Carolyn Timmons Receives the Paralegal Division’s Endorsement for the NCSB Board of Paralegal Certification

By the Special Nominations Committee Carolyn V.  Timmons is a white woman with short, wavy blond hair. She is wearing a black turtleneck and her face is brightly lit, and she is smiling.

On June 23, 2022, the North Carolina State Bar Board of Paralegal Certification (hereinafter the “Board”) notified the North Carolina Bar Association Paralegal Division (hereinafter the “Division”) of a call for nominations pursuant to 27 N.C.A.C. Chapter 1G – Section .0105 to fill an upcoming vacancy on the Board.

For more information on the differences between the Division and the Board, as well as a detailed explanation of the process, you can see the prior blog post written by the 2021-2022 Chair, Shawana Almendarez. 

Voting began for the opening on August 15, 2022, and ends on September 1, 2022.

The Paralegal Division Selects Carolyn V. Timmons

It is with great pleasure that the Paralegal Division selects Carolyn V. Timmons, NCCP, for consideration for the Board.  Carolyn is an excellent example of a Division member who promotes the NCBA, contributes to the legal community, and excels in her role as a Certified Paralegal. To better allow our Division more insight into who Carolyn is, and the contributions she has made to our Division and the legal community, we present the below background.

Carolyn Timmons is currently a Paralegal at Jones, Key, Melvin, & Patton, P.  A., a firm that offers legal advice in real estate, civil litigation, wills and trusts, corporate law, and mediation. Carolyn received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a minor in education from West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia), as well as an associate applied science degree in Paralegal Technology from Southwestern Community College.

After teaching high school for two years (believing it would be a five-year commitment), she began a twenty-nine year career as a flight attendant with Delta Air Lines, flying primarily to western Europe in the last eighteen years of that career. During that time, she served on a committee that represented her seniority group to management and assisted in the scheduling of flight attendant schedules. Throughout her years at Delta, she was appointed to numerous special assignments, including lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. and community outreach programs sponsored by Delta.

Following her retirement from the airline, Carolyn decided to explore the possibility of working in the legal field, as it always interested her. She enrolled in the Paralegal Technology program at Southwestern Community College in Sylva, North Carolina and received an associate applied science degree in Paralegal Technology, graduating summa cum laude.
As a curriculum requirement for her paralegal degree, she interned for a semester at the law firm of Jones, Key, Melvin & Patton, P.A. in Franklin, North Carolina. Upon graduation, she was asked to join the firm where she has remained to date.

She joined the North Carolina Bar Association’s Paralegal Division upon her graduation. She has served as a council member for three years and as Awards Committee Chair for eleven years. She has volunteered for 4All events and middle and high school mock trial competitions in her western North Carolina area. She participated in the State Bar Paralegal Certification Committee’s Writing Workshops for two years, and in 2015 was appointed to former North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin’s Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, serving on the Technology Committee. Carolyn has been a North Carolina Certified Paralegal since June of 2007 and actively encourages all paralegals to become certified if possible.

Carolyn is a member of the Asheville Area Paralegal Association, having served as Chairperson of the Scholarship Committee for many years. She has and continues to serve on the Curriculum Advisory Board for Paralegal Technology at her alma mater Southwestern Community College. For a number of years Carolyn and her husband funded a paralegal scholarship at SCC.

She is active in her western North Carolina community as well. For several years she was a member of the Advisory Board of the Bascom Center for Visual Arts in Highlands, North Carolina, and for a number of years served on the organizing committee for one of the Center’s annual fundraisers. Currently she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hospice House Foundation of WNC. The Foundation’s mission is to build and provide an inpatient hospice facility in Franklin, North Carolina to serve the six most western counties in North Carolina.

Carolyn believes she is blessed to have had two fulfilling and significant careers, which in her opinion have similarities that one might not expect. She is dedicated to the promotion of the paralegal profession and to the education of future paralegal professionals.

The Paralegal Division endorses Carolyn Timmons for the upcoming Board vacancy. As an active member of our Division, we believe Ms. Timmons would serve the paralegal profession well due to her constant involvement within the profession and her commitment to bettering not just the legal community, but the community as a whole. We encourage NCCPs to vote for Ms. Timmons during this voting period.

The Special Nominations Committee thanks all of those who submitted a request to be considered for the Paralegal Division nomination. As always, we encourage you to become involved in Paralegal Division leadership by joining a committee or taking part in our election process, which occurs each year in the spring.

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The Paralegal Division Blog is managed by the Division’s Communications Committee. Via the blog, the Communications Committee provides information written by attorneys, paralegals, and other experts designed specifically for paralegals in the areas of substantive law, ethics, technology, paralegal practice advice, and more. If you are interested in signing up to submit a blog post on a future date, you can do so here. When you are ready to submit a blog post, you can do so by using this form.

You may also wish to participate in the Division by using our virtual suggestion box to submit suggestions/ideas to the Division Council, nominating a paralegal for Paralegal Spotlight, or completing the Paralegal Spotlight Questionnaire if you are nominating yourself. If you are interested in volunteering with the Communications Committee, please contact the Communications Committee Chair at [email protected]. If you are interested in joining other division committees, you can review a list of committees and sign up here.