe space to talk amongst themselves without the attorneys kind of hovering, but yet they can still collaborate with the family law section. Within that Thrive group, we also have a directory of all of the LLPs that are CBA members, and so you can get that there, and I think we’re going to post that elsewhere on our website too for people that non-members to be able to see, because right now, our module doesn’t work for our licensed lawyer or our Find a Lawyer thing. So our interim step is going to be to kind of post that directory on the website where people can get to it.
Sarah Bella: Perfect. Okay. So it wasn’t just me. I was like, “It’s always me.” Nope, wasn’t me this time. Good to know. That’s really good to know. And we’ve talked a lot about the resources available to LLPs in the CBA. What about opportunities for LLPs to become more involved in either the subsection sections? In general, is there a way for LLPs to become more involved? Anyone?
Veronica Gonzales: The subsection has one chair position for an LLP on their executive council, so if the LLP wants to do that, they can apply to do that and they would work closely with the subsection and the family law section, which would be great. They can be a liaison or something. We haven’t really narrowed that down yet for what that’s going to look like, but hopefully they can integrate with our section and as well as the family law section. I don’t know of any other opportunities for LLPs to be on any sort of executive council anywhere else besides our subsection where all LLPs will be on the executive council.
Amy Sreenen: And I think LLPs can decide to take either as big of a role or as small of a role as they want in that group. If you want to plan CLEs, you can do that. If you want to plan networking events, you can do that. I’m sure there’s going to be all kinds of projects as we move forward to kind of get everything situated since this is kind of our test subject and I’m hoping it works well because eventually, I’m guessing, I mean I know it’s years down the road, but that there’ll be other kind of practice areas popping up that we can just kind of mimic this and put them under that section so that they have that money and that support in order to do what they want and get going right out of the chute.
Another one, we’ve had an ethics hotline for years, so our ethics committee writes all of the ethics rules. They’re the authority on it, and so those are all posted on our website, but they are currently adding LLPs to that, and so LLPs are going to be not only able to call in to the hotline and get answers to any of their ethics questions, but they’re also going to be looking for a couple of folks to be experts to answer those questions for the hotline, which means you would’ve to join the ethics committee, which is a little bit intense. It’s sort of like a weird sport to them. It’s very odd, but they just kind of go in and they just kind of debate these ethical ideas to go into their opinions.
Sarah Bella: Who’s the most [inaudible 00:15:27] person is that?
Amy Sreenen: They meet from 9:00 to noon every second Saturday of the month. There is a virtual option, but they feed you breakfast and it’s some really cool people. I mean, there’s tons of judges in there. It’s a really incredible group. So if anyone has any interest in nerding out on ethics stuff and wanting to help fellow LLPs be able to answer those questions, feel free to reach out to me and I can put you in touch with those guys.
Sarah Bella: That’s excellent. That sounds like there’s plenty of opportunities, plenty of room for all the LLPs. That’s very, very encouraging I think for the LLPs who have been doing this for the last seven months and for the very new LLPs who just got sworn in last month, it feels like it’s been longer than that already, but-
Veronica Gonzales: It does. Yeah.
Sarah Bella: I’m sure they feel the same way. It’s been two years,
Hannah Schoeninger: Right since we first found out that this was becoming a thing and we all put our [inaudible 00:16:37] away, there are other ways to get involved with the Bar Association. I’m a member of the solo and small firm section, and they are having a very big election year, they’ve got so many positions open. I know there’s a couple of LLPs who have their own firms and own practices now. That is a great resource. I love going to their happy hours. Everyone is so kind and welcoming because it’s just us against these mega firms out there, and it’s nice to go meet a civil attorney or go meet an appellate attorney. So the small solo section is fantastic. There’s the Wolf program and they partner with the small solo section. It’s election time or voting time this year, and so sign up for notification emails through the Bar Association and you will find a spot if you want it.
