It was 1929 in Long Beach, California, and Eula Mae Jett along with several of her colleagues established a group that met and discussed topics affecting their careers as legal secretaries. The focus of these meetings shifted to education and the popularity grew. These meetings continued and the word of their success spread across the country. By 1949 chapters had developed similar groups and the National Association of Legal Secretaries was formed. NALS began to hold meetings not only on the local level, but also expanded to include state, regional, and even national meetings focusing on the legal services industry. This was the first time anything of this nature would take place.
NALS was formed and began moving ahead with the goal of enhancing the careers of legal secretaries. As the profession evolved, so did NALS. The information needed by legal secretaries was changing along with their job descriptions and the information provided by NALS paralleled this shift. Diversity of membership reflected a changing legal services industry.
After several years of discussion on the topic of a name change to better reflect the nature and membership of NALS, it was determined that “NALS” would no longer be used only as the associations acronym but rather as the association’s name. This was determined because it was evident something needed to change, but the rich history could not be abandoned. NALS determined to go with the new name along with the tag line “…the association for legal professionals” in 1999.
NALS of Pennsylvania provides the opportunity to improve individual performance of the legal professional by providing members opportunities to enhance their knowledge through continuing legal education, certification, and networking. NALS of Pennsylvania is an education-based nonsectarian, nonpartisan, nonprofit, and nonunion association of legal support professionals. NALS of Pennsylvania is part of a tri-level association being affiliated with NALS (national), and local chapters of Lehigh Northampton LSA, NALS of Philadelphia, and Schuylkill LSA.