Steptoe & Johnson LLP has had a paralegal program for a number of decades; today, the vibrant program fosters an atmosphere of professionalism and dedication.

Practice Support Director Christy Stouffer manages the program. Christy has over 20 years of law firm and paralegal management experience. In 2004, she was president of the International Paralegal Management Association (IPMA), and she is a frequent lecturer at seminars and programs regarding paralegals and law practice management, and a former instructor in the Georgetown University’s Paralegal Studies Program.

Steptoe’s multi-tiered program includes project assistants, paralegals, senior paralegals, paralegal specialists, and law clerks. With a paralegal-to-attorney ratio of 5:40, Steptoe paralegals provide a diverse set of skills to deliver efficient and cost-effective services to attorneys and clients.

We utilize our paralegals fully, and they assume many of the routine tasks that would otherwise be handled by attorneys and billed at their rates:

• Project assistants focus on the organizational phases of litigation discovery, traveling to outside agencies, and courts, as well as performing research.
• Paralegals perform factual research and assist with all phases of the discovery process, including trial preparation and trial attendance, or assist with our many regulatory and business practices.
• Senior paralegals take on more complex assignments with a more general level of supervision.
• Paralegal specialists have expertise in particular practice areas such as energy regulation, insurance litigation, and toxic tort, and work at a high level on complex matters.
• Law clerks perform legal research and complete writing assignments.

Team Members
Our paralegals’ wide-ranging backgrounds and diverse experiences contribute to the program. For example, Kathy Palmer, a specialist in our Los Angeles office, has 17 years of experience and manages multi-plaintiff toxic tort litigations without a glitch. Mary Loguidice, also a specialist in our Los Angeles office, has 21 years of experience and has assisted at the trials of 12 cases to verdict.

Our paralegal specialists boast long years of experience and deep focus on particular subjects. Sue Crescenzi in our Washington office has 35 years of experience with EPA and chemical regulatory issues. Her chapter “Regulation of Biocides in the United States,” is featured in the recently published book, The Biocides Business: Regulation, Safety & Applications (D.J. Knight & M. Cooke, eds., 2002). She regularly lectures at numerous industry and EPA-sponsored workshops and conferences on pesticide regulatory topics, and conducts in-house training on regulatory matters. Additionally, she has worked closely with EPA and industry representatives on a number of pesticide regulatory proposals. She is currently a participant in the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC) Work Group on worker safety and continues to participate in PPDC Work Groups in Registration.

Karen Tucker, R.P., another specialist in the Washington office, has 23 years of experience, holds a M.A. in legal studies, is a National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) Registered Paralegal (R.P.), and serves as the firm’s legal editor. She is an acknowledged commentator in the 17th edition of The Bluebook. She has also served as the chief editor for the ABA Section of International Law and Practice, Report on the Proposed Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal to Adjudicate War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia (1995). Most recently, she co-authored an article in employee benefits law with Steptoe partner Anne Moran: "The New Pension Protection: More Work for Plan Administrators," 32 Employee Relations L.J. 96 (Winter 2006).

Siobhan S. Smith, another paralegal specialist, was named one of the 15 top paralegal experts in America, featured in Thomson Delmar Learning author Carole Bruno’s forthcoming book, Lessons from the Top Paralegal Experts: The 15 Most Successful Paralegals in America and What You Can Learn From Them. Steptoe paralegal specialists Larry Taylor and Karen Tucker were among the 24 semifinalists.

Sally Albertazzie is the coordinator of Steptoe’s e-Commerce practice group: the eTeam. She is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Paralegal Institute and has over 10 years' experience in all aspects of technology.  Ms. Albertazzie coordinates the eTeam's workflow, edits and publishes the group's weekly newsletter, E-Commerce Law Week, administers the firm's Country-by-Country Guide to Encryption Regulation, handles most of the research needed by group attorneys, and prepares and files technology export licenses and commodity classification requests with the Department of Commerce.

Below is a partial list of the paralegal specialists at Steptoe’s offices who bring considerable experience to client matters on which they work. Each specialist brings a particular focus that attorneys use to deliver efficient and cost-effective services to clients.

