Sarah Santiago
Austin,TX
Summary
Paralegal motivated to continually improve and extend personal skills and knowledge to attain increased responsibility and opportunities for professional growth.
Overview
7
7
years of professional experience
Work History
Paralegal
Beyer Law PC
07.2023 - 03.2024
- Prepared legal briefs, motions, and pleadings.
- Conferred with clients and other involved parties to gather and track case information.
- Assisted counsel in preparing answers, providing documentation, and information for discovery requests.
- A lot of time spent preparing discovery responses and deficiency letters.
- Attended court to assist attorney and client. Took notes for attorney on judge's ruling.
- Coordinated meetings and mediations.
- Reviewed and processed client evidence for preparation in discovery, hearings, or trial.
- Experience preparing court binders.
- Extensive drafting.
Family Law Paralegal
Law Office Of Willie And Dasher
12.2022 - 02.2023
- Drafting of motions, orders, any and all pleadings needed.
- Discovery requests and responses
- Negotiations of modifications
- Directed and coordinated service of subpoenas and scheduling of depositions for several legal professionals.
- Scheduled hearings, mediations, client meetings, etc.
- Kept clients informed of case movement weekly.
- Worked in office full time.
- Coordinated with attorneys on what needed to be done at the onset of a new case, then carried the case with minimal to almost no oversight.
- Conferred with clients and other involved parties to gather and track case information.
- Examined and generated memos on statutory law, case law and federal and state regulations using online research databases, such as Westlaw and print sources.
- Conducted and assisted with interviews of new paralegals. Assisted in guiding them as they started.
- Met billing requirements on consistent basis.
- Emphasized knowledge sharing culture among paralegals so we could ensure no cases were left behind.
- Contacted key witnesses to testify at court hearings.
- Caseload - 130 cases
Real Estate Paralegal
Sanvenero & Cittadino LLC
11.2022 - 12.2022
- Translated Spanish to English in meetings, closings.
- Translated forms, documents, and correspondence.
- Kept track of checklist of documents/reports needed for closings.
- Organized and prepared closing documents.
- Worked closely and maintained communication with title companies.
- Reviewed Deed of Trust, Title Commitment, Title Binder, and prior bankruptcies documents.
- Drafted deeds, addendums, and contracts.
- Assisted counsel in drafting legal documents such as briefs, pleadings and appeals.
- Reviewed, edited and proofread legislation drafts for proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and formatting.
- Answered phones, scheduled closings, and other meetings.
- Handled electronic court filings and coordinated court activities.
- Filed court documents and legal pleadings with court clerk on behalf of attorneys.
- Case load - 60
Family Law Paralegal
Keith, Winters, Wenning, And Harris LLC
09.2022 - 11.2022
- This position involved admin and clerical duties as well as paralegal/legal work and research work.
- Answered multi-line phone system, routing calls, delivering messages to staff and greeting visitors.
- Scheduled office meetings and client appointments for attorneys.
- Conducted client intake interviews.
- Maintained contact with law clerks for scheduling of hearings, court filings, and case updates.
- Followed up and worked with clients to complete pleadings, information statements, subpoenas, etc.
- Assisted counsel in preparing complaints, answers, providing documentation and information for discovery request.
- Prepared legal briefs, motions and pleadings. Conducted legal research where needed to complete briefs, motions and pleadings.
- Established knowledge-sharing culture through focused communications to increase efficiency and publicize benefits. (Ask me examples!)
- Oversaw multiple attorney calendars
- Maintained ongoing communication with opposing parties from discovery to trial phase to facilitate expeditious litigation.
- Caseload - 120
Legal Admin Assistant
Capital Area Private Defender Service
12.2020 - 08.2022
- Served as the primary contact point for external communication by answering and returning calls, assisting guests in our office, and serving as the office receptionist for English and Spanish speaking clients.
- Tracked projects assigned to staff members for timely submission.
- Prepared payroll spreadsheets/timesheets.
- Oversaw upkeep of office equipment, furnishings, and supplies and other office assets.
- Prepared correspondence, forms, and materials such as presentations and external communication.
- Developed, coordinated, and maintained record keeping and filing systems including confidential files and imaged documents.
- Assisted with designing and implementing new policies, procedures, and training to improve organization efficiency.
- Was responsible for the delivery and pick-up of items, as necessary.
