GWENDOLYN DUNBAR

8916 S Cottage Grove

Chicago, IL 60619

gwendoldunb@aol.com

Home: (773) 952-6556  Cell: (773) 576-8870

 

EXPERIENCE:

 

02/08 to Present                            Robert Half Legal, Chicago, IL

Job Title: Senior Paralegal and Legal Secretary
Job Duties: Assisting Managing Partner, Co-Managing Partner and HR in large law firm; typing various legal documents, having same filed with the various state and federal courts; drafting and typing notices and motions and various other legal pleadings and having same filed with the state and federal courts.  Duties also include scheduling and maintaining attorney calendars; training reception and legal secretaries and helping to implement in-house procedures through Human Resources by submitting insurance claims and distributing benefit packages to employees.  Inputting expense and time reports as outlined as well as maintaining highly confidential documents and information concerning in-house employees and firm matters.

 

09/07 to 02/08                            City of Chicago Office of the City Treasurer

Job Title: Executive Assistant II

Job Duties: Assisting City Treasurer and Deputy City Treasurers in administrative role; duties includes various projects including mass mailing and distributions to various financial institutions throughout the City; answering telephones, maintenance of mail and general office duties.

 

05/06 to 09/07                            Baker & McKenzie, Chicago, IL 60601

                                          Job Title: Secretarial Specialist/Paralegal

Job Duties: Floating legal secretary and paralegal in large law firm assisting and supporting various attorneys on assignment in concentrated areas of law.  Duties also included providing support to HR Team (preparing new hire employee files and entering new hire information into ADP software); coordinating and scheduling candidate interview and preparing interview itineraries and resume packets while actively communicating with hiring managers and candidates; Assisting with on-boarding of new hires/transfers (creating offer letters, tracking drug screens and background checks, in addition to compiling relocation agreements and IT requests)

 

 

11/03 to 05/06                            Katten Muchin Rosenman, Chicago, IL 60661

                                          Job Title: Special Assignment Secretary/Firm Litigation Floater/Paralegal

Job Duties: Provide administrative and secretarial support to assigned attorneys and other legal personnel by filling in for short-and long term secretarial absences in a variety of departments (specifically litigation) throughout the Firm.  Assignments involve document production, administrative functions, and client contact, which typically consist of three or more attorneys.  Duties also include following standard procedures for special assignment secretaries (by reporting attendance to determine assignment) reviewing Secretarial Info Sheet at assigned desk to determine administrative/clerical requirements specific to assignment and ensuring workflow deadlines, special tasks, meetings/conference calls.  Responsibilities also included creating, editing, revising and compiling large, complex, heavily formatted documents as well as preparing routine correspondence, memoranda and other legal documents from draft or dictated text; managing and maintaining attorneys' calendars, scheduling appointments, requesting conflicts of interest checks, generating new files, maintaining existing files, and inputting attorneys' time, in addition to coordinating travel and attorney reimbursements, and assisting secretarial coordinators with other secretarial overflow and filing projects.  Duties also included assisting HR in coordinating meeting schedules and space availability for all conference room; and maintaining inventory replenishment and maintenance to include break rooms, office supplies and mail room.

 

 

04/02 to 11/03                             Shaheen Novoselsky Statt Filipowski & Eccleston, P.C., Chicago, IL

Job Title: Paralegal /Adm. Legal Secretary and Marketing Cord.

Job Duties: Typed various legal documents concentrated in the area of Securities Law (i.e., Complaints to the NASD, discovery requests such as interrogatories and production requests, including responses) from inception of cases through to trial.  Prepared documents for court filings, prepared/revised documents, input timesheets, scheduled depositions and conferences, maintained telephone and travel arrangements, maintained monthly billing and expense records.  Maintained files as well as heavy client contact.  Duties also consisted of soliciting new business from various organizations, scheduling seminars and creating advertisements enhancing new client business into the firm.  Additional duties included abilities in demonstrating advanced skills with standard features of various personal computer word processing and spreadsheet software (MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook) as well as other proprietary firm software.  Also multi-tasked while demonstrating knowledge of and ability to assist in revising HR policies, practices and procedures.

 

06/00 to 04/02                            Pontikes & Garcia (now dissolved), Chicago, IL

                                          Job Title: Paralegal and Adm. Legal Secretary

Job Duties: Assisted two partners in personal injury and medical malpractice defense firm.  Typed various legal documents, correspondence, pleadings, etc.,  drafted complaints; effectuated service of summons and monitored same as well as various other legal documents and memoranda, edited, proofread and transcribed various documents, trained legal secretaries, and various other general office duties.

 

10/98 to 06/00                             Wildman Harrold Allen & Dixon, Chicago, IL 60606

                                          Job Title: Administrative Secretarial Specialist/Paralegal

Job Duties: Assisted attorneys in various areas of law, including commercial and residential real estate, estate planning and probate.

 

9/96 to 10/98                            Sidley & Austin, Chicago, IL

                                          Job Title: Administrative Secretarial Specialist/Paralegal

Job Duties: Assisted attorneys in various areas of law, specifically complex and emergency litigation/insurance defense. 

