Olive & Olive is proud to have a highly-qualified team of professionals, who collectively have worked at our firm for over fifty years, assisting our attorneys.

• Jean Aiken is a graduate of NC Wesleyan College in Raleigh. (B.S. in Business Administration). She spent over 20 years at GlaxoSmithKline, working, initially, as an administrative assistant and spending the last 16 years as their Trademark Coordinator and Senior Trademark Paralegal. Her vast experience in this area is a wonderful asset to our firm. Currently, she serves as a trademark paralegal handling the prosecution and maintenance of the firm’s domestic and international trademark portfolio. She is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Paralegal Division and is certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Paralegal Certification.
  
  
• Joseph T. Blackley, Jr. is a graduate of Durham Industrial Education Center (A.D., Drafting and Design Technology) and of Durham Technical Institute (A.A.S., Paralegal Technology, high honors). In addition to his paralegal work in all areas of the firm’s practice, with a focus on patents, he is the firm’s chief draftsman and supervises the technical drawings required for the firm’s patent and trademark applications and litigation, and also serves as the firm’s Assistant Administrator. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Legal Assistants Division and is certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Paralegal Certification.
  
  
• Sims H. Osborne is a graduate of Davidson College (B.A., double major in Economics and French). Before she came to the legal field, she worked in journalism, reporting chiefly on local government and schools. Prior to joining the firm, she worked as a paralegal at Legal Aid of North Carolina, primarily in foreclosure prevention. Her work with the firm focuses on patents, trademarks, and litigation. Ms. Osborne is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Paralegal Division and is certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Paralegal Certification.
   
  
• Erin A. Rall is a graduate of Brown University (B.A., Middle Eastern Studies). She has worked with the firm for several years primarily in the areas of litigation and legal research. Ms. Rall is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Paralegal Division, and an associate member of the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys and of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, and is certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Paralegal Certification.