Litigation Paralegal - In Office

Responsible for paralegal duties in assisting attorneys or department managers in preparation of required legal documents, pleadings, drafts, or correspondence, legal research, responding to client requests, tracking file locations, preparation of status reports to clients, and provision of other administrative assistance required for efficient department operation, and drafting correspondence, and responding to difficult inquiries from clients or courts. Also assists with Probate litigation case processes.

Essential functions include managing the attorney's case and court calendar of case deadlines and court hearings, communicating with clients via the clients' chosen methods and systems, overseeing the filing of all of the attorney's complaints, motions, responses, replies, proposed orders, garnishments, executions, etc. utilizing the federal court's rules and its ECF/Pacer system, as well as the various e-filing systems and paper filing rules and procedures of Texas state courts, including coordination of service of process with process servers and service copies of all documents via mail or e-mail on the certificate of service.

Additional duties include requesting stamped copies of court documents when necessary to maintain files and certified or exemplified copies to domesticate judgments, ensuring that fees and costs are requested according to client-firm agreements and entered into client and MWZM systems appropriately accordingly to client and MWZM policy, overseeing the general flow of the attorney's caseload, completing initial drafting of pleadings using templates and samples to prepare complaints for suits on the note, judicial foreclosures, reformations, and other simple pleadings for attorney review, receiving and maintaining the electronic storage of all court filings and entered orders of all of the attorney's cases and inputs them into the MWZM case management system, communicating via phone and email to initiate and facilitate communication between the litigation attorney and borrowers, defendants, clients, opposing counsel, and court staff, assisting other departments within MWZM at the discretion and direction of the litigation attorney and/or MWZM management, assisting the attorney in the procurement and dissemination of all interrogatory responses and discovery requests, assisting the attorney with the taking of depositions, assisting the attorney in the preparation of physical exhibits and other aspects of trial preparation and in court trial administration, assisting the attorney with internet case research via Lexis as needed, assisting the attorney with blue book citation, and updating authority (Shepardizing), obtaining documents needed for application from clients; drafting application for attorney review; uploading application to system. Maintaining steps in client systems, corresponding with courts and preparing needed documentation for hearings to ensure attorney is available and prepared. Coordinating with local counsel to represent the firm at local hearings. Monitoring hearing schedules with courts, preparing motions and orders as needed to process cases, reviewing information and downloading documents from the County, District and Federal Court websites, drafting legal documents of advanced difficulty and draft required correspondence with outside attorneys or clients, may submit documents to county clerk offices for recording, enter recording information into the computer system and forward data to other departments as necessary, preparing for hearings by conducting necessary communications and assembling required data and records, and attending hearings as required. Preparing pleadings or other documents for attorneys addressing cases involving advanced legal, bankruptcy or title issues, maintaining and updating internal electronic systems and various client systems including, but not limited to: Tempo,BKFS/LoanSphere, Lenstar, Serengeti, VendorScape, and assisting attorney with editing and proofreading legal forms and documents, managing attorney calendar and court deadlines, performing additional duties as requested.

Qualifications include a high school diploma or equivalent (higher education in business or related field a plus), minimum of 4 years of paralegal / management level support, excellent communication skills. Must be able to correspondence professional: both verbal and written, experience in litigation and/or mortgage servicing litigation a plus, able to perform work in various data-base systems with high quality and quantity work output, competent in multi-tasking and organized environment where confidentiality is critical.