Paralegal
Austin, Texas Area
Legal Assistant III 2002-2007 (Legal Affairs & Parole Division)•Provided top-level legal research and writing to former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Justice Charles Franklin Campbell & OGC Attorneys•Worked over 5 years as the lead paralegal for the largest agency in the State of Texas completing over 30 writing projects assigned to me•Offered legal support to thousands of probation and parole officers•Supervised a staff consisting of a legal secretary, administrative assistant, and legal assistant•Experienced in the use of Computers, Lexis Nexis, Westlaw, & Microsoft Office.•Researched case laws, statutes, constitutional law, canons, legislative research, and websites to find critical answers facing the agency•Constantly monitored Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court Decisions to brief-cases that affected the agency on key issues to protect the agency from litigationLegal Assistant I 2001-2002 (Litigation Department)•Worked as witness coordinator for the litigation support division•Wrote new policy and procedure for archiving state government files based on current law•Entered new case litigation into a massive database called the case management tracking system holding thousands of cases•Operated the tort claims intake phone line to perform phone interviews of parties and screen calls for attorneysThe Legal Affairs section provides advice and counsel to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) regarding victim’s rights; employment law; purchasing, contracts, and real estate; offender health care, sentence time calculation, parole, community supervision matters, drafts formal and informal legal opinions, provides advice about the Public Information Act, and provide legal support regarding subpoena requests