Litigation Paralegal Training

• What separates a highly successful paralegal career from a paralegal job
• Defining a “successful” paralegal career
• A different approach to the meaning of proactive behavior
• The importance of building and keeping credibility with the attorneys you work for
• Time management when juggling multiple priorities
• Why paralegal technology skills are so important

• Understanding the difference between generations when communicating at work
• Four methods to use to be more concise in your communication
• The importance of being confident in your communications with attorneys
• Easy steps to a better proofread to eliminate errors in your writing

Upon completion of this course, paralegals will be able to:

1. Design the Excel Spreadsheet
2. Organize and Review Data
3. Name, Color and Format Spreadsheets
4. Implement Quick Tricks and Useful Keystrokes
5. Work with Excel Templates
6. Copy, Paste and Embed Data
7. Create Hyperlinks to Worksheets and Other Files
8. Create and Use Basic Formulas and Functions to Calculate Data
9. Use Excel for Lists, Timelines and Other Tables

Handling a case proactively involves taking charge and doing things that will move a case forward without having to be told what to do each step of the way.  It also involves an understanding that to be truly proactive, a paralegal should develop and refine key behaviors that are needed to be a successful litigation paralegal.  In this module, we use a sample complaint and walk paralegals through the things they can do the moment the complaint comes in.

We make drafting discovery requests and responses easy with a technique that will work on all types of litigation cases.  We include group exercises using the sample complaint from Module 1 to show paralegals how to become the master of discovery drafting on their litigation team, even when they must draft discovery from scratch without a form or a template.

All litigation paralegals, regardless of the specific practice area, should have a general understanding of e-discovery and how it fits into the discovery phase of a litigation matter.  In this session, we introduce paralegals to the basics of e-discovery, the industry models and the court rules affecting electronically stored information and more.  Note:  there is a more in-depth training on all phases e-discovery in the E-discovery Paralegal Boot Camp (the next course in this paralegal training package)

E-discovery projects can be the most expensive part of litigation.  And if we’re not careful, they can also be where the biggest mistakes happen.  In this module, we give you a template to be able to plan for the project to reduce the likelihood of mistakes happening.

• Drafting a Project Plan Memo to keep your project on track
• Selecting and managing vendors
• How to identify other sources of data
• Estimating data size
• Preparing a budget for your project

• Understanding the various processing options depending on the available technology
• The importance of communication and status updates to the attorney
• Methods for reducing the review time of a document production
• Estimating the completion date for the review project
• How to make adjustments to meet the review deadline

• Understanding the pros and cons of the various production methods
• Effectively communicating with the project team
• How to develop quality control measures to prevent mistakes
• Post-production tasks and metrics so that you can learn from each project

In this motivational program, we show paralegals how to increase their productivity while they are in the office so that they can achieve a better work/life balance and be out of the office sooner.  We show them how to measure their daily, weekly and monthly productivity and then give them solid methods to improve those numbers. Your paralegals will be able to set a plan for which methods will work best to see the most improvement.

Program Highlights

• How to calculate your daily productivity and set daily goals to increase it
• Solid methods to improve your productivity
• How to limit distractions and increase your focus
• Prioritizing your work day so that you can get all your work done and still have a life outside the office

Preparing for depositions is more than the notice and the subpoena.  Those are forms that anyone can cut and paste.  Instead, we provide paralegals with a 3-step plan to eliminate those last- minute scrambles the night before a deposition.  We also provide paralegals with an insight into what happens during a deposition so that they can better organize the attorney heading out the door to the deposition.

• Proactive things to do before the notice of trial
• The Trial Prep Checklist as your daily to-do list for the weeks leading up to trial
• How to stay on track even with an attorney who procrastinates
• Preparing the Trial Notebook early in the case

• Deciding whether to outsource the technology
• Steps to hiring and managing trial technology vendors
• Checklist of equipment if you are the “hot-seat” person
• Comparing technology alternatives for trial presentations
• Using PowerPoint for opening and closing statements
• Ensuring a smooth technology presentation

• Drafting a Trial Exhibit List that will keep your exhibits organized
• Organizing the trial exhibits for use throughout the trial prep phase
• Demonstrative evidence
• Deposition Designations for the pretrial order
• Preparing for the Pretrial Conference

• Conducting site visits before the trial starts
• Finding the ideal trial war room
• Preparing for the witness prep meetings
• Mastering the out of town trials
• Setting up your remote trial war room

• Logistics to plan for the unexpected
• Setting up your workspace in the courtroom
• Your role in voir dire
• Tracking the evidence
• General professional guidelines
• Preparing for the jury deliberations

• An understanding of the ethical rules that apply to all legal support professionals
• Important lessons learned from others’ mistakes on social media
• When is it ok to be Facebook friends with judges and opposing parties?
• Why it is important for you to have a good understanding of social media applications
• Other ethical dilemmas to avoid on social media