Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Timeline
Theodora J. Lok

Theodora J. Lok

New York,NY

Summary

Dynamic Senior Litigation Paralegal with a proven track record, adept in managing over 150 cases simultaneously. Leveraged expertise in litigation and discovery process, State and Federal Courts, calendaring, document review and production, case analysis and strategy, tireless research, all phases of expert retention, and client communication to streamline case management processes, achieving over 1,950 billable hours annually. Demonstrates unparalleled organizational skills and a commitment to legal excellence.

Overview

37
37
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Senior Litigation Paralegal

Gray Rust St Amand Moffett & Brieske
01.2024 - Current
  • Recruited back to former firm working 100% remotely for Name Partner’s team, utilizing my substantive expertise of the litigation process to manage all facets of over 70 cases including time limited demands, remanding suits to Federal Court, discovery through trial and appeal by assuring all deadlines and case needs are met by coordinating workflow at team meetings of attorneys and staff and managing work of junior paralegals and billing over 1,950 hours
  • Urgent Evaluations of time limited demands and lawsuits with detailed Narrative Analysis of thousands of pages of medical/billing records to calculate damages, investigative factual research (Westlaw Research, Lexis Research, ISO Reports, prior lawsuits, criminal records, social media), preparing written summaries and advising lead partner whether to settle or litigate and aid in developing defense strategies and valuing cases in a timely manner
  • Preparing, proofreading, formatting, and finalizing pleadings, motions, exhibits, (cite checking, Shepardizing, Bluebooking) assuring compliance with court rules and Judges’ Standing Orders, propounding/responding to discovery, obtaining documents from clients, substantive document review for relevant and privileged information, preparing document production (redacting, bates stamping, creating production logs and privilege logs) and communicating with opposing counsel and courts as needed, Rule 6.4 letters, verifications, affidavits
  • Supporting multiple litigation teams simultaneously at their special request for my work product, as well as assisting attorneys in preparing for depositions, hearings, mediations, and trials, including creating exhibits, witness lists and binders
  • Comprehensive litigation case management through maintaining case databases, determining all subpoenas/FOIAs/non party RPDs and managing document retrieval service in procuring responses, analyzing evidence received and summarizing same; all phases of expert retention, coordinating private investigators, locating witnesses, daily monitoring of court dockets, deposition management

Senior Litigation Paralegal

McMickle Kurey & Branch
08.2021 - 12.2023
  • Managed up to 156 cases including civil and commercial litigation, defamation, intellectual property, wrongful death, and plaintiff cases from pre-suit investigation through trial by calendaring and monitoring all case, discovery, motion, and pre-trial deadlines, filing in multiple State Courts, Federal Courts and Appellate Courts, as well as managing workflow of 3 junior paralegals and 3 secretaries, and organizing and maintaining case files in Worldox case management system while billing at least 1,900 hours
  • Supported multiple litigation and trial teams by managing all facets of cases from discovery through trial and appeal by assisting with the preparation, formatting and finalization (cite checking, Shepardizing, Bluebooking) of legal documents including pleadings, motions and exhibits, discovery requests/responses, substantive document review for relevant and privileged content with management of voluminous document productions (production logs and privilege logs), domesticating subpoenas, locating witnesses, coordinating private investigators, and correspondence in accordance with court rules and deadlines as well as communicating with opposing counsel and courts as needed
  • Prepared depo summaries of witnesses and experts, hearings and other proceedings, depo binders, trial prep including trial notebooks, witness binders, exhibit prep, jury research, coordination of service of trial subpoenas
  • Provided superior project management skills by negotiating deal with a national document retrieval company in order to streamline the firm’s SOP for serving subpoenas/non party RPDs, thus freeing up valuable time for analysis of evidence produced; and negotiating deal with a superior Trial Software company whose product cut exhibit preparation time by 75%, both of which aided in attorneys obtaining the best possible case outcomes
  • Participated in daily case strategy meetings with attorneys and clients
  • Mock Trial prep of exhibits and Power Point presentations and sitting in 'Hot Seat' presenting same
  • Thorough and tireless legal research and creative factual investigation of all cases utilizing Westlaw, LexisNexis, social media, court dockets, private investigators, and exhaustive service of subpoenas and NPRPDs which enabled attorneys to confidently go into settlement negotiations, mediations, depositions, and trials with superior knowledge of a case

Litigation Paralegal

Gray Rust St Amand Moffett & Brieske
08.2019 - 08.2021
  • Managed all aspects of litigation cases for 40 of the firm’s largest litigation cases including Wrongful Death, Murder, Gang Related Premises Liability, Trucking, Med Mal/Nursing Home, and Opioid Cases for Name Partner and his team through case file management, calendaring and monitoring discovery and pre-trial deadlines, proofreading, formatting and finalizing all court pleadings and discovery documents, filing in multiple State Courts, Federal Courts, Appellate Courts, and State Business Court, extensive document review, research, deposition summaries, expert summaries, and thorough knowledge of all aspects of cases to aid partner when going into depositions and mediations, while billing at least 1,950 hours
  • Coordination with expert witnesses, clients, trial vendors, and opposing counsel during case preparation and throughout trials/hearing as well as communicating and coordinating with national counsel to apprise them of deadlines, rules and requirements of local courts to assure seamless adherence to same
  • Tireless and creative fact research and service of innumerable subpoenas, non party RPDs, FOIAs for procurement of any and all relevant evidence for substantive analysis and preparation of medical chronologies and special damages indexes to ensure best evidence for attorneys to develop successful strategies with optimal case outcomes

