We seek a part- web designer who knows WordPress (“WP”) well and who is visually talented. You should have a minimum of ten years of web design experience. Our need is immediate. Since this is a telecommuting position, you can be located anywhere in the U.S. or Canada.
1. About Us
Paragon Analytics LLC makes money by processing mass tort legal cases, such as the herbicide Roundup causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. We primarily pursue case types which are in settlement mode, thus substantially reducing risk. We have developed proprietary, world class AI and data mining techniques to identify prospects who have viable claims, and thus our Customer Acquisition Costs (“CAC”) are $300 per valid case, as compared with $5,250 for a Roundup case or more than $100,000 (!) for a mesothelioma case. We only undertake case types and cases where it is clear that the defendant/manufacturer has engaged in outrageous conduct, and we seek to obtain as favorable a settlement as possible for our clients.
Our management team includes individuals who have co-founded a successful mass tort law firm (“MTLF”); an attorney who has negotiated the settlement of numerous mass tort case types with settlements substantially in excess of what most law firms achieved; a data scientist who studied statistics and data mining as a graduate student at Harvard University; a medical coding professional with over 20 years of experience; and an information technology professional who has spoken at national conferences and has co-authored a book published by Microsoft Press..
2. Compensation
We are flexible about compensation. One possibility is paying $X an hour for your time. Alternatively, because of the lucrative nature of our business, in the past some people have asked if we are open to more entrepreneurial approaches, in which they end up making a lot more money per hour. That’s fine with us, and because of this possibility, we have included some information about our business.
3. Mass Torts
“Mass torts” are product liability claims against pharmaceutical, medical device, and toxic substance manufacturers. We only bring claims against exceptionally large and profitable product manufacturers, and never against individuals, physicians, or hospitals. (When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied “Because that’s where the money is.”)
We focus primarily on case types that are in “settlement mode” – i.e., the defendant/manufacturer has suffered so many adverse verdicts that it has decided to throw in the towel and has set aside several billion dollars – or in the case of Monsanto and J&J, more than $10 billion each – to settle those claims. Currently we are pursuing five case types: Roundup, mesothelioma, hernia mesh, sexual abuse, and NEC infant formula cases.
4. Our Business Strategy
There are three elements to our business strategy:
- “Come Late to the Party” – We focus on case types where the manufacturer has decided to settle.
- Sign up a Diversified Portfolio of Case Types – We diversify the case types we sign up cases for.
- Utilize a Vastly Superior Method of Generating Cases – Many MTLFs have lost money by choosing lead brokers who delivered bad leads. As noted in Section 9, we have several methods of determining up front if a case is valid, so we do not have this problem.
5. The Attraction of Mass Torts
We are attracted to the mass tort business for several reasons:
- The business is quite lucrative. Done the conventional way – i.e., obtaining cases through traditional marketing channels – operating margins exceed 80 percent.
- With our AI and data mining techniques (see Section 9), our operating margins exceed 95 percent. (!)
- Remarkably little law is involved in processing mass tort settlements. The fewer lawyers we have working for us, the happier we are – attorneys are expensive and they’re a pain in the neck to manage. To us, the best law firm has no lawyers.
- Processing mass tort cases for settlement lends itself to systemization of processes and computerization, something we are quite good at.
- After a prospect has signed a Client Engagement Agreement, we can turn the case over to a legal process outsourcing (“LPO”) firm which will process the case through settlement and collection and disbursement of funds. Such firms are willing to defer their fees until the case turns into money. (See Section 8.)
- If we follow the three key business strategies listed in Section 4, the risk is exceptionally low relative to return.
6. Historical Case Types
Listed below are several historical mass tort case types – i.e., in the past they were “hot” but are no longer suitable for new cases – and the fees per case that they generated. In order to be conservative, attorneys’ fees are calculated based on a one-third contingency fee, even though most MTLFs (including us) charge 40 percent.
Actos
Diabetes drug that causes bladder cancer
Defendant / Manufacturer: Takeda Pharmaceutical
Total value of 2015 settlement — $2.3 billion
Average settlement value — $175,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $61,250
Avandia
Diabetes drug which caused heart attacks, heart failure and death
Defendant / Manufacturer: GlaxoSmithKline
Average settlement value — $266,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $88,880
DePuy Artificial Hips
Defective artificial hip
Defendant / Manufacturer: Johnson & Johnson
Total settlement in 2013 — $4 billion
Average settlement value — $182,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $63,700
Drug Eluting Stents
Used to treat coronary artery disease. They are designed to release drugs that prevent the arteries from becoming blocked again after the stent is implanted. These stents can cause blood clots and subsequent heart attacks.
