First, my introduction. I've been a lurker on the site for a good while
now. I came to Records Management as a discipline fairly late in my
professional life, and have appreciated the insights of the site's contributors as
well as the patience and teaching of more experienced Records Managers in
my own organization, ARMA and elsewhere as I play catch up and try to
understand it all.
In response to Gary's question, I'm a lawyer by training, and practiced as
a litigator in my firm for over 20 years before becoming director of our
records and docketing activities in multiple offices. I've long thought of
the management of a client's matter file as simply one component of the
legal services we provide, for which the lawyer is ultimately responsible.
Most ethics codes I've seen reflect something like this view. I think of my
role now as being a kind of bridge builder, helping to improve
communication and understanding between our lawyers, our records staff and our
technology folks. In this context, the JD and even more the experience I had in
practice have been helpful, as have my experiences in collecting records from
clients and their systems for discovery, and in using and understanding
our own computer systems from a user's (and abuser's) perspective. While
that's been my path, I know there are a number of records professionals
working very successfully and effectively in law firm or other legal environments
without a law degree -- just as there are many very good lawyers who
probably would not make particularly effective records professionals. Viva
variety! Personally, I don't use either the J.D. or Esq. suffixes in
referring to myself, although I guess I might use the J.D. and my class year if
writing to my law school or an alumni group, or in some other context in which
my academic pedigree was relevant. Some other lawyers will use Esq. when
addressing formal correspondence to me, though I'm just as happy with
"Chuck".
Chuck Kennedy
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On Jul 8, 2011, at 7:18 AM, Link, Gary M. wrote:
> I have seen several records managers who have a "JD" after their name in
> their title. I am curious about this: did you get your law degree first,
> and then focus on RM? Or visa versa? Is JD the designation one uses when
> one has a law degree but is not a practicing attorney at a law firm (who
> use "Esq."), but rather works in another profession? Or are the two
> simply interchangeable? What career paths would open up for a records
> manager who went on to earn a law degree but planned to still work in
> RM?
>
>
>
> Thanks for clearing this up for me.
>
>
>
> Gary Link, CRM
> Corporate Records Manager
> 227 Fort Pitt Boulevard Pittsburgh PA 15222
> TEL 412.765.1700 www.astorino.com <http://www.astorino.com/>
> Join the conversation on our blog: www.discoverdesignbuild.com
> <http://www.discoverdesignbuild.com/>
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