 

10/88 to 9/96                            Borovsky & Ehrlich, P.C., Chicago, IL 60606

                                          Job Title: Administrative Legal Secretary/Paralegal/Secretarial Trainer

Job Duties: Involved all areas of law (personal injury, divorce, real estate, consumer credit, traffic and criminal).  Trained legal secretaries on basic office procedures and various legal procedural in-house duties.  Duties also consisted of being paralegal to five real estate attorneys, assistant to Human Resources Director and Managing Partner, and general office duties.

 

5/86 to 10/88                            Rosenfeld Hafron & Farmer, Chicago, IL

                                          Job Title: Administrative Legal Secretary to Partner and Legal Assistant

Job Duties: Typed and drafted various legal documents concentrated in the area of Domestic Relations Law; prepared Petitions for Dissolution of Marriage and all supporting documents, including but not limited to, paternity actions; maintained case files, heavy client contact, and general office duties.

 

 

 

EDUCATION:

 

08/09 to Present                            Roosevelt University

                                          Pursing Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science (pending)

                           

                                          Dunbar Vocational High School

                                          Major Elective: Marketing and Business (Diploma Received 8/82)

 

SOFTWARE/MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS:  WordPerfect; MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook 2003-2010; Hot Docs; Interaction; IManage; Soft solutions; Timeslips; Juris, Deltaview, Comparite, Rightfax and PC Docs.

Detailed Description of Legal Experience

 

              My experience as a legal assistant/paralegal and legal secretary in the litigation area has given me a vast background in assisting attorneys not only in the pre-litigation, litigation and trial stages of each and every case I have worked up, but detailed experience in performing the pre-litigation and litigation stages of working up files such as obtaining police reports, medical specials and investigative evidence; drafting correspondence and demands to insurance companies for settlement; as well as obtaining damage and wage loss verifications of clients.  I also draft and prepare the Complaint at Law and Summons, as well as monitor the process of service of same.  Additionally, my duties include preparation of and drafting of discovery documents, including assisting clients in answering interrogatories and production requests relative to the discovery stage of each case file.  I prepare and draft witness statements; set up depositions; type via dictation and written text, deposition summaries and abstracts of various witnesses;  as well as reports and jury instructions under attorney direction prior to trial.  I am also involved in preparing clients for trial as well as trial testimony.

 

              My experience as an administrative legal assistant, paralegal and legal secretary in the real estate area has given me a detailed background in two major areas; residential and commercial sales/purchase and mortgage refinancing.  In the area of real estate, my duties include working closely with staff, attorneys and all parties to each respective case.  I am independently responsible for reviewing and monitoring as well as modifying contracts, ordering title and surveys, clearing title defects, encumbrances and liens and drafting correspondence regarding same.  My duties also involve heavy communications with the realtors, clients, lenders and opposing counsel in accumulating required information and documents (i.e., drafting  and preparation of payoff letters, hold harmless letters, assessments and first right of refusals) Declarations and By-laws as well as other miscellaneous documents relative to and prior to closings.  I also draft and prepare various other closing documents (i.e., Deed, Bill of Sale, Affidavit of Title, and Closing statements).  My duties additionally include highlighting specifics to client and attorneys, specifically, points which underscore structural defects, site and access problems, the levels of evaluating methodical comparables; income/cost approach used in evaluating property.  I assist in coordinating real estate appeals by obtaining and reviewing the comparables and photographs as well as preparing clients for testimony to be given at hearings; familiarizing clients with official rules, calculating assessments, acquiring documentary evidence in the workup and in assisting attorneys in sketching financial appraisal data concerning various properties; as well as checking classification ordinances.

 

Other Job Duties:   My experience as an administrative legal assistant/paralegal and administrative paralegal range from and include interacting directly with clients, attorneys and support staff on a daily basis, advising, encouraging, in addition to advising all parties involved on current file status as to workup.  Duties included drafting, preparing and reviewing correspondence and various other legal documents to and from attorneys and clients.  Additionally, my duties also entail training legal and non-legal support staff coming into the firm.  Specifically, training legal secretaries consist of informing and advising secretaries of proper procedural systematic functions related to the preparation of diverse legal documents affiliated with working up a file and assisting attorneys, together with correspondence and other required documents needed under the direction of any attorney for proper work up of case files; up to and including procedural steps taken for court filings in the various divisions of the court (i.e., Chancery, Law, Domestic Relations, Municipal, Bankruptcy, Federal and Appellate).  Some areas of my experience are also concentrated in real estate/tax, divorce/child support, criminal/traffic, bankruptcy and consumer credit matters.

 

 

REFERENCES

 

    

 

          Katten Muchin Rosenman, Chicago, IL 60661

          Supervisor: Patricia Franklin (312) 460-5000

 

 

          Sidley & Austin, Chicago, IL

          Supervisor: Moria Waddy: (312) 853-7000

 

          Borovsky & Ehrlich, P.C., Chicago, IL 60606

          Nancy Moran: (312) 861-0800

 

          Baker & McKenzie, Chicago, IL 60606
          Lynn Walsh (312) 861-8000