Thanks for taking the time to read about the personal injury paralegal position. You have taken the first step in changing your professional and personal life.  We will treat your interest in the position with discretion since you’re likely working for a firm currently.

A little about us:

We are a busy plaintiff’s personal injury firm located on the southside of Chicago with a second office in Northwest Indiana.   We pride ourselves at customer service and providing superlative legal work. We use cutting edge technology in all aspects of our practice. There are few firms which do things the way we do. The field of plaintiffs’ personal injury is changing and firms which are not prepared will fail within ten years. We will be the beneficiary of their failure to think ahead.

What we need from you.

Our threshold requirements for the personal injury paralegal are a bachelors’ degree or else extensive experience with personal injury cases or a medical background. You must be proficient in MS Word, Excel and most importantly, Adobe Acrobat. We are 95% paperless, so don’t expect to rely on or use paper files. We use SmartAdvocate for our case management software. We track and monitor every aspect of a case.

Responsibilities of a our Personal Injury Paralegal

The personal injury paralegal position is one of the most important in the office. It involves daily and constant interaction with our clients. Positive energy and a sincere desire to help and do the best you can do are a must. We care about our clients and we work hard for them. We always try to maximize the value of a case, rather than let cases proceed with no direction from the firm.

You will be head paralegal of our litigation department. Your responsibilities will be pleadings and service, discovery, depositions, motions, trial preparation and trial assistance. Despite your experience, we will train you the way we want it done. You will also assist in our high value pre-litigation cases. On cases which merit it, we prepare a demand for settlement as thoroughly as we would a trial. Here’s an example of a recent demand (without attachments) which recently settled pre-suit for six figures.  This is the quality of the work we produce.

What we are looking for in you

We have identified the following characteristics as important to work for McCready, Garcia & Leet:
• detail orientated and accurate
• reliable and hard working
• willing and eager to learn
• positive attitude about work, life and the world
• compassionate and caring
• good listener and explainer
Don’t just tell us you possess these qualities, show us how your past work experience demonstrates these characteristics. Explain how your personal interests reinforce these traits. Show us, don’t tell us.

This is a great place to work, just ask the people who work here now

Every case and every client is different, so the variety serves as a constant challenge. We don’t fire people because we do so such a thorough job in the hiring process. If you make it through the hiring process, we expect you will work here for a long time. We treat our employees well. We encourage personal and professional growth which makes working here rewarding. We provide health insurance, 401(k), profit sharing and bonuses.

Applying for the position

Before you apply, here is what we expect in the hiring process. First, you will read the entire job posting and follow the instructions. It’s not hard to do, but we’ll be able to weed out those who do not follow instructions. Next, candidates will undergo a 10 minute phone interview. It’s your chance to make a good impression over the phone. This is important since this position involves speaking to people on the phone. We expect you will research a little about who we are and what we do prior to your phone interview, so don’t try to wing it. Review www.McCreadylaw.com.
We will invite a certain number of applicants for an in-person interview. We are busy, so we would not invite you to interview unless we were seriously considering you for the position. The final two candidates will be invited back for an extensive working interview. We do personality assessments as well as skills assessments at this working interview. As you can see, this process takes a lot of our time and it will take your time. We want to hire the best candidate and one who wants to work for us, not someone whose attitude is any job will do.

Congratulations if you have read this far. We will get many applicants who have not and their resumes will be discarded because they didn’t follow this simple instruction: E-mail your resume to Alyssa@McCreadyLaw.com with the subject line: “Meet your new paralegal.” Include a brief paragraph why you want to work for this firm and include your salary requirements. Simple, right? Attention to detail is important and anyone who does not read the entire job posting and follow these simple instructions is not someone who will succeed in this position. If this opportunity sounds intriguing, inspiring or just plain too crazy to be true, send that resume now!

P.S. Don’t forget the subject line