Paralegal (Environmental & Land Use) Toxic Tort

Atlanta, GA

Summary

Premier, forward thinking, global, law firm’s Atlanta, GA office is seeking an experienced Litigation Paralegal to work in their Environmental & Land Use – Litigation practice group. Qualified candidates will have at least 5-10+ years’ experience in all stages of litigation as a paralegal to include pretrial and trial experience.  Experience with federal court litigation is required, and experience on environmental or toxic tort matters is preferred.  Candidates should be self-starters, highly organized, and team players. Overtime is often needed to meet client deadlines. 

Responsibilities

• Organizes and maintains document files including, but not limited to, correspondence, court papers, corporate documents, case records, and materials produced in the discovery process
• Reviews and analyzes matters for the purpose of preparing evaluations and status reports for internal use and for clients
• Drafts shells for complaints and answers, routine notices, affidavits, motions and petitions as well as detailed letters and memorandum
• Ability to read and understand technical/scientific papers including those to include patents, copyrights, mark and trade secrets
• Prior experience with large case management and E-Discovery
• Proofreads and revises legal documents for contextual, grammatical, typographical, or spelling errors
• Reviews and outlines depositions, indexes and summarizes documents
• Prepares materials for, and assists with compilation of, mailings to clients and other interested parties
• Conducts research and locates cases, depositions, opinions, reports and information related to the matter using all available resources including libraries and computer data systems
• Compiles, analyzes, and reports on data from reference materials such as digests, legal encyclopedias, regulations, legislative decisions and practice manuals, and materials produced in the discovery process
• Contacts and interviews parties, witnesses and experts, including the obtaining of written statements from witnesses
• Assists in preparation of a case for trial by drafting and preparing: Pretrial Orders, Form instructions to the Jury, Requested Voir Dire of Jurors, Conduct Jury Investigation, Prepare Witness and Exhibit Lists, Motions In Limine and Subpoena and contacts witnesses
• Assists in the trial of a case including scheduling of witnesses and tracking exhibits
• Establishes, organizes, and maintains pleadings, attorney trial notebooks, expert witness notebooks, and document indices and lists
• Utilizes computer databases to organize and store information; maintain document retention systems for large cases; and conduct research on Westlaw, LEXIS and other computer research databases
• Maintains current and accurate daily time record
• Promotes positive working relationships between legal administrative assistants, paralegals, other support staff and lawyers
• Follows the ethical requirements as set forth by the Rules of Professional Conduct of the state
• Performs special projects as assigned

Qualifications

• Knowledge of federal court filing procedures, electronic discovery, cite checking and the ability to conduct database searches utilizing Westlaw, Lexis/Nexis, PACER, Relativity, and other search engines as needed
• Ability to organize and prioritize numerous tasks and complete them under time constraints.
• Interpersonal skills necessary in order to communicate and follow instructions effectively from a diverse group of clients, attorneys and staff and provide information with ordinary courtesy and tact.
• Work often requires more than 40 hours per week to perform the essential duties of the position; may require irregular hours.
• Ability to travel to private and public buildings, locally and statewide, via private or public conveyance to assist attorney in attending to client needs on legal matters. Position may entail domestic travel.
• Completion of a four-year college degree or paralegal certificate is required.
• 5-10+ Years of experience as a Litigation paralegal.