Kathy Fortin Biography

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in History. Kathleen Fortin received a post-graduate Certificate in Paralegal Studies from Adelphi University. She recently received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College, where she concentrated in creative writing.

Kathy's 30 year career in the legal field began as a Litigation Paralegal at the McLane Law Firm, one of Manchester, New Hampshire's largest law firms. During the pioneering years of paralegals, she learned skills hands-on from some of the State's best civil litigators. In addition, she taught paralegal courses, served as advisor to educational programs and spoke and authored articles on the role of paralegals in law firms. In 1997 she received the New Hampshire Bar Association Professionalism Award. She was appointed a member of the American Bar Association Steering Committee that published Leveraging with Legal Assistants. She served on the New Hampshire Bar Association Task Force on Paralegals. Kathy's experience at McLane involved facilitating the training and development of new lawyers, including such projects as developing orientation initiatives for new lawyers, mentoring and one-on-one training in practical skills and developing and organizing in-house educational programs.

Kathy also has experience working as a paralegal in a small firm setting. For the past 10 years, she has focused on her work as a consultant in law office management, mainly in the areas of enhancing productivity, assessing staffing and creating the right office support, providing efficiency in the delivery of legal services, facilitating lawyer transitions and developing communication and creating a strong and positive law firm culture.

Kathy has been involved in a number of community, academic and professional organizations, serving on Boards where she has worked on both strategic planning and operations. Her creative non-fiction narratives have been published in magazines and literary journals.