Average settlement value — $300,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $100,000
Fen-Phen
Anti-obesity drug that caused fatal pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems
Manufacturer / Defendant: Wyeth
Total value of 1999 settlement — $3.75 billion
Average settlement — $150,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $52,500
Praxada
Blood thinner which causes excessive bleeding
Defendant / Manufacturer: Boehringer Ingelheim
Total settlement in 2014 — $650 million
Average settlement value — $182,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $63,700
Rezulin
Diabetes drug that causes hepatitis
Defendant / Manufacturer: Parker-Davis
Total value of 2002 settlement — $995 million
Average settlement value — $150,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $52,500
Sulzer Defective Hip Implants
Defective artificial hip
Manufacturer / Defendant: Sulzer Orthopedics
Total value of 2002 settlement — $1 billion
Average settlement value — $147,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $51,450
Vioxx
Defendant / Manufacturer: Merck
Total value of 2007 settlement — $4.85 billion
Average settlement value — $225,000
Average attorneys’ fees — $78,750
Yaz / Yasmin
Defendant / Manufacturer: Bayer
Total settlement value in 2012 – More than $3.2 billion
Average attorneys’ fees — $73,500
7. Case Types We Are Interested In
As noted in Section 4, we focus on settled case types. Currently there are the six case types we are interested in pursuing:
A. Sexual Abuse
Many sexual abuse cases are quite horrific — e.g., young children being abused by adults who have some level of authority and control over them. In some cases, the defendant organization (who is legally responsible for the misconduct of their employees) is highly desirous of avoiding unfavorable publicity and sometimes a $1,000,000+ settlement can be reached fairly quickly. In cases requiring litigation, we would co-counsel with a powerhouse law firm with a track record of litigating these types of cases.
B. Roundup
Roundup was a herbicide manufactured by Monsanto, a company that was acquired by Bayer in 2018 for $63 billion. It was by far the most popular herbicide on the U.S. market, with over 75 percent market share. In 2023, Monsanto discontinued selling Roundup. The key ingredient of Roundup was glyphosate, a chemical that the International Agency of Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” Specifically, individuals exposed to Roundup over several years run a significant risk of contracting non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
As of October 2023, Monsanto has reached an approximately $11 billion settlement with most plaintiffs, and approximately 80 percent of Roundup claims have been settled. Given the long latency period of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Roundup will be a viable case type for at least the next decade.
C. Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibers, and unfortunately is in most cases fatal. In addition to mesothelioma, inhalation of such fibers can cause bronchitis, asbestosis, lung cancer, and cancers of the digestive tract (esophagus, stomach, intestines, and the rectum).
When mesothelioma lawsuits first started to be filed, the most obvious defendants were the large manufacturers of asbestos, such as Johns Manville Corp., Owens Corning Corp., and W.R. Grace & Co. The verdicts against these corporations became so large and frequent that these companies (and several dozen other companies) filed for bankruptcy protection. Pursuant to bankruptcy code section 524(g), these companies turned over most or all of their assets to a newly-created bankruptcy trust. Such trusts are administered by a court-appointed trustee whose job it is to write checks, assuming the claim is valid. Currently there are approximately 60 such trusts with total assets in excess $30 billion.
D. Hernia Mesh
A hernia is a medical condition that is caused by the penetration of fatty tissue, intestine, or organs through a weakened or compromised location in muscle or connective tissue. Hernias sometimes manifest as visibly observable protrusions or badges, and can cause pain, discomfort, and decreased mobility.
Hernias can be treated surgically, and hernia repairs are common surgeries. To strengthen the repair, surgeons sometimes introduce to the hernia site a surgical mesh, many types of which are intended to remain in the body permanently. Several complications are associated with the use of hernia mesh in hernia repairs, such as pain, infection, recurrence, adhesion, obstruction and perforation.
For hernia mesh cases, we focus exclusively on revision cases, cases where a second surgery was required to repair, modify or remove the mesh that was implanted in the first surgery. There are four active forums where different types of hernia mesh cases are centralized, and each of these manufacturers/defendants has their own settlement protocol. Hernia mesh cases can often be quite valuable.
