Paralegal Interview Paper Sarah Babson

An Interview with Jenni Mrkva

This all starts on Monday, March 9, 2020 when Professor Beck hands out our assigned

paralegal to interview. Since I had to retake introduction to legal studies, I have already done one

interview that went wrong. The first time around, I had to interview Jennifer Tallman at Sinclair,

because the paralegal I was assigned to was too busy at the time. I was a little upset because I

wanted the full experience everyone else was having but, whatever, not a big deal. The second

time around I was excited because I could finally get the experience of going into a law firm and

sit down with a paralegal. The world seemed to have other plans. Professor Beck casually

mentioned that Sinclair had an emergency plan for the covid-19 outbreak, and I laughed because

I thought it was a little extreme. Not even 48 hours later, I get a text that read “Sinclair classes

are cancelled from Wednesday March 11 until Monday, March 23.” Later I get the news that

class is cancelled until further notice. Morgan and I were talking about what’s going to happen

and whether or not we’ll have online class. Then I get and email advising us to do our paralegal

interviews over the phone for our safety. So even the second time around, it wasn’t a regular

paralegal interview.

Friday, March 13th, I call Jenni Mrkva and set up a phone interview for Monday, March

16th at 10 a.m. I call at 10 a.m. on the dot, and I’m not going to lie, doing this interviewing while

lying in bed, in my pajamas was pretty great. We start off the conversation by talking about the

extremely weird situation were living in right now and considering this interview happened in

the beginning of the pandemic. Things have gotten a lot worse in the last couple weeks. Now

onto the questions.

Jenni works at Attkisson Law Firm, LLC. where they have a traditional office structure

which is pretty straight forward. There office has three attorneys and eight paralegals, which is a
Paralegal Interview Paper Sarah Babson

lot more than I thought was needed, I always thought each attorney needed one paralegal. The

paralegals are divided into two departments, negotiations and litigation. I only caught what the

litigation department deals with which is personal injury cases. In all of their personal injury

cases they try to settle them outside of court. Jenni said she didn’t see a case to court until a few

months into working there which was shocking to me. The personal injury cases that go to court

are only the ones worth it money wise since court is so expensive. It needs to be worth it to all

parties involved, to go to court, which is at least $100,000. A lot of the time it isn’t worth the

court costs to go to court.

The Attkisson Law Firm is all women. When Jenni told me this, I was concerned because

of all the catty drama I dealt with when I worked at First National Bank, and the staff wasn’t all

women. Jenni even said that she was concerned too but it turns out that everyone gets along

amazingly. She is even friends outside of work with most of the other paralegals. Even the

attorneys are nice. Working with attorneys has always seemed kind of scary to me since they are

portrayed in movies as mean people. Since going to Sinclair, where most of my professor are

attorneys, I learned that not all attorneys are mean. Jenni also said that the owner is really nice

and easy to work with. For example, for thanksgiving, the owner went around to everyone’s

office and set a $50 bill on their desks.

The Attkisson Law Firm does not keep time because they get 33.33% of the settlement of

each case. Sometimes they have to adjust the percentage if they are getting more then the client,

but they don’t go below 25% of the settlement. They use abscus to keep track of everything but

time. Everything the paralegals do has to be put into abscus to cover the paralegal. This is, for

example, just in case the client claims they haven’t talked to anyone about their case in a month,
Paralegal Interview Paper Sarah Babson

then they can pull up the abscus profile for that client and prove that they talked to someone 4

days ago, or whatever the situation is.

Jenni, along with the seven other paralegals are all evaluated by how quickly they can

catch onto things, if they are quick learner, and if they are making deadlines. Recently a

paralegal was fired from Attkisson because she wasn’t trying and couldn’t retain information.

The main ethical issue that arises at Attkisson is when there isn’t a case, meaning people

are over exaggerating so this can get money out of the defendant. This is fraud. The only thing

they can do is represent their client the best they can. This becomes a problem when, for

example, the client was in a car accident that wasn’t their fault and is now saying they have back

problems that they’ve never had before, and it’s very obvious they lying because it’s on their

medical record that they’ve always had back problems. The opposing council has access to those

medical record and can point that out in court. This would automatically make their client

untrustworthy. The attorney can shy them away from court or the attorney can deny the case.

The growth on the job is team leader paralegals which is all based on skill and who can

step up to the position. Becoming a team leader paralegal is one of Jenni’s career goals. She also

wants to stay with personal injury since she loves it so much. When she graduated from Sinclair,

her goal was to work in criminal law and that’s already changed since May 2019. Another one of

Jenni’s career goals is she wants to become a notary public.

The most difficult part of her job is time management since there is always so much to

do. Since the covid-19 outbreak, courts are starting to shut down dockets. Jenni said that this

would actually be really helpful because she’ll be able to catch up on all of her work without new

cases coming in daily. The most rewarding part of her job is handing the settlement check to

someone who truly deserves the money.

Paralegal Interview Paper Sarah Babson

The most important thing I learned about being a paralegal as a result of the interview, at

least at Attkisson, is that as long as you put all of your effort into learning new things, then you

will be set. Talking to Jenni made me feel so much better about being a paralegal. I started

thinking this wasn’t what I wanted to do because I was overwhelmed with everything I was

learning. I was scared that I wouldn’t retain all of the information I learned in two years, but

Jenni made me realize that as long as you have a general idea, you’ll be fine. The attorneys and

other paralegals at Attkisson retrained her on everything and made her feel comfortable asking

questions about anything she needed help with. I really hope I get a job at a firm with these kinds

of people because I feel like they will make the transition into an adult job, a lot smoother.

There wasn’t a specific skill Jenni said that she possessed at graduation, but she did say

that she wished there was more specific classes. For example, medical terminology. I also think

this would be beneficial because I’m sure that every paralegal will encounter medical records at

some point. The best thing Sinclair did to prepare Jenni was the core classes. She said they

helped her a lot.

Jenni graduated in May 2019. She is very happy with her position at Attkisson Law Firm,

but almost gave up on finding paralegal employment after graduation. She almost reinstated her

cosmetology license! She did tell me that the professors in the legal studies program are really

supportive and would even text her with open paralegal positions. Jenni is not happy with the

pay range, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the area. She told me about some personal

situations she’s going through right now, that she just wished she made more.

I am super happy that I got assigned to interview Jenni. She was really great to talk to

about my concerns about being a paralegal and she was really nice. She even told me that when I

graduate, I can reach out to her and see where she is at, and if there are any openings at Attkisson
Paralegal Interview Paper Sarah Babson

then she’ll get me an interview. She also said I could reach out to her for any questions or help

with this program.

Paralegal Interview Paper Sarah Babson

Interview Paper Grading Rubric

Category Point Student Prof.
Value Eval Eval

Did the assignment meet the page limit? .5 0

Did the student complete the student eval? .5 .5

Did the student attach the rubric to the end of the .5 .5

assignment in one word file?

Was the assignment submitted to the correct dropbox? .5 .5

Did the student provide a copy of the thank you note 2 2

and was it well written and legible?

Did the assignment comply with the PAR Quality 2 2

Standards?

Did the assignment clearly address all of the questions 15 15

asked?

Did the assignment display correctness in sentence 5 3

structure, paragraphing, word choices, spelling, and
grammar? 

Was the assignment organized in a coherent fashion? 4 3

Are there any reasons as to why this assignment should X X

suffer point deductions?

TOTAL  30 26.5
Paralegal Interview Paper Sarah Babson