Karalyn Eckerle has more than 30 years experience as paralegal/legal assistant in diverse areas of law. Highly motivated, accurate, with attention to details. Excellent analytical, organizational/managerial skills. Self-starter with ability to efficiently produce quality product. Competent in completing multi-faceted tasks within time constraints. Proactive, open-minded, positive attitude with willingness/aptitude for learning. Able to assess situations quickly and take appropriate action. Exceptional grammar skills with journalistic background. Established Virtual Assistant with fully functional home office and proven track record of providing timely, efficient service and exceptional work product with heavy emphasis on legal and medical/legal litigation. Capable of providing the broad spectrum of services necessary to operate a business from off-site locations, Karalyn has provided support to attorneys in California, Colorado, Michigan, Texas, and many other states.  Cardinal Point Virtual Assistants adheres to the highest standards of privacy and ethics.

• Experienced litigation assistant: personal injury, maritime, intellectual property, environmental, underwriter defense, immigration, corporate. Heavy emphasis on pretrial preparation, investigative research, discovery, depositions summaries and computer training
• Participated in defense of massive personal injury class action litigation
• Instituted filing systems, document control methods, forms files, expert witness files, desk manuals and other resource materials
• Initiated/coordinated legal calendaring systems
• Organized and coordinated depositions and investigations overseas
• Extensive experience in locating witnesses and records in U. S. and foreign countries
• Broad personal experience and interaction with overseas clients/services/government officials
• Supervised large word processing department for national law firm, including satellite offices
• Streamlined usage of computer systems and established boilerplate/merge documents
• Taught a variety of courses with proven ability to explain complicated processes clearly
• Knowledgeable in production of newsletters/publications in-house or via outside vendors
• Experienced public speaker with extensive public relations and media work

SKILLS:

• Skilled in all areas of civil litigation, including state/federal court rules and policies.
• Experienced in all phases of administrative service: travel arrangements, appointment scheduling/confirmation, e-mail, postal, phone message management, file organization and maintenance, establishing and implementing policies and procedures. Speedy (95+), accurate word processing and transcription skills. Fully functional in operation and use of digital transcription media and able to provide training for same.
• Proficient in pre-trial organization/trial facilitation; implementation and analysis of discovery plans/large document productions; scheduling/organizing IMEs/DMEs; all facets of subpoenas.
• Knowledge and skill necessary to organize/fulfill all tasks essential to the orderly operation and maintenance of an active legal practice, including drafting of legal documents, pleadings and correspondence. Proven skill in research/organization leading to increasingly complex assignments such as jury verdict and medical record analysis. 
• Familiar with LEXIS/WESTLAW, law library organization and other legal services.
• Excellent communication and listening skills; adept at interacting with the most difficult clients, expert witnesses and opposing counsel.
• Heavy familiarization with online telephone and fax operations, scanning/OCR/reformatting; broadcast faxing/bulk mailings; use of client-provided database and materials, and database management/data entry.
• Expertise in planning seminars/symposiums, social events, client functions, with experience writing press releases, correspondence, manuals, reports, copy generation.

COMPUTER SKILLS:

• Hardware: Extensive computer experience including conversions, maintenance and upgrading standard PC, internal/external modems and hard drives, scanners, fax systems and telephone answering equipment, digital recording and transcription systems.
• Software: WordPerfect, MS Word, Carpe Diem, Meta Data Assistant, CompuLaw (VISIONS Seq.), Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook Express; Quicken/QuickBooks; various scanning software and software to convert documents to PDF format.

AFFILIATIONS & INTERESTS:

National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc.; International Virtual Assistants Association; Southern California Giant Schnauzer Rescue, Inc. (President/Founding Officer); free-lance writer and photojournalist.