Sr. Paralegal, Commercial Litigation

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 114,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

     

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Working at Abbott

At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and family, be your true self and live a full life. You’ll also have access to:

• Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of.
• Free medical coverage for employees* via the Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO
• An excellent retirement savings plan with high employer contribution
• Tuition reimbursement, the Freedom 2 Save student debt program and FreeU education benefit - an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree.
• A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries around the world and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune.
• A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as a best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists.

The Opportunity
Our location in Abbott Park, IL currently has an opportunity for a Commercial Litigation Paralegal.  The Paralegal is a strong individual contributor to the Litigation department working towards successful resolution of commercial litigation matters, having the potential to substantially impact the Company’s business operations. 

What You’ll Work On

•    Assists attorneys to resolve routine and moderately complex to complex legal matters that involve various functional areas or divisions within Abbott with minimal supervision.
•    Independently identifies problems, performs analysis and proposes solutions to a more experienced paralegal or attorney.
•    Possesses solid knowledge of Abbott’s businesses supported and knowledge of the broader business impact.
•    Represents Legal Division internally to clients; and
•    Reviews invoices associated with payment for services, ensuring costs are reasonable, in scope of work performed and meet outside counsel billing guidelines.
•    Independently manages discovery for commercial litigation matters, having a substantial impact to the Company, and performs all tasks timely:
o    Assists with initial fact investigation for potential and pending litigation.
o    Prepares and sends out legal holds to the appropriate employees within the company and manages legal hold compliance and questionnaire responses.
o    Schedules and attends witness interviews.
o    Identifies relevant document and data sources, coordinates collection of company documents for discovery and other requests.
o    Assists in deposition preparation of company witnesses by analyzing the information and determining relevancy; and
o    Assists counsel with trial preparation.
•    Responds to subpoenas and requests for information with minimal supervision, including identification, collection, review and preparation of documents for production.
•    Manages outside counsel, outside paralegals and vendors and eDiscovery vendor budget for assigned matters.
•    Provides support on periodic and special projects.
•    Executes core job responsibilities in a timely manner.
•    Assigned matters generally have a significant impact on business activities and operations.
•    Interacts across all levels of management within the Company.
•    No direct department budget responsibility; must however operate within budget.  Develops estimates for outside counsel fees for assigned legal matters with supervision from more experienced paralegals and/or attorneys.
•    Requires discretion, independent judgment, and critical thinking.
•    Requires strong computer, communication, writing, organizational and project management skills and ability to multitask in a demanding legal environment.
•    Demonstrates strong leadership competencies.

Required Qualifications
•    Bachelor’s Degree and relevant legal education (Paralegal certificate)
•    Generally, 6+ years of paralegal experience, including direct experience in commercial litigation and a strong understanding of eDiscovery.

Preferred Qualifica