Her Story
About Jennifer
I've been in the legal and real estate field for 18 years, and my journey has been one of grit and persistence. I was the first in my family to go to college and graduate, and I had to work three jobs to put myself through Ball State University. I actually didn't start in the legal field - I graduated with a degree in exercise science and wanted to be an athletic trainer. But when a file clerk position opened up at Ice Miller law firm, I decided to see where it would go, and it just drew me in. I worked my way up from that file clerk role to where I am today as a senior paralegal at Scannell Properties, an industrial real estate development company. Before Scannell, I worked at Millhouse, a Class A residential real estate development company, and before that at Kittle Property, a low-income housing real estate developer. My main area of expertise is dealing with industrial real estate, title, survey, and closings. On any given day, I'm touching anywhere between 5 to 25 transactions, doing everything from the administrative side to processing documents for execution, revising and drafting documents, preparing closing documents, title and survey review, and coordinating between development, attorney, and capital teams, as well as third-party correspondence with seller-buyer teams, outside counsel, title companies, and surveyors. I'm basically corralling everyone together to make sure it all comes together nicely. There's not one deal that's the same, which keeps me on my toes.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jennifer
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would honestly say the journey of the grit, because I didn't start off as a senior paralegal. I was the first one in my family to go to college and graduate from college, so I was working from the ground up. I actually didn't go into the field that my degree was in - I pivoted and went into the legal field. I started off as a file clerk at Ice Miller and then just worked up. I feel like probably my biggest achievement was continuing to learn and continuing to be persistent in the professional world. Even though I pivoted to the legal field and I'm not actually utilizing the degree that I walked away from school with, I feel like it still gave me the foundation to be able to navigate even the real estate world. That gave me a good inroad to just keep learning and keep teaching myself.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was from my mentor, Ben Coy. He told me that everything is fixable, and that you don't need to stress out about what you are doing, because in the event that you make a mistake, it can always be fixed. That has stuck with me ever since I worked with him. There have been times where I've made little mistakes and big mistakes, and was able to just own it, and fix it and move forward.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
God is the center of everything that we do in our household, and I think that's important, not only in a personal standpoint, but also in a professional standpoint, to be able to have a foundation that's rooted with God there, because it gives you a reset point when you feel the stresses of life. That has been a huge point for me, and I hope for my kids, too. I love championing and being a champion for my kids. We are very heavily involved with our church, and I believe it's important to inspire younger professionals, which is more important to me than just personal recognition.
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