Amy Sreenen: It is. It’s election time for all of our sections, all of our committees. So yeah, now is the time. You guys are welcome to join whatever sounds cool. The other ones I thought might be great for you guys are our Future of Law committee has kind of been floundering a little bit, but I think that’d be an awesome place to get LLPs in there because it’s kind of a blank slate and you guys are the future of law. So I think that’s a cool place to get involved as well as the Professionalism Coordinating Council. They kind of do the swearing in stuff and their jobs are just sort of to try and make the practice of law more cordial. So I think that’s another good place for LLPs and any committees are free to join. Up to two sections are free along with your CBA membership for your first year, and then sections are not that expensive. They range anywhere from $15 to $35 a year for those benefits, which you kind of make up for with two CLEs.
Sarah Bella: And then snacks and breakfast and stuff.
Amy Sreenen: Yeah.
Sarah Bella: Because there’s snacks in there. So that’s an easy way to get me to participate in anything. So to piggyback off of, you were talking about the subsection for the future of law. What does the CBA kind of envision for the LLPs moving forward as the future of law? Do you see it expanding? Do you see… I know we’ve talked somewhat about hopefully adding more areas in.
Amy Sreenen: Yeah, I mean, I think the way we’re setting this up as areas get added in, it’s going to be real easy for us to just slot those groups in because from what I’ve been told, they’re going to be completely different. If bankruptcy does it, that’s going to be a whole different bar exam. And so I think, again, the way we’ve set it up is going to be cool because you can have all of the LLPs together regardless of what their practice area will be in that Thrive community, but then we’re going to kind of place them under their umbrella kind of area of practice so that they can have that contact as well.
Sarah Bella: So they’ll kind of have their own little space, but all the LLPs merge together. That’s wonderful. Has anybody been in contact with or know anyone outside of the state of Colorado? I know this program is expanding, maybe not necessarily LLP wise or name wise, but it is expanding. Has anybody heard any updates on the Texas LLP or any of the other states and what they’re doing?
Veronica Gonzales: I have. I was too involved with Colorado trying to get my practice down. I haven’t heard anything about them expanding or what the progress is for Texas yet, but I’ve seen all the other states that already have implemented it and we have our practicum where there were a bunch of them talking to us about what they do. But as far as anything else, that’s all I know.
Sarah Bella: I know I haven’t been able to keep up with any of the outside state stuff either, but I am interested to see how it’s spreading, how it’s going for the other states. I know that we are kind of centrally located, Denver, Castle Rock, the front range, and we would really, really love to reach out to all of the LPs in all the corners of Colorado. And I think through the resources that Amy has mentioned, that you and Veronica and Hannah have mentioned, please sign up. We definitely want to reach out to you. We want to include you in all of these events and all of the community and all the resources. If there’s anybody who needs anything, obviously you can reach out to any one of us. Veronica is at Juniper Family Law. Hannah is at the Jane Group. I’m at Modern Family Law. We’re always happy and open to answering any questions.
If you know LLPs who might benefit from this, please pass this along to anybody. Feel free to share it on your social media. Getting the word out about the LLP program I think is going to be imperative for the CBA, for the LLP program and for the future practice of law. Anybody else have any statements you want to make? I think you guys have done such a great job of providing us with so many resources that I wasn’t aware that were available. I’ve been a paralegal for almost 20 years now and I was like, I’m sorry, what? What’s available? So I’m very, very excited to hear that there is so much out there. Is there anything that you have used that you think that would be beneficial that some people may not have thought about?
Veronica Gonzales: As far as what?
Sarah Bella: Any resources like the camp, the mentoring or… I know they have some mental health resources, stuff like that. The ethics hotline.
Veronica Gonzales: I have not used it personally. I know volunteering is pretty fulfilling because you get to get out there and help people who don’t have enough money or just need a little bit of guidance for a little while. So I’ve been doing the volunteer program with MVL and that’s been great. I haven’t used any other resources. Not yet though. Tomorrow we’re doing a camp presentation, Hannah and I, so if you guys are interested in learning more about camp, you guys can get on that tomorrow. We can post a link on our LinkedIn page. And so everybody’s invited. It’s mainly for LLPs, so that’s a good resource
Sarah Bella: Too. Yes, I’ll definitely post it here as well because I’m really excited about camp. I love their mentoring program, so I am very excited to see what presentation will be had tomorrow.
