It was time for Leslie Car-penter’s moment in the spotlight. As Maeghan Jones, then the director of pro bono at Legal Aid of Southeast Tennessee, announced Carpenter as the winner of the first annual Pro Bono Paralegal of the Year award, Carpenter stood up, walked to the stage of Lindsay Street Hall, and accepted the honor. Then she returned to her seat, and her moment was over.
To everyone in the room, it appeared Carpenter had walked alone, but that was not the case. Like the other award recipients during Pro Bono Night 2011, Carpenter had been singled out for her extraordinary service to her employer and community, but unlike the other honorees, she took with her to the stage all of her peers in the Chattanooga area who work hard to support the efforts of the attorneys for whom they work. Carpenter didn’t just represent herself that night, but every paralegal in town. She made them look good, and she made them proud.
However, a few weeks later, she’s reserved as she discusses her job at McWilliams & Gold, the firm for which she’s worked for 12 years, and the role she plays in the practice of Leslie McWilliams, her boss. “I don’t have a job description. I do whatever Leslie requires, from facilitating her schedule, to making sure she has the proper documentation, to working with clients. And then I do whatever else she asks me to do,” she says.
As a family law firm, McWilliams & Gold handles divorces, custody battles, adoptions and the like. In particular, McWilliams handles all of Legal Aid’s adoption cases, which numbered 11 in 2010. Because of her work, Carpenter spends a lot of time on adoptions as well. “I meet with people, walk them through the steps, and even hold their hands, because a lot of the time, they’re worried about what’s going to happen next,” she says.
While clients hire lawyers for their expertise, the paralegals upon whom the attorneys rely for help are an important part of any legal work. When Jones was introducing Carpenter, she cited a pro bono case in which the paralegal went to great lengths to ensure a stepdad would be able to adopt a child.
“She went above and beyond her already fine standard of service when she helped coordinate a complicated adoption that involved two attorneys, a client hospitalized in Nashville, and a hearing with a chancellor via cell phone. The case required significant coordination and attention to detail. Without Jamie’s support, it would not have been possible for a very special family to obtain an adoption,” Jones said.
Jones knew who was in the room, and she knew the gravity of the words she’d spoken: “Without Jamie’s support, it would not have been possible...”
While McWilliam’s generosity and expertise were essential to the adoption, Jones was saying that without Carpenter’s help, she would not have been able to make it happen. In other words, like lawyers, paralegals can have a positive impact on the lives of others.
Carpenter agrees, and says this opportunity makes her time at McWilliams & Gold meaningful. “It’s nice to be able to help families become legal. And the adoptions are a bright spot in our work here, which includes all of the difficult stuff that goes along with divorces and custody battles,” she says. Since many of the situations with which a family law firm deals are emotionally charged, Carpenter does her best to remain detached while doing her job. However, achieving that balance isn’t easy for her, as her heart goes out to the firm’s clients. And while that has given her many causes for celebration, it’s also led to the occasional disappointment.
“When a matter is resolved, it’s a personal triumph or tragedy. Luckily, the triumphs outweigh the tragedies,” she says. Carpenter almost sounds like an attorney. And there was a time when she intended to become one. But she never went to law school. Instead, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business management and then a master’s degree in psychology. A statistics geek, she focused her graduate studies on human resources in the hopes of landing work writing personality tests for employers. But when she graduated in 2008, her education was not in demand, so she remained at McWilliams & Gold.
Fortunately, she enjoys her job. “I hear lots of interesting stories. I like that part of my work,” she says. Carpenter also enjoys the “unusual cases” that force the people at McWilliams & Gold out of their comfort zone. “I like cases that have a unique fact pattern. And I enjoy cases that challenge us to think about our attack,” she says. Carpenter also likes living in Ooltewah, where she and her husband of eight years, Nathan, are raising a dog.
“She’s more work than a child! And she’s spoiled rotten,” Carpenter says of her canine companion. Carpenter keeps her life outside McWilliams & Gold simple. She reads “girly books” that offset the seriousness of her work, cooks out with Nathan on their back porch, and takes as many trips as possible. While Carpenter doesn’t know why she didn’t go to law school, other than she felt it wasn’t right for her, and although she has no immediate plans to leave McWilliams & Gold, she does have aspirations. She’s just not sure where they’ll take her. “One day, something brilliant is going to hit me, and I’m going to figure out a way to combine my knowledge and skills from [McWilliams & Gold] with my education. But I have yet to figure out what that is.”
Once again, Carpenter is not alone, but is speaking for the many people who skillfully and tirelessly assist others in their work, but are hoping to someday become the person whose name is on the office door or the shingle outside. In the meantime, they will continue to make a difference behind the scenes, whether or not they are publicly rewarded for their efforts.