Legal Assistant/Litigation Paralegal

Hall Booth Smith
10.2017 - 04.2018
  • Supported Name Partner and Senior Partner’s team at large firm with cases throughout the U.S
  • By working with local counsel and multiple State Court and Federal Court clerks to manage pre-trial filings and organization for appearance at trial, calendaring and tracking deadlines, monitoring court dockets
  • Proofreading, formatting and finalizing pleadings, motions and briefs (cite checking, Shepardizing, Bluebooking), drafting pleadings and propounding discovery, drafting discovery responses, substantive review of documents to determine what to produce in document production and prepared same by redacting and bates stamping
  • All phases of expert retention, depositions and trial prep
  • Substantive review of thousands of pages of technical medical records from catastrophic injury cases and draft narrative analyses medical chronologies
  • Left role due to fiancé’s catastrophic back injury

Legal Assistant/Paralegal

Fain Major & Brennan
08.2016 - 08.2017
  • Supported Senior Partner and 4 Associates by heavy calendaring of all court and discovery deadlines, filing in State and Federal Courts, coordinating depositions and depo preps for witnesses, Provided Paralegal support at Insurance Defense Firm by coordinating expert review and testimony, scheduling meetings, expense report reconciliation, entering time for attorneys
  • Scheduling all aspects of depositions; Proofreading, formatting and finalizing pleadings, motions and briefs (cite checking, Shepardizing, Bluebooking) propounding discovery, discovery responses, document review and document production preparation
  • Gathering evidence through factual investigation and subpoenas/non-party RPDs, FOIAs, preparing and serving subpoenas; summarizing depositions and discovery responses; preparing medical chronologies

Program Founder and Director

Salko Farm & Stable Riding School
01.1994 - 01.2015
  • Established, managed and grew a small riding school into a $1 million annual business and created the Premier Riding Lesson Program in Fairfield, Connecticut
  • Far-ranging duties included accounting, marketing, training horses, horse care, scheduling/hiring/managing staff of 40 employees, event creation, and event management

Legal Assistant

Alston & Bird
01.1992 - 01.1994
  • Provided support for Senior Tax Partner and associates at large, prominent multi-practice firm by maintaining client files and materials, proofreading, formatting and finalizing documents, prepared draft communications, coordinated attorney calendars, heavy client contact, coordinated client meetings, expense report reconciliation, attorney time entry, drafted monthly billing statements for over 150 clients every month

Legal Assistant/Paralegal

Arnold & Porter
01.1988 - 01.1990
  • Supported Senior Partners, Partners and Associates in Corporate, Tax and Litigation Departments at AMLAW 100 firm through research, analysis, proofreading, formatting and finalizing documents, correspondence, billing statements, and spreadsheets, organizing and summarizing large volumes of files and war rooms, entering attorney time

Education

ABA Paralegal Certification -

University of Georgia

Paralegal Contract Law -

UC/Berkeley

BA - Business Administration and English

Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, VT

Skills

  • PACER/State/Appellate Court Filing
  • MS Office S Suite
  • G-Suite
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Dropbox
  • Sharefile
  • Filevine
  • Westlaw
  • LexisNexis
  • IManage
  • TABS
  • Orion
  • Worldox
  • OnCue
  • Trial Pad
  • Trial Director
  • Document Formatting
  • Jury Research
  • Cite Checking, Bluebooking, Shepardizing
  • Exceptional spelling, grammar and punctuation skills

Certification

ABA Paralegal Certification

Timeline

Senior Litigation Paralegal - Gray Rust St Amand Moffett & Brieske
01.2024 - Current
Senior Litigation Paralegal - McMickle Kurey & Branch
08.2021 - 12.2023
Litigation Paralegal - Gray Rust St Amand Moffett & Brieske
08.2019 - 08.2021
Legal Assistant/Litigation Paralegal - Hall Booth Smith
10.2017 - 04.2018
Legal Assistant/Paralegal - Fain Major & Brennan
08.2016 - 08.2017
Program Founder and Director - Salko Farm & Stable Riding School
01.1994 - 01.2015
Legal Assistant - Alston & Bird
01.1992 - 01.1994
Legal Assistant/Paralegal - Arnold & Porter
01.1988 - 01.1990
University of Georgia - ABA Paralegal Certification,
UC/Berkeley - Paralegal Contract Law,
Saint Michael’s College - BA, Business Administration and English
Theodora J. Lok