Biography
Kye W. Haymore, JD is the program director of the Paralegal Studies Program at Athens Technical College and the former program direcotr at Georgia Piedmont Technical College. Kye is a “Double Dawg” having completed both her undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Georgia. She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Ms. Haymore has been involved in paralegal education for thirteen years, as an adjunct instructor, full-time faculty, and now as the program director. She is the 2018 GPTC Rick Perkins Teacher of the Year and is a Georgia Master Teacher.
Prior to joining the faculty at GPTC, she worked for a national healthcare consulting firm as COO and In House Counsel. Her background is in real estate, corporate, and healthcare law. She has been a member of the State Bar of Georgia since 1996.
In addition to having recently been appointed to the ABA Approval Commission, Kye is the Immediate Past President of the American Association for Paralegal Education and has been recently appointed to the NALA Certifying Board.
Kye has been married twenty-seven years to Chris Haymore, a high school principal, and they have a seventeen-year-old son, Warth. They reside on her family’s farm outside of Atlanta.
Statement
Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Piedmont Technical College, I was unaware of the ABA Approval Process for paralegal programs, and like many others, I did not have a complete understanding of paralegal utilization nor the way that paralegals can ease the burden and the stress levels for many attorneys.
As a young attorney, I worked with an individual, who, I now know, was a paralegal. She was not referred to as a paralegal or a legal assistant. Her title was that of a secretary, but she was clearly completing substantive legal work under our managing partner’s supervision. She taught me everything that I know about practicing law that I did not learn in law school.
Working with this individual, quickly taught me my place within the firm, and she prepared me to take on my next career challenge. However, at that point, I still did not comprehend the role that the paralegal can play in the legal industry.
It was not until I began teaching in a paralegal program, that I was able to clearly see that paralegals, if properly utilized, can benefit not only me personally but the entire legal profession. In the beginning of my teaching career, I worked closely with my program director to collect the documentation needed to complete our program’s first self-study. It was not until then that I even knew about the approval process. I had heard a little bit about ABA approved programs, but at that point, I had never worked directly with someone whose job title was that of a paralegal. I did not understand the significance of this process.
While it can certainly differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, I am in an area of the country where ABA approval for paralegal programs has a tremendous value. It signifies to the legal community that you are the product of a quality program. Obtaining ABA Approval was, and continues to be, one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences, I have ever been a part of. It represents the hard work I have committed to my program over the last decade.
Having the opportunity to join the Approval Commission is a wonderful honor. I believe that participating in site visits and helping other programs improve, will only serve to improve my own program and my own students. I am passionate about paralegal education, and I want to work to ensure that the entire legal community appreciates and understands the benefits that come from employing and accurately utilizing paralegals. I see being on the Approval Commission as another way to spread the word about what paralegals can do to lift the entire legal profession.