Litigation Paralegal

Benesch Law; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

Benesch Law is seeking an experienced Litigation Paralegal in Chicago to support a fast-paced trial team. You will manage large-scale litigation tasks, prepare pleadings and discovery, and coordinate with courts, clients, and vendors to ensure efficient case handling.

The role requires 7–10 years of experience, paralegal certification, and strong CM/ECF/PACER skills. This hybrid position offers comprehensive benefits and opportunities for trial‑level involvement.

Qualifications

• Paralegal certification plus 7–10 years of litigation experience, preferably in a large firm.
• Experience with federal and state filings, e-filing portals, and document management systems.
• Strong time management, attention to detail, and customer service mindset.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate filings and discovery across jurisdictions and ensure timeliness.
• Prepare and review pleadings, motions, and trial materials for attorneys.
• Manage e-filings in CM/ECF and PACER; monitor court calendars and deadlines.
• Assist with trial preparation, exhibits, and witness coordination.
• Collaborate with attorneys, clients, and external counsel to support trials.

Skills

7-10 years of litigation experience

CM/ECF and PACER knowledge

Trial preparation

Strong time management

Customer service attitude

Education

Paralegal certification

Tools

CM/ECF

PACER

One Legal / e-filing portals

MS Office

Everlaw / Relativity

Job description

Who We Are

At Benesch we pride ourselves on exceeding expectations and building trust not only with our clients but with our employees - Benesch's #1 asset. Committed to providing not only the highest level of legal service to our clients, Benesch also aspires to create a positive work environment for our employees. Our Firm continues to earn placement on Chicago and Cleveland's Top Workplaces list, along with Cleveland's NorthCoast 99 Top Workplaces rankings. We also continue to advance on the AmLaw 150 list, placing us among the top 150 law firms in the country.

Benesch is proud to be recognized for being a Firm that attracts and retains top talent - making Benesch a great place to work. We offer a hybrid schedule, career development and growth, transparent and visible leadership teams, and a place where diversity, equity and inclusion is celebrated. In addition, the Firm offers a full array of benefits which can be viewed at www.mybeneschbenefits.com.

Working with Us - Come and "Be Benesch!"

We are one of the fastest growing firms in the nation, and have offices in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Miami, New York City, San Francisco, and Wilmington. We continue to expand our geographic footprint and value the talent that comprises each of our locations. If you are someone who champions a First in Service approach and are ready to be part of an exciting and growing Firm, we would invite you to apply to join our team.

Want to know more? To hear from some of our team, click here: https://www.beneschlaw.com/careers/index.html

Benesch is proud to announce the opening for a Litigation Paralegal in our Chicago office! This position is hybrid and has work from home flexibility.

Position Summary

Are you a seasoned litigation paralegal looking for a fast-paced challenging position? Do you thrive on working on trials and complex litigation matters? Are you looking to be an integral part of a litigation team and work hand-in-hand with trial attorneys at all levels? Then our Litigation Paralegal position might be your next career move. This role is for the experience litigation paralegal who is excited about managing large scale litigation matters from start to finish as well as being heavily involved in trials.

The Litigation Paralegal is responsible for providing support and assistance to attorneys in the coordination, management, and supervision of all aspects of litigation, including but not limited to handle large caseloads, prepare drafts of legal and other documents and correspondence for attorney review; compile, analyze and summarize information and coordinate efforts between attorneys, clients outside legal counsel, opposing legal counsel, other parties and outside vendors.

Essential Functions

• Drafts, reviews and/or analyzes routine legal documents as requested by attorneys.
• Manage large-scale discovery and e-discovery matters, including document preservation, collection and production.
• Provides hands‑on operational litigation technology support, including but not limited to projects such as database creation and maintenance; importing images into databases; searching data; exporting data; reformatting and converting data; designing forms and reports; e-discovery processes; scanning, OCR and coding use.
• Organizes and maintains case files using a variety of automated procedures.
• Assists with preparing attorneys and witnesses for depositions and court appearances, including without limitation by assembling case files and evidence.
• Prepares for trials in state and federal court, including managing trial support, creating and overseeing trial exhibits, setting up war rooms and attending trial to assist with presenting evidence, and traveling as needed.
• Reviews and summarizes depositions.
• Manages and assists with finalizing witness affidavits.
• Reviews documents for privilege and drafts privilege logs for attorney review.
• Performs legal and factual research.
• Interacts with outside entities (i.e., courts, government agencies, expert witnesses, corporations, vendors and other law firms) to gather information or coordinate activities as needed in support of firm activities, specifically trials and arbitrations.
• Acts as the liaison between case team attorneys and support staff as needed to ensure that case‑specific paralegal services are meeting the team's expectations.
• Meet billable goals as established by practice management.