E. Necrotizing Enterocolitis
NEC is caused when a preterm (born before 37 weeks of pregnancy) or low birth weight baby is fed infant formula based on cow’s milk (as opposed to mother’s breast milk, which is the “gold standard” for safety). NEC’s symptoms include blood in the stool, vomiting, lethargy,, inability to maintain normal baby temperature, apnea, and low blood pressure. The two primary defendants are Mead Johnson (manufacturer in Enfamil) and Abbott Laboratories (manufacturer of Similac). The legal claims against them include defective design, failure to warn, negligence, and misleading marketing (such as “Human Milk Fortified,” which in fact no human milk is added). So far, there have been two trials, both in favor of the plaintiff, with verdicts of $60 million and $495 million. We expect settlement values to be high because juries are usually sympathetic to babies that need life-time medical care.
F. Elmiron
Elmiron, also known by its generic name pentosan polysulfate sodium, is manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Elmiron is prescribed to treat interstitial cystitis, a chronic condition characterized by bladder pain and discomfort. It is used to alleviate symptoms such as bladder inflammation and irritation.
Long-term use of Elmiron can cause severe vision problems, including vision loss and blindness. The primary concern is a condition known as pigmentary maculopathy, which is a degenerative eye disease that affects the retina. Patients have reported experiencing distorted vision, blurred vision, and difficulty seeing at night. Numerous individual settlements — ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 — have already occured, depending on the severity of the vision damage and other factors. Future settlements are expected to range from $200,000 to $1,000,000 per plaintiff.
8. LPO Firms
There are approximately 30 legal process outsourcing (“LPO”) firms which will process the case from “soup to nuts” — i.e., once a client is signed up, they will perform all of the remaining tasks, through settlement and collection and disbursement of the settlement. These firms are willing to defer their fees until settlement funds are collected, which substantially improves our cash flow. Since they collect the settlement funds, the first payment they make is to themselves, for their deferred fees plus interest. Such firms include Archer Systems, Epic Systems, KCC, Torticity and Verus.
9. AI and Data Mining Techniques
We have discovered and developed proprietary, highly effective AI and data mining technologies to generate high value mass torts legal cases from various databases. Except for our captive law firms, MTLFs spend several thousands of dollars to obtain a valid case – e.g., Roundup cases cost approximately $5,250, and mesothelioma cases cost in excess of $100,000. Many of the cases acquired are of low value, in that the bodily harm suffered by the injured party is insignificant. This leads to a low settlement, since settlement values are to a substantial extent ae based on the severity of the injury. We can focus solely on obtaining high value cases, such as permanent disability and wrongful death.
These data mining techniques have been used for more than 25 years for a completely different purpose, and thus we know the technology works. Paragon is simply using these techniques for a different purpose, namely, to obtain mass tort clients. Our techniques comply with all federal and state medical data privacy laws, including HIPAA. There is no other company in the world that is able to generate on a consistent basis mass tort clients using any AI or data mining technology.
Our techniques allow us to reach prospects who will not respond to other marketing channels, such as television and Facebook ads. Anecdotal evidence for historical case types (which have been settled years ago and thus are no longer valid claims) indicate that six out of seven people who could file a claim (i.e., they meet all of the settlement criteria which were negotiated with the defendant/manufacturer) do not in fact do so. Our outbound telemarketing allows us to reach those 86 percent that will never respond to any advertising, no matter how many tens of millions of dollars in advertising are spent by MTLFs.
Here is an analogy we use. Imagine there are two bodies of water: a small pond and an ocean larger than the Pacific. In the pond there are hundreds of fishing boats (law firms looking for mass tort clients) and as a result, the pond is overfished (it’s difficult to find valid mass tort cases). As for the ocean, there is only one fishing boat (our law firm) and there are zillions of fish, each one of which can be caught at almost no cost.
Once the data are obtained and written to a Salesforce CRM system, we have several proprietary AI techniques to enhance the effectiveness of the data and to identify the most viable prospects.
10. Job Responsibilities
- Web design of various web sites we will ask you to design
- Implementation of various calls to action on our websites, such as web forms, web chats, and click to call. In almost all cases, we would provide a premium plugin which you would modify.
- Corporate identify (letterheads, address labels and business cards)
11. Professional Requirements
- You must be quite talented visually, able to design sites as good as (or better than) Paragon’s or Bridge Legal’s.
- Highly experienced in parallax scrolling
- At least ten years of web design experience, the last five of which you primarily or exclusively used WP as your CMS.
- We prefer that you have your own website for your web design business, with links to sites you have designed. If that is not the case, then please give us ten sites (that are currently working) that we can look at. If you have a website, then it should use WP.
- Able to design corporate identity packages.