- Communicated with a high degree of professionalism, accuracy, and confidentiality.
- Assisted payroll, immigration, and social work departments.
Student Library Assistant
Marist Library Archives
01.2020 - 03.2020
- Organized upcoming shelves and new books
- Created social media posts and scheduled them for the coming weeks. In order to do this, I had to be very cautious in all my work as the posts included, handling old university yearbooks and other materials to be scanned and uploaded to the post
- The materials used for content were to be used with much care as they were all archived items that had a lot of value.
- Logged and kept track of inventory of archived items
- Assisted with prepared displays
Legal Intern
Corbally, Gartland, & Rappleyea LLP
08.2019 - 03.2020
- (Laid off due to Covid-19)
- Assisted paralegals with organizing discovery documents, printing jobs, opening, and closing cases, gathering legal research and calling for medical records, and scheduling client meetings with attorneys
- Assisted senior paralegals with Will signing, served as witness, and assisted with preparing deeds and closing documents.
- Worked on organization, archivization, and digitization of completed case files
- Conducted legal research using Westlaw, LexusNexus and built proficiency in Adobe Acrobat, LEAP, and CollectMax
- Pitched a project to update and improve the efficiency of the digitization of the firm's physical files. This led to a collaboration with the IT Department and Office Supervisor to execute
- This involved updating scanners and intern workstations.
Poller/Interviewer
Marist Polls
01.2017 - 10.2018
- Answering phones and guiding the interviewee through a smooth survey
- Remained neutral while also recording the responses of each interviewee accurately
- Actively listen for the correct answer and any problems the interviewee may have.
- Delivered information from script regarding surveys for on-demand phone project assignment.
- Coded data from participant interviews.
- Explained questions in better detail for interviewees to allow truthful answers.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Criminal Justice, Legal Studies
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY05.2020
Paralegal Certification - ABA Certified -
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY05.2020
Skills
- Intake and retainers
- Working with new clients regarding initial pleadings and disclosures, discovery requests and responses, financial statements, etc
- Promulgating discovery
- Scheduling depositions/mediations
- Scheduling atty/client meetings
- Reaching out to court admin to schedule court hearings
- Case management, document filing, file organization
- Translation - Spanish to English
- Legal research / Legal correspondence
- Court filings/e-filing (state and federal)
- Motions and pleadings preparation
- Experience in criminal, immigration, family law, and civil litigation
- Clio, WestLaw features, LexisNexis, CollectMax, LEAP, PCLaw, MS Office, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Creative Suite, Track with Ease, Practice Panther
- Puts in overtime to ensure accurate, prompt, and excellent work
Additional Information
Valerie Valentour: Former Paralegal coworker
512-934-2234
Nicole Pearson: Former Paralegal coworker
310-846-7700
Ana Vela: Former Paralegal coworker
432-266-2515
Nancy Memije: Senior Paralegal at Sanvenero & Cittadino
Former Paralegal Supervisor at Keith, Winters, Wenning & Harris LLC
(732)337-0345
memije8692@gmail.com
Richard Segura: Mentoring Attorney at CAPDS
Former Supervisor at CAPDS
(512)740-7561
richard@capds.org
Stephanie Wilson: Social Worker at CAPDS
Former Co-worker at CAPDS
(512)584-5419
stephwilson1973@gmail.com or stephanie@capds.org
Adela Meraz: Immigration Attorney at CAPDS
Former Co-worker at CAPDS
(512)710-8378
adela@capds.org
Timeline
Paralegal
Beyer Law PC
07.2023 - 03.2024
Family Law Paralegal
Law Office Of Willie And Dasher
12.2022 - 02.2023
Real Estate Paralegal
Sanvenero & Cittadino LLC
11.2022 - 12.2022
Family Law Paralegal
Keith, Winters, Wenning, And Harris LLC
09.2022 - 11.2022
Legal Admin Assistant
Capital Area Private Defender Service
12.2020 - 08.2022
Student Library Assistant
Marist Library Archives
01.2020 - 03.2020
Legal Intern
Corbally, Gartland, & Rappleyea LLP
08.2019 - 03.2020
Poller/Interviewer
Marist Polls
01.2017 - 10.2018
Bachelor of Science - Criminal Justice, Legal Studies
Marist College
Paralegal Certification - ABA Certified -
Marist College
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