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The Indianapolis Bar Association recently honored Sara C. Blainbridge of the Indiana Office of Judicial Administration with IndyBar’s 2023 Paralegal of the Year Award. Blainbridge was recognized with the award at the bar’s annual Paralegal Appreciation Luncheon attended by numerous paralegals who were hosted by the attorneys they support with excellence.
IndyBar’s Paralegal of the Year award recognizes an outstanding paralegal for their contribution to the legal community. The paralegal must be a member of the Indianapolis Bar Association, have made an exceptional contribution, be recognized as a good role model for the paralegal profession and be deserving of special recognition.
This year’s recipient has worked for the state of Indiana in a variety of capacities since 2003. During her time with the state, Blainbridge’s skills have propelled her from data coordinator for the Community Transition Program of the Indiana Department of Correction to program coordinator for pollution prevention and recycling of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, to recruiter/paralegal with the Office of Judicial Administration of the Indiana Supreme Court, and then to her current roles as legal administrator of the Office of Environmental Adjudication.
IndyBar attorney member Lori Endress, who nominated Blainbridge, noted in her nomination, “I met Sara in 2008 when we both found ourselves working in IDEM’s public records. Although she had a supervisor, Sara actually did the supervisor’s job in addition to hers and managed all of the people scanning documents and preparing documents for scanning for the Virtual File Cabinet which, at the time, was a new application designed to have IDEM documents available to the public at the same time she fulfilled all of the agency’s AOPA requests. While Sara worked there, there was zero backlog of AOPA requests. After Sara’s departure the supervisor again allowed a backlog to accrue. Sara was then asked to address the 4-year backlog, even though she worked in a different office on a different floor. She eliminated the backlog, while still doing her other job, in under 6 weeks.”
Blainbridge continues to make a measurable and distinct difference as a member of the team in the Office of Environmental Adjudication. “Every system in place here, Sara created,” Endriss said. “She researched and found a new database for our decisions because the current one is on life-support. The new one is being built through the Indiana Supreme Court, and Sara is spearheading it. Sara started with OEA on July 6, 2021. The Office never addressed its records, storage or archiving and there are 30 years’ worth of documents that need archived. To date she has archived 108,000+ images.”
Ultimately, it’s her impact on others that sets Blainbridge apart. “I admire and respect Sara so much,” Endriss noted. “Each time we’ve had the opportunity to work together, I continue to be in awe of her, her skills, her work ethic. No job is too little or big for Sara. She’s always willing to step up and do. Sara brings light with her, and that’s a very good thing to have when dealing with people in litigation.”
It’s qualities such as these that make paralegals so vital to the practice of law and are exactly why Sara Blainbridge was selected by the Indianapolis Bar Association to represent the paralegal membership as Paralegal of the Year.•
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