Construction Litigation Paralegal

Overview

Contract Paralegal – Litigation Section (Houston)

Porter Hedges is seeking an experienced Contract Paralegal to support our Litigation Section. A successful candidate for this position must have two or more years of experience, along with knowledge of terminology and procedures applicable to specific practice area of assigned legal personnel (i.e., demonstrate a firm understanding of the litigation case lifecycle, electronic filing of pleadings, e-discovery, docket scheduling, and trial/exhibit presentation software).

This position works under the supervision and direction of multiple attorneys and assists with all phases of the litigation process from the discovery period through trials and appeals. Assignments are generally project-based and range from eDiscovery support to trial preparation and document management.

E-Discovery Responsibilities

• Assists with eDiscovery tasks, such as data collection, document processing, and review using litigation support software (Eclipse, Relativity and Reveal).
• Acts as a liaison between Firm personnel, opposing counsel, and eDiscovery vendor.
• Works with Litigation Support Manager to design and implement document review systems in Eclipse, Relativity and Reveal, including loading documents for review, constructing complex Boolean searches for review team, redacting documents, performing QC tasks prior to production, exporting and printing documents, and running document productions.
• Maintains chain of custody.
• Prepares privilege logs.
• Manages logistics of production of documents (hard copy, images, native) and provides routine status reports, including task completion reports and data delivery schedules.
• Works with Litigation Support Manager to support Share File and other file sharing applications, including Drop Box, Box, File Share, SharePoint, and Titan File.
• Maintains in-house transcript databases using Case Notebook and loads transcripts, videos, and exhibits into platform in organized manner for team sharing.

Other Paralegal Responsibilities

• Analyzes documents and materials and conducts legal, statistical, and documentary research.
• Drafts first draft of legal documents, including pleadings, motions, and discovery requests/responses for the attorney’s review.
• Summarizes depositions, interrogatories, and testimony.
• Communicates with clients, witnesses, and other stakeholders to gather information and provide updates; coordinates and schedules meetings, hearings, and depositions as required by project timelines.
• Manages case files by organizing documents, correspondence, and other materials related to a case matter and ensuring all documentation is accessible and up-to-date; responsible for document organization and production, setting up and maintaining files, stripping files at the close of a case, labeling files and sending them to storage; organizes and prepares exhibit lists and/or privilege logs.
• Assists in trial preparation, including organizing exhibits, preparing trial binders, and assisting during depositions or courtroom proceedings as needed.
• Specific to the Construction Litigation Section
  :
  Searches and reviews real property records and records liens.
• Prepares and inputs time and billing data and text regarding all work time expended on any client or firm tasks.

Technical Requirements
:

• Experience using electronic discovery platforms such as Relativity and Reveal.
• Training on Reveal can be provided; however, candidates must have prior experience with Relativity or a similar e-discovery platform.
• Ability to perform basic searches, enter information, and manage documents within an e-discovery system with minimal training.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel required.