Profile: Mary Burns, Executive/Legal Assistant, Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, and outgoing president of NALS

She learned sports law on the job from an expert: Wendy Selig-Prieb, daughter of baseball commissioner Bud Selig. The Selig family had owned the Brewers for almost 35 years but recently sold the team to Los Angeles entrepreneur Mark Attanasio.

Ms. Burns became involved because she worked as a legal secretary for Wendy Selig-Prieb at Foley & Lardner. Ms Burns had worked as a legal assistant at the firm for 10 years. When Ms. Selig-Prieb moved to the Brewers as in-house counsel, she asked Ms. Burns to come along as a paralegal. That was 15 years ago.

Learning sports law was fascinating, Ms. Burns said. But the job is not just about player contracts, although that is part of it. She said there are no fears that the new owner will try to take the Brewers out of Milwaukee.

"The business of baseball is really a business, so you do need your legal staff there with you to advise you on issues," she said. "There's never a dull moment. I actually used to do all of the player contracts, the scouting contracts, player development contracts, all of that. And we did a little shifting of responsibilities, so I don't do that anymore, but I do a lot of assisting with the drafting."

Ms. Burns said she became a legal assistant because she was offered a scholarship to become a legal secretary. Her father was ill and had open-heart surgery the year she finished high school. She wanted a higher education, but her options were limited.

"My only alternative was really if I wanted to go advance my education was to go into the military, which I really was prepared to do," she said.

But her shorthand teacher recommended the associate's degree scholarship, and Ms. Burns applied and won, which allowed her to stay close to her family and study. Ms. Burns has been active in NALS throughout her career and urges people to get involved in national associations because, she said, it's important to keep studying throughout a legal career.

NALS now certifies people in the legal profession and had its inaugural group of exams last March.

NALS has education sessions every Tuesday night at meetings across the country and now online, and Ms. Burns said the courses helped her on the job with the Brewers, which was more challenging than her job as a secretary at the firm.

"Being a smaller department, the duties expanded. I was very involved in human resources until we had to expand that department and contracts," she said. "For me personally, it really enhanced my knowledge of the law by going to monthly meetings, quarterly meetings for state associations, and by participating on the national level."

Ms. Burns' term as NALS president ends this March, and Mary Jo Denman (see next week's profile) will take over the presidency.

NALS classes are now offered online and are free to members. "Which is great for our members who sometimes are not able to travel either to their state meetings or to national meetings," Ms. Burns said. "They can still participate in free education."

NALS has about 5,000 members and bills itself as "an association of legal professionals." The group was formed in 1929 as an association for legal secretaries but has since expanded to include paralegals, people who work in the court system, court reporters, or anyone in the profession.

The NALS presidency meant Ms. Burns traveled a bit more to regional conferences, an experience she enjoyed.

"That's probably the reason why I wanted to be president the most: I really wanted to bring out the best in our members," she said. "I wanted them to be the best that they could be, not only personally but also professionally."

The main missions of NALS are to encourage education and urging people to sit for a certification exam.

"It's really about continuing your legal education, even after you're done with school and after you're certified and being creative and looking into areas you may have not thought of in the past," she said. "It's just finding what your passion is in the field of law and pursuing it."