Jessica Stefko has over 15 years of experience working as a legal secretary and in data entry roles. She currently works as a legal secretary at Arnstein & Lehr LLP, where she assists several attorneys, including those who specialize in foreclosures, bankruptcy, and commercial litigation. Previously, she held legal secretary roles at smaller law firms focusing on criminal defense and family law. She also has experience conducting medical insurance audits and data entry. Stefko has strong skills in Microsoft Office, legal software programs, and typing over 60 words per minute.

1. JESSICA STEFKO
E-Mail: jrstefko@gmail.com
WORK EXPERIENCE:
ARNSTEIN & LEHR LLP, 302 Knights Run Avenue, Suite 1100, Tampa, Florida 33602.
Legal Secretary – October 5, 2009 to present. Presently working as Edmund Whitson’s legal secretary whose practice
concentrates on trial cases. I also work with Vanessa Cohn who primarily handles the real estate transactions. I have worked
directly with equity partner, executive committee member, and managing partner of the Tampa office, Ronald B. Cohn,
concentrating in all aspects of lender-related representation, both commercial and consumer. Including support to the all of the
other attorneys in the office. Foreclosures, bankruptcy, and creditor’s rights, special assets, replevins, transactional, commercial
landlord/tenant, all types of commercial litigation, both plaintiff and defense. Also extensive training of File clerks.
New World Staffing Group for New York Life
Scanning/Data Entry – June 2009 – July 2009. Retrieved mail from the mailroom. Scanned incoming applications for life
insurance to be placed into a system where it could be processed. Data Entry of Business Response Cards, Suppression mail,
Membership only, and Address Changes. Proper disposal of confidential work related material. Work load is high volume, fast
paced and accuracy is crucial.
The Law Firm of Makholm and Mitchell, 802 East Jackson Street, Tampa, Florida
Legal Secretary - July 2008 - January 2009. Small law firm in downtown Tampa with a concentration in criminal defense and
family law. Sole assistant on staff for two attorneys Marc S. Makholm and Alison Mitchell. Daily duties included going to the
courthouse to sign the attorneys up for their afternoon court hearings and filing pleadings with the clerk of court. Handling
license suspensions in the capacity of obtaining hardship licenses for clients and hearings involved throughout process. Answer
all incoming calls. Scheduled appointments for new and existing clients. Customer service to the extent of case related status.
Opening new case files. Maintaining the calendar for upcoming court dates and attorney attendance. Created various motions,
orders, and notice of hearings pertaining to our clients case needs. Collecting payments for cases to include minor bookkeeping.
Collect DUI videotapes from the State Attorney’s Office weekly. Responsible for mailing daily advertisement flyers. Knowledge
in expunge/sealing records.
ACS, Liberty, Kentucky
Auditor/Data Entry Processor. October 2006 - February 2008. Processing of medical claims for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Florida. Responsibilities include communicating between the Home and host plans via letters and email in order to process
claims. Process Explanation of Benefits to include indexing and routing of medical claims. I previously worked in a position for
the same company on a project that process and audit Medicare Part A and B medical insurance applications. Responsibilities are
to audit the data entry processors for the reduction of keystroke errors on applications and in addition to auditing I was also a data
entry processor of the medical plans.
Bauer, Crider, Pellegrino, and Parry, P.A., Tampa, Florida
Legal Secretary – October 2003 – August 2006. Work directly with equity partner Victor J. Pellegrino. Standard legal office
support that included filing, typing court date notices from dictation, scheduling, minor bookkeeping, and client support
activities. Additionally, my responsibilities for researching police internet records as well as preparing and assisting in the
delivery of Power Point presentations, sometimes requiring traveling, have prepared me for responsibilities beyond standard
office workers.
EDUCATION:
Brewster Technical, Diploma
Hillsborough Community College, Completed first semester towards Paralegal Certification with a 3.5 GPA, Dean’s list for
academic achievement.
SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE:
Commercial Litigation – Experience in a wide scope of commercial civil litigation procedure that includes knowledge of filing on
the E-portal System and the requirements for filing per county. In addition to this I calendar demand expiration deadlines.
Bankruptcy - Experience in creditors’ rights, also familiar with the Pacer online filing system, filing Notice of Appearances,
Proof of claim, and Motion for Stay Relief on behalf of the creditor.

2. Real Estate – mortgage foreclosures, and online research of public records.
Landlord/Tenant –coordination of service for commercial eviction notices and calendaring deadlines for default.
Extensive experience in file management from opening to seeing the cases through the legal process via processing legal
documents either by mail, scanning for filing on the E-portal with knowledge of how to use the filing system, and service copies.
Closing files to include file destruction in accordance with the Florida bar rules.
General experience in Family Law and Criminal Defense with one of the firms specializing in DUI defense.
Entry level trial experience.
Entering billable time records for the attorneys in order to generate invoices to the clients through the Expert Time program of
Aderant.
SPECIAL SKILLS:
Typing – 60+ words per minute with a low frequency of errors, data entry, and 10-key.
Business Machine Operation-Familiarity with the ability to operate scanners, copiers, fax
machines along with E-fax, conventional phone equipment, printers, typewriters, etc.
Records Management – An excellent grasp of filing systems, both alphabetic and numeric, and how to set them up and use them.
I’ve also created my own system for keeping record of and managing closed files for the purpose of storage, re-opening, and
destruction of cases more than 7 years old in compliance with Florida Bar requirements.
Business Mathematics - A general background in bookkeeping, billing, banking and collection procedures, accounts payable and
receivable, check issuance in both operating and trust fund accounts.
Legal Forms – Familiar with pleadings with excellent spelling and proofreading ability.
PROGRAM FAMILIARITY:
Microsoft Word; Adobe Acrobat; Rainmaker; Aderant, Expert Time, Outlook; Windows NT operating systems; Excel; Power
Point; and Mysis. Firm created case management software in which I was given the honor of piloting the system before it was
released for firm use alongside the software developer.
REFERENCES:
References are available upon request.
Notary Public in the State of Florida