About

I have worked as a legal word processor for more than two decades, and still do legal word processing on a part-time basis. In addition, I’m a software trainer. My company, CompuSavvy Computer Training & Consulting, has been in existence for approximately 15 years. We teach hands-on computer classes throughout California and also provide on-site software training for law firms, government agencies, and corporate legal departments. Over the past few years, we have concentrated primarily on training legal staff how to work with pleadings and other complex documents with Microsoft Word and WordPerfect (all versions). However, we teach several additional applications as well, and we have clients in other fields besides law.

Having recently completed a book about formatting legal documents with Word 2007 (available on Lulu.com and also on Amazon.com ), I am now gearing up to put together a second book that incorporates and expands on my handouts for the “Computers for Seniors” classes I teach for UCLA Extension (UNEX) in association with The Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning. The new book will give people a grounding in the basics, but also will cover intermediate-level computer tasks. I’ll go into more detail shortly.

Before joining forces with Osher, I taught computer classes for legal professionals at UNEX. I developed and, for about ten years, taught the flagship “Computers & the Legal Environment” class, which covered legal word processing and also introduced the students to several different applications (calendaring software, a time and billing program, litigation support software, a spreadsheet program, and more) commonly used in law firms.

I use both Word and WordPerfect on a daily basis, and am the webmistress and primary administrator of the WordPerfect Universe web site.

In a past life, I worked as a freelance writer and editor. I have a certificate in journalism from UCLA Extension, as well as a B.A. in political science from UCLA and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in government from Cornell University.

I live in a suburb of Los Angeles with my Australian Shepherd, who enjoys watching TV, collects tennis balls in a wide range of vivid colors, and is surprisingly fond of cottage cheese. Her favorite TV shows include “Boston Legal,” “Divine Design,” and “Iron Chef America.”