Legal Assistant, Sr. Admin Assistant, Records & Information Management

Wendy Wintman

* ***** ***** *** ****, NY *****

*****.*******@*****.*** 845-***-****

Authorized to work in the US for any employer

WORK EXPERIENCE

Consumer Reports, Inc. (formerly Consumers Union of United States, Inc.) 101 Truman Avenue, Yonkers, NY - April 1993 to June 2017 Manager, Records Management and Legal Services

* All office administrative duties including, but not limited to, managing calendars, organizing and preparing materials for meetings, processing expense report submissions, taking meeting minutes etc.

* Project Manager on project to legally change name from Consumers Union of United States, Inc. to Consumer Reports, Inc.

• Contracts: Researched and part of decision-making team to purchase a contract management system to manage a large volume of contracts reducing the number of auto-renewal contracts that were mistakenly renewed saving the organization significant dollars; drafted contracts using templates to ensure protection for CR; reviewed 3rd party contracts to ensure compliance with CR policies and protection of CR through inclusion of basic safeguard provisions; provided general advice to staff

• Intellectual property management: reviewed and responded to third party requests for use of copyrighted content thereby expanding reach of CR content to general and under-served consumers; enforced policies related to trademark infringement and copyright infringement ensuring protection of company's intellectual property; managed domain portfolio of more than 800 domains

• Litigation Prep: provided paralegal and administrative support for all legal threats or actual litigation, including management of legal documents; researched and prepared analyses of subpoenas; created date- and time specific timelines for use by General Counsel and outside counsel to evaluate and build cases

• Researched and resolved all consumer complaints received from the Better Business Bureaus and state Attorney Generals

• Evaluated steps required to opt-out of marketing efforts in order to assist team in developing single opt-out method ensuring consumer satisfaction with organization's privacy policies and opt-out procedures; created PowerPoint presentation for senior management

• Participated in multi-publisher coalition created to work with state AG's offices to reduce the number of unauthorized subscription solicitations sent to consumers (at double the price and aimed at seniors) asking them to subscribe and bilking them out of money

• Successfully stopped scam artists advertising non-existent job openings to consumers via email, LinkedIn and the USPS by contacting appropriate agencies and banks saving consumers thousands of dollars before they sent money to unauthorized individuals

• Prepared and oversaw Legal Department budget of $1.2 million includes dept. salaries, of which I had no control), provided monthly analyses for General Counsel, prepared quarterly re-forecasting; monitored departmental expenses to stay on budget

• Records and Information Management (RIM): Interviewed key staff regarding records created and used by business units; assisted RIM Director to update Records Retention Schedule for first time in 20 years; created "quick sheets" to assist staff in using the Schedule; ongoing updating of Schedule as organization restructured; provided ongoing training for all staff on Records Retention policies and procedures; managed a digitization project of all old videos and film thereby reducing offsite storage costs by approximately $12K per year

• Assisted in planning, negotiating contracts, managing invitations, and confirming guest speakers for the 50thAnniversary Celebration for 1000 guests and a budget of approximately $250K

• Interviewed, evaluated, placed, trained, and supervised 57 temporary employees for duration of three-month strike of Union staff; created templates for temporary employees in Customer Service to use to respond to more than 2000 pieces of consumer/subscriber mail and telephone inquiries ensuring consistency of messaging to the public

• Monitored and contacted those that used Consumer Reports' name and content without permission, successfully stopping such use in most cases

Consumers Union of United States, Inc. - Yonkers, NY Assistant Secretary, Board of Directors – April 1983 to February 2006

• Liaison between national Board and organization. Responsibilities included arranging Board meetings; negotiating hotel contracts; executing nomination procedure for annual Board of Directors election (including soliciting background information from candidates, preparing reports for Nominating Committee and Conflict of Interest Committee deliberations); recorded, transcribed, and edited minutes for all Board and Board Committee meetings; developed and implemented set of procedures for organizing Board and Annual Membership Meetings

Administrator – August 1986 to June 1993

Reprints/Permissions and Conference Planning

• Organized national conference on ending poverty, attended by over 400 consumer leaders; planned logistics and negotiated vendor contracts for the Institute for Consumer Policy Research (division of Consumer Reports, Inc.) raising awareness of problem and brainstorming solutions

• Reviewed and responded to all requests for Consumer Reports’ content

• Managed Reprint program by selecting published articles from Consumer Reports magazine, prepared mechanicals for printer, followed through with printer from layout to proofing to printing and marketed reprints to consumers

• Assistant Secretary, Board of Directors (see above) Administrative Assistant – April 1983 to August 1986

• Routine administrative duties for Executive Director, Executive Assistant to Executive Director, and Manager of Planning and Investments

• Assistant Secretary, Board of Directors (see above) EDUCATION

M.S. in Special Education

College of New Rochelle - New Rochelle, NY

September 1980 to June 1983

B.S. in Business Education

Rider University - Lawrenceville, NJ

September 1974 to June 1978

TECHNOLOGY SKILLS: Microsoft Office Suite, Google Applications, Social Media (10+ years) CERTIFICATIONS/LICENSES

Essentials of RIM (Records & Information Management) Certificate May 2014 to Present

Through ARMA (American Records Management Association) online courses and final exam. NY State Certificate of Qualification and NJ State Teaching license June 1978 to Present

Certified to teach Business Education and Special Education ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Member of Toastmasters International (Public Speaking / Leadership training). Obtained Competent Leadership Award, July 2016. Completed 70% of Competent Communicator Award. Treasurer (2015-16), Secretary (2016-17)

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