The International Society of Female Professionals Recognizes Therese Keyes, Owner, Founder, and Litigation Paralegal of Keyes Freelance Paralegal Group, LLC.
Therese Keyes is a dedicated Litigation Paralegal with more than 30 years of experience working in the areas of law which include plaintiff’s personal injury, insurance defense, risk management, employment law, worker’s compensation, and some family/divorce law. Throughout her career, it has been Therese’s purpose to continue her professional development and education in order to advance her career within the legal industry with an end goal of using what she has learned to give back to those considering a paralegal career-path.
Therese was most recently employed as a Lead Litigation Paralegal (Trainer/Mentor) at the global law firm of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP for a little more than three years. In this role, Therese coordinated activities across the firm’s internal Paralegal Services Department, and she became confident and comfortable in managing projects, delegating, quality control, and teaching others to become productive paralegals through the use of collaboration, training and mentoring. Her communication skills and knack for identifying talent have proven to be beneficial in forming cohesive teams that became supportive of each other and committed to being resourceful and successful. Sharing her knowledge with an intent to assist others in being the best they can be is one of Therese’s passions. In addition, she managed her own case assignments and tasks to meet or beat the firm’s annual paralegal billing requirements. She credits her success to dedication, drive, and perseverance. A quote she strives to live by is:
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and rewarding in the end.”
About a year into her role as a Lead Litigation Paralegal, Therese began researching and developing a business plan to form her own independent consulting business of highly skilled, independent paralegals. Two years later, Therese made a bold move to break away from her traditional role as a Litigation Paralegal within a law firm to begin her freelance consulting business – Keyes Freelance Paralegal Group, LLC.
Throughout her career, Therese came to understand first-hand what it meant to juggle working full-time, staying in tune and up to date with changes in the legal industry, continuing an education while working, raising children, managing a household, and trying to have a social life, because she lived that life. The struggle was real, but she persevered.
While researching various aspects of the legal industry for her own business, it came to Therese’s attention that attorney burnout and mental-health issues were on the rise. In fact, according to a 2021 (Q1) Bloomberg Law survey, nearly half of the attorney respondents reported that their well-being had worsened over that first quarter. For the legal industry during 2021, productivity was up by 6.1% for the first nine months, making attorney burnout a real issue for many firms where productivity was already high. The demand for lawyers was and remains strong, and currently there are not enough lawyers to go around. Therefore, lawyer burnout and mental-health issues are increasing. Burnout can be avoided if lawyers and the industry as a whole take actionable steps to identify, resolve and prevent it. This is where Keyes Freelance Paralegal Group, LLC can step in to assist.
After conducting research, and through trial and error, mentoring from others, and devotion to her passions, Therese developed her freelance paralegal group into a program designed to provide senior level paralegal services on a 100% virtual basis to small and mid-sized law firms and solo lawyers at a realistic, cost-effective price that will help reduce attorney burnout, stress and mental-health issues while saving time and money.
Attorneys need assistance and support when they find themselves struggling to meet deadlines, unable to take on new clients due to heavy workloads or find themselves with little to no time to focus on increasing productivity and revenue; no time to attend professional development seminars, barely enough time to develop case strategies. The goal of Keyes Freelance Paralegal Group, LLC is to help attorneys free up their time, streamline their workload processes, and delegate what they can to one or more paralegals without having to add the costs associated with hiring an employee (W-2). Keyes Freelance Paralegals are available via a monthly subscription contract, or on a project-by-project basis. Customized plans are available upon request.
Keyes Freelance paralegals bring solutions to the day-to-day grind of staying on top of deadlines, collecting records, organizing and managing case files, drafting pleadings, motions, and discovery, preparing demands and document productions, streamlining office and case processes, and a whole lot more by providing a professional and high level of expertise, integrity, honesty, and quality work product. Keyes Freelance is in the service industry, and we look forward to continuing to provide our services to those in need.
Therese holds a Professional Associate Degree from Milwaukee Area Technical College in Legal Administration. She is also a Thomas Education Direct/Penn Foster graduate as an Accredited Paralegal Associate. She earned her BAS (cum laude) in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Internal Corporate Communications from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.
She is a member of the Greater Milwaukee Association of Legal Professionals, Wisconsin Association of Legal Professionals, NALS – National Association for Legal Professionals, NALA – The Paralegal Association, and is a Notary Public for the State of Wisconsin.
Find out more about Therese at www.keyesfreelanceparalegalgroupllc.com. Here you will find testimonials/recommendations from former colleagues and attorneys, more information about the services offered by Keyes Freelance Paralegal Group, LLC, information on costs savings and advantages of using a freelance paralegal, as well as monthly blogs which vary from paralegal advice and resources to subjects pertaining to freelance paralegal benefits for attorneys.
Therese is also a professional mentor. She provides mentorship and guidance to paralegal students or new paralegals who may be struggling or need support with deciding what type or types of law to specialize in, course studies, actual case assignments or tasks, or who may need reassurances.
International Society of Female Professionals Member, Therese Keyes, can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.