Lisa Arnold (Washington office) 

• 10 year's experience in IP, securities, and complex commercial litigation, white collar defense and commercial compliance, including more than 5 years experience in Section 337 Investigations at the US International Trade Commission
• Significant trial and arbitration experience

Marilyn Bradbury (Phoenix office paralegal supervisor)

• 20 years' experience in commercial and insurance bad-faith litigation
• 4 years' paralegal management experience 
• Significant trial experience

Elizabeth Brown, Ph.D. (Washington office)

• 29 years' experience with EPA and chemical regulatory, technical, and scientific issues

Karen Cottrell (Washington office)

• 20 years’ experience in energy regulatory practice

Sue Crescenzi (Washington office)

• 35 years’ experience with EPA and chemical regulatory issues, including pesticide regulation and registration
• Contributor, trainer, and frequent lecturer on pesticide regulatory topics
• Participant in negotiations that led to the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA)

Keith Decker (Washington office)

• 20 years’ experience, including 14 years in surface and aviation transportation regulatory practice
• 6 years’ experience in banking regulatory practice

Eric Dubé (Washington office)

• 7 years' experience in the biotechnology industry with technical and scientific issues
• 8 years' environmental consulting experience in the areas of human health risk assessment, toxic tort support, and product safety

R.C. Eckert (Phoenix office)

• 12 years’ experience in complex commercial and insurance bad-faith litigation
• Significant trial experience

Jennifer Fryer (Chicago office)

• 8 years' litigation experience including 3 years in intellectual property, 4 years in securities fraud and 1 year in financial markets
• Significant trial experience
  

Joanne Schmall (Phoenix office)

• 12 years’ experience in labor & employment and commercial litigation

Donna Guihon (Washington office)

• 19 years’ corporate law experience

Kevin Haggerty (Washington office)

• 8 years' experience in energy regulatory practice

Mary Loguidice (Los Angeles office)

• 21 years’ litigation experience
• Extensive trial experience

Lawrence Loretoni (Washington office)

• 7 years’ experience in bankruptcy law
• 10 years’ experience in toxic tort litigation

David Noel (Washington office)

• 21 years’ experience in document production and case management for contract, antitrust, and intellectual property litigation

Kathleen Palmer (Los Angeles office)

• 17 years’ toxic tort litigation experience
• Board President, Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women & Children

Jill Taylor Pope (Washington office)

• 23+ years' litigation and regulatory practice experience in practice areas such as antitrust & competition; energy; ERISA; labor & employment; insurance & reinsurance; intellectual property; international trade; tax; telecom; transportation; and arbitration & dispute resolution
• Extensive trial experience, participating in antitrust, ADA and FHA discrimination and white collar crime cases to verdict
• Litigation paralegal training experience, including training junior paralegals in the litigation process—i. e., motions practice, discovery, trial preparation and trial

Connie Shepherd (Washington office)

• 14 years’ experience in insurance subrogation, and antitrust and complex commercial litigation

Mary Sherman (Washington office)

• 20 years’ litigation experience, 9 of which are in insurance fraud

Bonnie Skinner-Braxton (Washington office)

• 19 years’ experience in insurance, international trade, and ERISA litigation
• Significant trial experience

Siobhan Smith (London office)

• 12 years' corporate, securities, and transactional experience, including 2 years in the United Kingdom 
• 3 years' litigation experience

Larry Taylor (Washington office)

• 25 years’ public utilities regulatory and litigation experience
• Arlington County, Virginia, Outstanding Volunteer 2003

Elena Volochay (Washington office)

• 14 years’ international trade and immigration experience
• Served as an election monitor for the 2004 national elections in Ukraine

Christie Walser, M.P.A. (Washington office)

• 13 years’ experience in tax law, including fiduciary tax and tax-exempt organizations
• Master's degree in public administration, with a certificate in nonprofit management

Wendy Jill Warner (Los Angeles office)

• 11 years' experience including 4 years in construction defect, 3 years in elder law, 2.5 years in personal injury, and 2.5 years in toxic tort

Carol Zazzaro (Washington office)

• 18 years' experience in intellectual property, trademarks, and copyright

Training
Our paralegals constantly enhance their skill levels via outside seminars and in-house training to keep up with the trends in the profession and our practice areas. Professional development is an essential part of everyday paralegal life at Steptoe. We pride ourselves on providing clients with top-notch service and increased flexibility when staffing their projects.

Our paralegals regularly attend many of the in-house, as well as outside, training opportunities, of which the following is a sample:

• “Practice Tips” series of classes taught by paralegal specialists and others in their area of expertise, such as criminal and MDL litigation, automated litigation support, trial preparation, ALWD Citation Manual, corporate law, international trade law, document production, pro bono work, electronic case filing, litigation communications, regulatory law, section 337 litigation, e-discovery management, and legal ethics;
• 10-week cite-checking course conducted by the firm’s legal editor, typically for newer paralegals, but open to everyone;
• LEXIS and WESTLAW seminars;
• Legal Writing Seminar;
• Advanced Litigation Topics Seminars;
• Paralegal SuperConferences, with Estrin Legal Ed.;
• CALE Online Ethics course;
• Paralegal Retreat Seminars with cutting edge training in such topics as Legal Ethics, E-Discovery and Corporate Research; and
• NCAPA Annual Training Conference.

With a diverse and experienced paralegal staff and ongoing training, Steptoe’s paralegal team thrives upon providing quality service to attorneys and clients.