OCTOBER, 2007

1. The supervising paralegal in a large securities law firm has been approached by a junior paralegal who reports an instance of “inappropriate behavior” by one of the firm’s attorneys.  Which of the following is the best course of action for the senior paralegal?

1. Ask the junior paralegal to write down the facts of what happened and the supervising paralegal should review that document to determine whether the firm policies have been violated.

2. Discuss the complaint with the firm’s management without identifying either of the parties involved.

3. Forward a copy of the relevant sections of the firm’s policy and procedures manual and a summary of the complaint to the firm’s management.

4. Discuss the complaint with the alleged perpetrator and then present a balanced report of the comments of both parties to firm management.

ANSWER - C: Any time “inappropriate behavior” is suspected or alleged, the supervising paralegal must be certain that the firm management is put on notice and that it follows the appropriate procedure.  The relevant firm policy, together with a summary of the complaint MUST be given to the firm management which might be the managing partner, a standards committee, a management committee, or a human resources officer.  Most firms have very specific procedures for this type of situation, and these procedures are generally outlined in the firm’s policy/procedures manual.

You could eliminate option A because the supervising paralegal must forward ALL alleged or suspected inappropriate behavior to firm management. It is not the supervising paralegal’s decision to make whether firm policies have been violated.  Option B would not be appropriate because if no names are given, the firm management does not have “notice” that would suffice to allow firm management an opportunity to act on the incident.  Option D might be the correct procedure, depending on the firm and what its written policies for such situations are.  However, the supervising paralegal generally should not independently investigate the alleged incident and this should be turned over to the appropriate authorities in the firm.  The BEST answer, is therefore C.

NOTE:  This is one of those tricky judgment questions that might have a different answer depending on the particular firm.  However, when you answer the PACE questions, keep in mind that you are looking for the BEST answer, and there are often more than one correct answer but one is better than the others.  Use the process of elimination to discard some of the choices and then decide which of the others that are left is the best option.

2. A paralegal working on a case involving a federal statute becomes aware that the agency that administers the statute just promulgated a regulation that could affect the case.  The best place to look for this regulation would be:

1. Federal Practice and Procedure

2. the Federal Register

3. the Code of Federal Regulations

4. the United States Code

ANSWER - B: The correct answer is B, the Federal Register.  You have to read the question very carefully – it asks about a new regulation just promulgated – it does not say the final version and it implies that it is a very recent regulation.  Federal Register publishes agency regulations chronologically and comes out daily so it is likely to be the most current, up-to-date location to find a recently promulgated regulation.

This is actually a legal research domain question.  To answer it, you would have to know where to find different types of law.  If you knew this, Option B, the Federal Register, would be the obvious choice because you would know that administrative agencies publish their internal administrative regulations in the Federal Register.  Even if you didn’t use this logic, you could eliminate the other options.  You might be tempted to say option C, the Code of Federal Regulations, but remember, the clue is in the question.  The question states that it has JUST been promulgated and the Federal Register lists the regulations chronologically as opposed to topically.  It comes out daily and will always have the most current information.  Code of Federal Regulations, is not the correct answer because it contains only the final version of administrative agency regulations and it is not issued as frequently as the Federal Register.  Option A could be eliminated as well, since it does not contain this type of information.  Option D should be eliminated as it contains the statutes of the United States, not agency regulations that were just promulgated.