Litigation Legal Secretary

DEBORAH K. THOMPSON

**** ******** *****, *******, ** 75040

214-***-**** ********@***.***

__________________________________________________________________________________

LITIGATION LEGAL ASSISTANT / SR. LITIGATION LEGAL SECRETARY

• 16 years of legal secretarial experience

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; strong problem solving ability

• Diverse areas of practice including: Family Law, Healthcare Liability, Defense/Civil Litigation, Wrongful Death, Toxic Tort Litigation, Medical Malpractice, Business Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Products Liability, Corporate, Insurance Defense

• Assisted attorneys with complex secretarial skills and duties requiring a knowledge of legal terminology, legal processes and industry software

CONTRACT WORK EXPERIENCE 2008 – 2010

Tollefson Ball Bradley & Mitchell, LLP May/2010 – June/2010

Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern, LLP January/2010-April/2010

Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, LLP, Dallas, TX September/2009 – October/2009

Fanning Harper Martinson Brandt & Kutchin, P.C., Dallas, TX July/2009

Werstein, Smith & Wilson, P.C., Dallas, TX May/2009

Stradley & Wright, P.C., Dallas, TX November/2008 – April/2009

Sayles-Werbner, Dallas, TX October/2008 – November/2008

Kessler-Collins, P.C., Dallas, TX September/2008 – October/2008

Areas of practice while working on contract assignments: Arbitration & Dispute Resolutions, Bad Faith Litigation, Business Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Civil Litigation, Corporate Law, Employment Law, General Liability, Healthcare Liability, Insurance Defense, Insurance Coverage Litigation, Intellectual Property Litigation, Labor & Employment Litigation, Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury, Premises Liability, Products Liability Litigation, Real Estate, Strategic Alliances Litigation, Securities & Financial Fraud Litigation, Trial & Specialty Litigation, Toxic Tort, Trucking Litigation, White Collar Criminal Defense, and Wrongful Death

• Assisted in drafting pleadings, draft requests or responses to discovery, routine correspondence, order medical records and/or forward to experts

• Scheduled depositions, meetings and conferences between all parties and copy client; travel arrangements; expense reports

• Conferred with courts to schedule hearing dates and/or changes; notify all parties to include copies to client; update calendar

• Maintained dockets on heavy caseloads

• Electronic Filing in Federal cases and State cases

• Set up new files on computer, created new folders and maintained files in all cases

• Submitted Litigation Case Report to client when initially set-up; prepared Budget Report for client

Jones Carr McGoldrick, LLP, Dallas, TX April/2007 – August/2008

Legal Secretary

Products Liability & Toxic Tort, Business & Commercial Law, Healthcare Liability

• Assisted in drafting pleadings, motions, requests and responses to discovery; and routine correspondence

• Scheduled depositions, meetings and conferences between multiple parties

• Conferred with courts to schedule hearing dates and/or changes, update calendar(s)

• Assisted with electronic filing when needed; assisted paralegals as needed

• Billed clients for partners, maintained files, completed budget reports, and prepared expense reports

• Submitted payments for vendor invoices, ordered special request supplies for attorneys

• Coordinated CLE meetings & kept dues current and maintained license(s) in branches of law where licensed

Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, LLP, Dallas, TX October/1999 – July/2006

Sr. Litigation Legal Secretary - Multi-Lines Defense

• Assisted in drafting pleadings, discovery, responses to discovery and routine correspondence

• Scheduled depositions, mediations, meetings and conferences between multiple parties; prepared appropriate correspondence

• Conferred with courts to schedule hearing dates and/or changes; update calendar(s)

• Maintained dockets on heavy caseloads and update accordingly; open/close files

• Coordinated details of multi-party jury focus groups to include calendars, travel and conference facilities, incoming correspondence and pleadings for in-house attorneys and multiple local and co-counsel in various states

• Streamlined procedures to provide more timely and efficient mass distribution of incoming mail, faxes/scans/emails to attorneys for efficiency and filing

• Administrative work for two partners of the firm – billed the clients, maintained files, prepare answered calls regarding their account(s), and prepare annual budget reports

• Assisted paralegals assigned to attorneys as needed; assisted with trial preparation; assisted with electronic filing (State and Federal)

Dixie & Mauzy, LLP, Dallas, TX September/1994 – September/1999

Legal Secretary - Family Law

• Assisted in drafting pleadings, discovery, responses to discovery and routine correspondence; assist associate attorney in her practice, assist with trial preparation

• Scheduled depositions, mediations, meetings and conferences between multiple parties

• Conferred with courts to schedule hearing dates and/or changes; correspondence to all parties

• Maintained dockets on heavy caseloads; maintain personal and business calendar

• Delivered pleadings to the courthouse for filing and/or for judge’s signature, if necessary

• Maintained records of client’s initial retainer fee deposits and subsequent payments on their account

OFFICE & COMPUTER SKILLS

Network/Operating Systems: Windows OS/2 Share Drives

PBC Share drives

Hardware: IBM Compatibles

Word Processing: MS Word WordPerfect WordStar

Spreadsheets: MS Excel Lotus Notes

Internet: Netscape AOL Internet Explorer

Research/Searches

Legal Software: Delta View Time Slips About Time

Basic Equipment Skills: 85 wpm+ 10-key by touch PBX

Fax Machine Copy Machine Printers

Postage Meter Scanner

EDUCATION

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX – Secondary Education/English

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