Paralegal Linda Michalik Enjoys the Details

<<And Michalik should know. With 15 years of experience in the field, this paralegal is well versed in what she does. However, her journey began in social work, with a focus on child sexual abuse and child protection work. For 10 years, Michalik immersed herself in this field. Then, opting for a career change, she turned to law.

According to her, "paralegal work seemed like a good match because I could use skills I already had: interviewing, case management, investigation."


"I started with a solo practitioner in Montana as his office assistant," she continues. "As he saw my skills, he suggested that I go on to actually do the training."

So she invested her time in a paralegal program at Clark College in Vancouver. A move to Salt Lake City brought her to her first paralegal position, and now, 15 years later, her legal expertise has grown to include family law, personal injury work, and insurance subrogation.

Today, Michalik works for Cozen O'Connor , a full-service law firm that began in 1970 with only one office and four practicing attorneys. Over 30 years later, Cozen O'Connor has grown into 21 national offices, two international offices, and 500 attorneys, making the firm one of the 100 largest law firms in the United States.

In 2006 the firm was ranked 77th out of 250 in the National Law Journal's "250 Largest Law Firms" list and was ranked fifth out of 172 law firms in American Lawyer Media's National Survey of Summer Associates.

One of the things Michalik enjoys most about her job is the human interaction.

"I've gone into areas of law that require client interactions and investigations, as opposed to just research. In family law you're still helping people. It's not as obvious or linear as social work, but these are problems people have that they can't solve by themselves. Even subrogation affects our insurance premiums," she says.

"I also enjoy putting a case together and understanding the principles involved," Michalik continues. "I have to know what's legal, what's not, how you get this to work within the system. Court systems have procedures and forms that people don't like; the uniformity makes it easier to present and track."

But things aren't always uniform, and challenges inevitably arise. Specifically, "the complexities of understanding the multiple issues in a case [and] getting them sorted out" are two challenges Michalik faces, along with "the complexity of responding [and] explaining a position."

"Because many of my cases are in litigation, a lot of my job is discovery, answering the questions that are sent to us," she says. "I break down the questions, sort through the information, and ask when I don't know."

The ability to ask questions is one of the most important skills a paralegal can acquire, explains Michalik.

"You can never assume you know anything," she says. "You can't be afraid to say, 'I don't understand.'"

With this skill, paralegals can communicate better with their attorneys and avoid challenges.

Michalik continues, "You need the willingness to question because you're not just taking directions and orders from the attorney. He's not dictating letters. He's giving you a project, and you have to think it through. You can't assume that the attorney knows everything, or that you know everything. You have to be willing to explore and ask questions about the details and show creativity and initiative."

But while challenges may intrude into our lives, they have the potential to improve our lives as well. How? By motivating and stimulating us to do our best, as they do Michalik.

"The other side of discovery is preparing questions to get similar information from the other side. I [like] the challenge," she says. "[I]t makes it different every day. That's the detail work. In my experience, the attorney is the big-picture person, and the paralegal is the detail person."

So which do you want to be? Michalik makes it clear that you have to make a choice.

"You have to be okay being the support person," she continues about being a paralegal. "If you think you want to be an attorney, it's not the job for you. [Y]ou'll get frustrated. But working as a paralegal for a short time is a good way to find out if you want to be an attorney."

"It really is a detail-oriented position," she adds. "If you don't like detail, it is definitely not the job for you. Every court system has its own rules for how documents are presented, timelines, how trials are run. Every county is different. The biggest job is knowing all the rules."