12. Our Technical Standards
- WordPress as our CMS
- WP Engine as our managed WP hosting company
- For the parent theme, we use StudioPress Genesis.
- For the child theme, you could use one the StudioPress child themes or write your own, whichever you prefer.
- Google Analytics for web metrics.
13. Intellectual Curiosity / Professional Development
We seek to hire individuals with an insatiable intellectual curiosity, people who love learning for learning’s sake, people who are avid readers. Ceteris paribus, people who invest in themselves through systemic professional development will, over time, be more productive than those who don’t, and if an employee is more productive, we’ll pay him or her more and promote them faster. If you’re interested in which blogs our CEO reads, click here.
14. David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” Time Management Methodology
We are devout followers of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (“GTD”) time management and personal productivity system. Using it, our minds are almost always free of worry, and we are totally in the moment, what Allen calls “mind like water” or “in the zone.” If you’re intrigued, we suggest you start with an essay our CEO wrote, and then watch Allen’s talk at Google. After then, we recommend that you purchase the second edition (2015) of his first book, which is called Getting Things Done.
15. Being Available and Reachable
We like people who are easy to reach, return telephone calls quickly, and are good at responding to text messages and emails. For those who are busy, Calendly offers us a partial solution. For those unfamiliar with this SaaS application, Calendly is a scheduling automation platform that eliminates the back-and-forth emails to find a suitable for meetings and appointments. It streamlines the process by allowing you to share your availability and let others book appointments with ease. (To schedule a telephone appointment with our CEO, you can use https://calendly.com/james-mitchell-10112.) Thus, we can schedule a telephone appointment to speak with you, rather than emailing back and forth as to when a good time to call you is. Calendly’s Basic plan is free forever (or at least until they change their mind, after they have roped in 100 million users).
16. When Your Respond
If you are interested, please answer the questions below and email us your responses. Alternatively, you can see the email to write to at https://www.paragonanalytics.ai/careers/web-designers/contact-us-web-designers/. (Craigslist prevents us from displaying our email in job ads.)
Please include our questions and your answers when you respond, so we know which question you are answering. In the subject line of your email, please include “I have answered all of your questions.” We will respond to everyone who writes to us and answers our questions. Thanks!
17. Questions to Answer
1. Your full name
Contact Information
2. All of your telephone numbers
3. Which telephone number do you prefer?
4. Hours and days in which we can telephone you
5. Your email address
6. Where do you live?
Resume
7. Please attach your resume or CV.
8. Please provide the URL of your LinkedIn profile. (That means we can cut and paste the link you provide us, and your profile will pop up.)
Your Availability
9. How soon can you start?
10. How many hours a week can you provide?
11. Do you have any travel plans in the next six months?
12. As noted in Section 15, we are seeking a web designer who is easy to reach – you return telephone quickly, you respond to texts, and you are on-time for scheduled appointments. Will you be available to meet our expectations?
Graphic Design
13. How much of a graphic designer are you? (0 to 10)
14. How much corporate identity (logos, letterheads, business cards, etc.) have you done?
Compensation Expectations
15. How much per hour are you looking for?
16. As noted in Section 2, we are also open to a more entrepreneurial compensation plan. How much does that interest you if you could make a lot more money per hour?
Web Designers
17. How visually talented are you? (0 to 10)
18. For how many years have been a professional web designer?
19. Do you have a form you use to guide the discovery process? If so, please send us a copy.
WordPress
20. For how many years have you been using WP?
21. For your professional website, did you use WP?
22. In the last five years, how many websites have you designed? How many were WP websites?
23. How well do you understand the WP loop? (0 to 10)
Web and Other Technologies
24. Do you have a subscription to the current version of Adobe Creative Cloud?
25. How well do you know Photoshop? (0 to 10)
26. How well do you know Illustrator? (0 to 10)?
27. How well do you know HTML5? (0 to 10)
28. How well do you understand CSS3? (0 to 10)
29. How well do you understand blocks?
30. How well do you understand Parallax scrolling? (0 to 10)
31. How well do you understand Progressive Web Apps? (0 to 10)
Other Internet Skill Sets
32. How good are you at UI and UX? (0 to 10)
33. How good are you at SEO? (0 to 10)
34. How good are you at conversion? (0 to 10)
Web Development
35. How good are you in programming PHP? (0 to 10)
36. How good are you in programming JavaScript? (0 to 10) Which JS libraries are you partial to?
37. Do you know how to write a WP plugin? (0 to 10)
38. Do you know how to write a WP widget? (0 to 10)
39. Do you know how to write a WP theme? (0 to 10)