Career Center

Litigation & E-Discovery Paralegal, Office of General Counsel - UT System
MR 09

Description:
The Office of the General Counsel provides legal advice and representation to the Board of Trustees and the University administration. This position is in the General Counsel's office located at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

This position is responsible for assisting several attorneys in the Memphis Office with all aspects of defending medical malpractice and other litigation filed against the State of Tennessee arising out of clinical programs of the UT Health Science Center, and also assists the attorneys in other legal work for the University.

The duties of this position are as follows:

• Sorts and distributes incoming matters in a timely manner, bringing any high priority matters to the attorney's attention; properly addresses, copies, and sends outgoing correspondence and enclosures.

• Reviews pre-suit notices, determines the status of residents involved in new Tennessee Claims Commission claims and Circuit Court lawsuits and sends correspondence to residents to notify them of the pending claim and expected legal proceedings.

• Drafts correspondence, pleadings, discovery requests/responses, court exhibits, and other litigation documents effectively and efficiently for attorney review and approval; Prepares documents according to instructions, in accordance with court rules, and with proper citations; Carefully proofreads documents prepared by self and others to ensure that they are free of typographical errors.

• Efficiently uses the courts' electronic filing systems.

• Collects, compiles, copies, and indexes documents and records effectively and efficiently; manages litigation documents effectively and efficiently. Includes preparing and sending authorization for release of medical information to Claimants' counsel, and forwarding signed releases to treating hospitals and facilities to obtain medical records.

• Accurately and thoroughly summarizes documents, records, and/or depositions.

• Timely and properly profiles and saves documents in the Office's Document Management System, "NetDocs." Runs OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on all documents after uploading.

• Accurately maintains calendars, including (if applicable) noting all court appearances, depositions, and litigation deadlines; monitors deadlines effectively.

• Opens, keeps current, and closes litigation files timely and properly.

• Assists attorneys in preparing for and appearing at depositions, hearings, and trials.

• Determines and locates witnesses.

• Arranges depositions, meetings, reserves appropriate meeting room, and informs parties of date, time, location, and purpose of meeting; prepares necessary materials. Arranges for court reporters when required, and processes related invoices.

• Makes travel arrangements in accordance with University policy; timely and properly assists the attorneys with travel reimbursement requests.

• The position is responsible for maintaining calendars for several attorneys and working with clients to schedule meetings (as well as space and court reporters as needed). The position also requires experience and expertise in using the MS Office Suite (including OneDrive) and MS Teams (or ability and willingness to develop those skills right away), as well as PACER, ECF, and other court and agency electronic filing systems.

• Responds to and maintains records of credentialing requests for Residents. This task involves verification of dates of employment with the Graduate Medical Education office, maintaining and searching a database for residents' involvement in past claims, and preparation of letters.

• Answers telephones promptly and courteously; takes accurate and complete messages and delivers them promptly; manages difficult callers calmly; and professionally screens calls/visitors effectively in accordance with attorneys' requests.

• Assists assigned attorneys in reviewing invoices for accuracy, adherence to University Fiscal Policy, and prepares and submits the invoices for payment according to OGC procedures.
  
• Supports attorneys in office administrative and operational matters