Essential Filing Functions

• Coordinate with attorneys and other legal staff to ensure filings and discovery are reviewed, formatted correctly, and submitted on schedule in compliance with requirements of each courtroom, county and jurisdiction, including but not limited to proofreading, cite checking, compiling exhibits and preparing slipsheets, adding bookmarks to final PDFs per California Rules of Court, adding hyperlinks to citations when required, preparing exhibit indices, running word counts, preparing redactions, etc.
• Finalize and electronically file pleadings, motions, discovery, and other legal documents in California state courts directly via OneLegal (or another electronic service), ensuring strict adherence to local rules and procedural requirements; proactively manage service and proof of service.
• Manage e‑filings in federal courts using CM/ECF and PACER systems.
• File documents in other state courts across various U.S. jurisdictions, maintaining up‑to‑date knowledge of or reviewing relevant filing procedures and platform requirements for each jurisdiction.
• Coordinate with vendors for manual filings, courtesy/chambers copies, personal service, and record retrieval.
• Monitor court docket systems for updates, deadlines, and filings. Regularly review the internal docketing system and clean dockets by removing or marking non‑essential/duplicative dates.
• Track and manage calendaring related to court deadlines and filing schedules.

Additional Responsibilities

• May require overtime as needed.
• Performs additional office support duties as assigned/requested.

Confidentiality

Due to the nature of your employment, various documents and information, which are of confidential in nature, will come into your possession. Such documents and information must be kept confidential at all times.

Confidentiality

Due to the nature of your employment, various documents and information, which are of confidential in nature, will come into your possession. Such documents and information must be kept confidential at all times.

Qualifications

• Paralegals should preferably have a Paralegal certification from an ABA‑approved program, in addition to 8+ years of litigation experience in an AmLaw 150 firm or specialist litigation practice area.
• Experience with all stages of litigation, including intake, discovery and trial, in addition to preparing for and attending trials/arbitration hearings is required.
• Strong working knowledge of federal court procedures and electronic filings systems (CM/ECF, PACER) is required.
• Candidates must have a demonstrated ability to research and comply with filings rules in multiple jurisdictions and experience with platforms such as One Legal, File & ServeXpress, Odyssey and similar e‑filing portals.
• Experience with Opus 2, TextMap, CaseMap, iManage (or comparable DMS), Everlaw, Relativity, Trial Director, MS Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook) are preferred.
• Must have solid time management and organizational skills; high level of accuracy and attention to detail; self‑motivated and pro‑active; and have excellent customer service attitude.
• Must be available for overtime work and travel as needed.

Confidentiality

Due to the nature of your employment, various documents and information, which are of confidential in nature, will come into your possession. Such documents and information must be kept confidential at all times.

Qualifications

• Paralegals should preferably hold a valid Paralegal certification, in addition to seven to ten years of litigation experience in an AmLaw 150 firm or specialist litigation practice area. Experience with all stages of litigation, including intake, discovery and trial, in addition to preparing for and attending trials/arbitration hearings is required.
• Experience with Opus 2, TextMap, CaseMap, iManage (or comparable DMS), Everlaw, Trial Director, MS Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook) are preferred.
• Must have solid time management and organizational skills; high level of accuracy and attention to detail; self‑motivated and pro‑active; and have excellent customer service attitude.
• Must be available for overtime work and travel as needed.

The salary range for this position is $90K to $155K.

Please note that quoted salary ranges are based on Benesch's reasonable expectations at the time of the job posting and are not a guarantee of what final salary offers may be. Base pay is based on market location and may vary depending on job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Base pay is only one part of the Total Rewards that Benesch provides to compensate and recognize our staff professionals for their work. Full‑time positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and a comprehensive benefits package.

Benesch is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability (where applicant is qualified to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodations), medical condition, protected veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Applicants who are interested in applying for a position and require special assistance or an accommodation during the process due to a disability should contact the Benesch Human Resources Department by phone at 216-363-4578 or email at [e-mail].

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

Salary: $90000 - $155000 per year