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We are proud of our legal support staff, which ranges from paralegals, case clerks, investigators, and legal secretaries, to document scanners and receptionists. Each employee is expected to take personal responsibility to do the best job possible, but he or she must also function as part of our legal team. All our employees help make a client’s experience a better one.
Every month our employees pick an outstanding coworker and team member who has contributed over and beyond his or her job responsibilities. We are pleased to honor the recent employees of the month or EOMs listed below. For information about our EOMs from 2006, please see the Employee of the Month archive.
October: Carmen Damaso
Carmen Damaso was hired as a file clerk in 2003. After one year of employment she was promoted to a case clerk. Now, a year and a half later, Ms. Damaso is an administrative assistant. Her job includes daily responses to client questions concerning the status of their cases and ongoing aspects of their claims.
When Carmen isn’t working at the firm, she is performing with a Portugese folk dance troop, watching romantic comedies, listening to music, and spending time with her brother, two sisters, three nephews, and her niece.
September:
Julia Balestrieri
Julia Balestrieri has worked in the Service Department of Brayton Purcell since July of 2005. She started as a Receptionist and later became an Administrative Assistant. Her duties have ranged from answering multiple phone lines, routing mail and faxes, and scheduling inter–firm conferences, to preparing proofs of service and various group binders, inputting answers and proof of service dates, as well as following up on information with paralegals and attorneys.
Outside of the office, Julia tries to stay active and focus on her education. She is currently attending Empire College in Santa Rosa, California, to become a paralegal. Some of her favorite activities include dancing, going to the gym, playing softball, and wake–boarding. Julia also enjoys spending time with her friends and loved ones, and watching classic, humorous movies in a nice, relaxing environment.
With Julia’s hard work and determination, as well as her outstanding punctuality, we are proud to have her as a member of our team.
August:
Abby Adams
Abby Adams moved from Colorado to Oregon as a young girl. Tacoma, Washington, was her next major move, as she attended the University of Puget Sound and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in French, with a minor in biology. After receiving her diploma, Abby relocated back to her hometown in Oregon and joined the Portland office of Brayton Purcell.
Abby has worked for Brayton Purcell since 1999. Within that time, she has been promoted from Receptionist to Legal Secretary, and currently holds the title of Work Flow Coordinator. She tracks the major projects within the office and monitors the staff’s progress. Her daily schedule consists of tracking the mail routing, maintaining accounting records, and monitoring dismissals, settlements, and the appellate calendar. She formats, files and monitors appeal documents and makes sure our database and internal service lists are up–to–date. Abby is also in charge of inputting and scanning the office’s deposition transcripts and documents.
In November of 2003, Abby earned her license to practice massage therapy in the states of Washington and Oregon, and now volunteers at a women’s shelter doing chair massages. Between work and volunteering, Abby finds time to spend with her husband, her two cats and dog—Cookie, Trigger and Prissy. Both she and her husband, Thomas, enjoy riding street bikes, hunting for deer or birds, trap and skeet shooting, as well as flying high in their hot air balloon.
June:
Johanna McKenna
Johanna McKenna was born in Arlington Heights, IL, but has spent the majority of her life in CA, first in Westlake Village, north of Los Angeles, and then in the San Francisco Bay Area where she came to complete her education. She attended Rutgers University in New Jersey as an undergraduate, and from there transferred to San Francisco State University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in business administration (marketing), and then later a master’s degree in business administration.
Johanna began her career at Brayton Purcell as a legal secretary in October of 2001. While her duties vary quite widely, she spends much of her time handling workers’ compensation settlements and depositions, as well as creating spreadsheets and analytical tools for her department to keep its activities running smoothly.
In her spare time, Johanna surrounds herself with music, “The love of my life!” she exclaims. She plays flute, used to play drums, and loves to sing and write music. She has performed her own music in various venues all over San Francisco, and arranges music for the vocal ensemble at her local church. On occasion, Johanna finds herself writing musical reviews for online and print publications.