Veronica Gonzales: Yeah.
Amy Sreenen: Brian Peyton’s an amazing resource.
Sarah Bella: Yeah.
Amy Sreenen: Another one I wanted to bring up, which if you’re in a bigger firm, it’s probably not a big deal, but one of our biggest benefits is vLex Fastcase. It’s like our version of LexisNexis or Westlaw, and you get unlimited access with your CBA membership. So if you are with a smaller firm that doesn’t have a subscription to Westlaw or LexisNexis, that is a great benefit. And they did just kind of do a big upgrade on it, which is the vLex part of it. So it looks nicer, it works better. And we do have a couple of webinars. They’re doing webinars in May, August and November. We just missed the February one to kind of run through how that platform works.
Veronica Gonzales: Yeah, actually [inaudible 00:24:52] one of those two. I had a little tutorial from them and it looks great.
Amy Sreenen: Yeah, it’s a great benefit.
Sarah Bella: I use vLex quite a bit.
Amy Sreenen: Another one is the jobs board that we have is very cool. If you’re looking to hire or find a job, it’s a really great tool because it’s really strictly just the legal community, but it’s pretty robust, so check that out as well.
Sarah Bella: That would be wonderful. Maybe you can talk a little bit more about the travel bed, the CPA, I went down a little rabbit hole and was just kind of going through everything and I had no idea. That’s such an amazing thing that you can offer as part of the membership. Just the discounts, just the resources, the things that are available out there are things you wouldn’t even think about.
Amy Sreenen: And if you ever need to meet with a client or something and you’re not at your office, just call me. If I have room, you can borrow a conference room. If you want to do a program, we can get you set up as long as we have space available.
Sarah Bella: That’s really outstanding. And I think we have about four more minutes left. I’d kind of like to open it up to our audience for any questions, any other thoughts from any of you would be wonderful. It sounds like everybody’s practice is going very well and it’s taking off, it’s catching fire, and hopefully, it’ll just keep moving in that direction. And the CBA and the LLP and all the attorneys, we can all just kind of mesh and keep closing the justice gap because I think especially right now, it’s so important to be able to represent the unrepresented and kind of move people through the process a little bit quicker.
Hannah Schoeninger: Absolutely. Yeah. While we’re waiting for questions, Sarah, feel free to interrupt me at any moment that you get one. My favorite line as an LLP is I’m not an attorney. I’m not here to make your case more complicated, harder, longer. If you come to me and say, I just need to get divorced. I’m going to take exactly what you, I don’t want to say want and make it happen, but I’m going to guide you through those steps as efficiently as possible. If you have a difficult case and need experts in all of that, I’ve got resources. The CBA’s got resources, other firms have resources. But as an LLP, it’s really lovely to call the other side and be like, “Oh, no, I’m not an attorney. I’m just here to get the paperwork done.” And their guard goes down and we are able to rapid fire, get cases done in an amazing timeline that I haven’t seen happen in attorney-focused practices in a very long time.
Sarah Bella: One of my caveats to anybody when I was a paralegal was like, there’s a 91-day period before the court can issue a decree at all in your matter. However, I’ve never seen one settle previous or prior to that date. So you’re looking at a six month, year long, sometimes longer situation. And I’m finding that I can say, “Oh, we’re at day 58 and we’re settled.” So now we’re kind of having to wait on the decree and I’m having to put a lot of reminders to check to make sure, “Okay, it’s 91 days finally.” I think that’s been really great. I’ve really appreciated being able to do that.
