Dennis J. Tirlea

5901 North Sheridan Road, Unit 4C

Chicago, Illinois 60660

Home # (773) 769-1910

Cell # (773) 290-0132

dtirlea1@gmail.com

 

EDUCATION

ABA Approved Paralegal Certificate with Honors, Paralegal Studies Program (accelerated full-time fast-track program; 24 credit hours in one semester), June 2007

Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL

 

Bachelor of Arts in Criminology (first major) and Psychology (second major), May 2003

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

 

EXPERIENCE

Paralegal, (full-time temp), Purcell & Wardrope, Chartered, Chicago, IL, August 2015 – October 2015

·         Worked on matters concerning insurance defense

·         Research

·         Abstracted medical records and summarized deposition transcripts

·         Document review/retrieval

·         Document production

 

Project Assistant (full-time temp), Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Chicago, IL, July 2015 – August 2015

·         Worked on matters concerning insurance defense

·         E-discovery with Concordance

 

Litigation and Corporate Paralegal (full-time temp), Harrison & Held, LLP, Chicago, IL,

July 2014 – January 2015

·         Worked on corporate matters, family law litigation, complex divorces, and tax controversies

·         Maintained corporate minute books and corporate entity files, and filed documents with the Secretary of State

·         Obtained documents through subpoenas and discovery deposition notices for records, and organized responses

·         E-filing in cook county and collar counties

·         Scanned pleadings and discovery, organized into binders, and tracked with individual indexes 

·         Assisted with drafting pleadings and discovery

·         PACER and state court docket research

·         Docket management (entered dates and deadlines into JuraLaw)

 

Law Clerk (part-time), Matthew A. Sidor, Attorney at Law, Chicago, IL, January 2014 – March 2014

·         Worked on matters concerning real estate, estate planning, family law, Chicago RLTO (residential landlord tenant ordinances), and the Condominium Property Act of Illinois

·         Drafted pleadings, motions, discovery, living wills, revocable trusts, petitions for dissolution of marriage, and property demand letters

·         Legal research with Lexis and Westlaw

·         Jury verdict report research

·         Contact/correspondence with clients, opposing counsel, clerk’s office, courtroom staff, etc.

 

Paralegal (freelance and contract assignments) Chicago, IL, July 2012 – July 2014

·         Worked on matters concerning general litigation

·         Researched court records and dockets in Cook County, collar counties, and federal court

·         Filed and retrieved state court pleadings and documents

 

Litigation Paralegal/Legal Assistant (full-time), Woerthwein & Miller, Chicago, IL, October 2007 – July 2012

·         Worked on matters concerning personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, consumer law (debt collection and foreclosure defense), and appellate law (state and federal)

·         Sat a counsel’s table to assist at hearings (status and motion calls), voir dire (jury selection), trials (beginning to end), and depositions

·         Trial preparation and assistance (witness/exhibit preparation, tracked witnesses/exhibits throughout trial, etc.)

·         Drafted/proofread pleadings, motions, discovery, correspondence, etc. (proofread for grammar, punctuation, and legal analysis)

·         Managed, reviewed, responded, and requested high volume discovery for all litigation matters

·         E-discovery with CaseMap Suite

·         Requested and updated medical records (HIPAA requests and subpoenas)

·         Legal research with Lexis and Westlaw

·         Knowledge of rules of procedure (state, federal, and appellate courts), federal court e-filing (CM/ECF and PACER), state court paper/e-filing (Cook County and collar counties), and state appellate court filing

·         Document and medical records review (summarizations, timelines, and chronologies made with CaseMap software)

·         Managed court docket and firm calendar for approximately 200 clients with DM2000 and AccessPlus, LawToolBox, and MS Excel software

·         Managed physical and paperless files for approximately 200 clients (created, scanned, and organized/updated clients’ files; and managed files per firm’s record retention policies)

·         Significant contact/correspondence with clients, assisting/opposing counsel, clerk’s office, courtroom staff, expert witnesses, hospital staff, etc.)

·         Various administrative duties

 

Paralegal, Catholic Charities, Legal Services Department, Chicago, IL, July 2007 – August 2007 (temp part-time); February 2007 – May 2007 (intern)

·         Worked on matters concerning in-house counsel non-profit corporation liability issues, HIPAA, employment discrimination, personal injury, Illinois State sales tax exemption, USPS mailing regulations, domestic relations, and general corporate non-profit liability issues

·                    Legal research with LexisNexis and Westlaw

·                    Summarized, reviewed, and redacted matter file records (redactions per HIPAA compliance)

·                    Drafted correspondence and interoffice memorandum

·                    Assisted with managing matter file records (created and organized/updated matter file records)

 

Investigator (intern), Law Office of Brodsky & Odeh, Chicago, IL, April 2005 – November 2005

·         Worked on criminal matters

·         Investigated client cases (interviewed witnesses, in and out of Cook County Jail, reviewed documents, drafted investigator’s reports, etc.), and assisted at court hearings

 

Cadet 2nd Lieutenant, Illinois Institute of Technology, Air Force ROTC Detachment 195, Chicago, IL,

August 2001 – May 2002

·         In charge of training lower level cadets in customs, courtesies, and ideologies of the United States Air Force in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the United States Department of Defense Code of Ethics governing federal and military officer conduct

·         Numerous informative and persuasive presentations utilizing PowerPoint software

 

AWARDS

Nominated for 300/400 upper level undergraduate Criminology major research paper writing competition

(Sociology 486 – Police in a Democratic Society), Fall 2001 Semester, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

 

COMPUTER SKILLS

MS Office (Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint), Concordance, Westlaw, LexisNexis, Lexis CaseMap Suite, Lexis Accurint, TimeMatters, JuraLaw, AccessPlus, LawToolBox, Adobe Acrobat Professional, Tabs, TimeSlips, Juris, iManage/Worksite, NetDocs, and PaperPort Pro