And I think my clients have as well, and I did get a really great compliment from Douglas County yesterday, and it’s me and another LLP on a matter, and they were like, “Oh, I saw the six bar numbers and do I even need to ask you if you need a permanent order hearing?” And we both kind of left, “No, we’re settled,” but that’s not what we’re set up for anyway. So if we did go in saying, “Yeah, we do need permanent orders date,” which is going to happen regardless, maybe there’s some things we need to examine with our practice. But he was like, “Oh, I saw six numbers.” And I was like, “Yes.” And he was like, “Yes. We’re so excited.” I think the courts have been so receptive to the LLP program.
Hannah Schoeninger: Oh, absolutely.
Sarah Bella: Yeah. The judges and magistrates and the clerks that have been so welcoming and so patient and so curious about what we do. And they ask all these questions and they’ve just been a great form of support to kind of know, hey, what we’re doing is worthwhile and it is working and there is notice being taken. Have you guys experienced similar situations?
Hannah Schoeninger: I haven’t had a single judicial officer bat an eye. When I make that clarification, they’re like, “Oh, okay, cool, thanks.” And then they go on about the hearing or the proceeding. Yeah, it’s been wholly very supportive and they’re glad that we are here because as we know, as former paralegals and now LLPs, the general public… Even the JDF forms are confusing. And so having us as a resource even just to call, “What the heck is this form,” has been great for family law in general.
Sarah Bella: We do have a question for the panel. Has anyone been able to review the proposed CRFP rules? Any proposed changes that have caught your eye?
Veronica Gonzales: I’ve looked at them a little bit. The most interesting part for me is the IRDT, hopefully I’m getting that right, is the hearing where the parties testify, there’s no cross-examination, the judge is the only one that ask questions. I think that might be great if it’s expanded on for the LLPs.
Amy Sreenen: And just so you guys know, those are posted on our website as well, where the lawyer ones are as well.
Hannah Schoeninger: The family law section is very good at sending emails. “Have you read this? You should read this. Go ahead and read it now. Here’s when we’re doing public comments.” Yeah, I haven’t read the whole thing completely through yet. I have reviewed pieces of it. A big thing was like, we just got licensed and you’re going to make us do it completely new? What are you asking of us? And then I realized that every family law practitioner is going to have to practice under a brand new set of guidelines and rules. So that made me feel a lot better. So for any LLP freaking out, it’s for all of us and not just LLPs. So it’s going to level the playing field a little bit. We’re in this together guys.
Sarah Bella: I saw them and I was like, my chest kind of compresses. I was like, oh my God. It’s going to be like the child support statute, which is extreme labor but then again, it’s great to be kind of at the ground level and reading them as it’s being proposed and understanding where they’re coming from and how the changes are being made. And we’ll get through the PTSD all together. It’ll be be okay. This won’t be the first time they change something, I’m sure. So I hope that answers the panel’s question and we are at 33 minutes, so I want to be respectful of everybody’s time. Veronica, thank you so much for all the work that you are doing. Hannah, you as well. Amy, thank you so much for all of the resources that you were able to provide to all of us today. I can’t wait to jump on some of that and check everything out. Any closing thoughts from any of you?
Veronica Gonzales: I have one. If any LLPs are watching and I’m not connected with you on LinkedIn, please send me a request. We can connect and I can send you emails or whatever when we get started with trying to get our executive council set up for the subsection. We want as many LLPs to participate as possible. So if you haven’t connected with me yet or if I haven’t reached out, feel free to send me a message. I’ve checked them often and I’m replying a lot. And I’m good at getting people together.
Sarah Bella: You really are. You’re amazing at it. We truly appreciate you. Hannah, we also appreciate all the work that you are doing. I know Christian is also floating around helping out. Christian’s not here, but shout out to Christian. Amy, again, thank you for your time. I always want to thank Modern Family Law for providing us with this amazing platform so we can get the word out. And thank you guys again, and I look forward to our next panel.
Veronica Gonzales: Thank you.
Amy Sreenen: Thanks for having me.
Hannah Schoeninger: Yeah, thank you.
Sarah Bella: Bye everyone.
