Sarah Bench

Five years ago, as a single mom who had just been diagnosed with cancer in 2017, I had to take over a year off from my work in real estate for treatment. During that time, with a lot of downtime to think, I realized I wanted to go back to school and pursue what had always spoken to me - the legal profession. I already had my bachelor's degree from 2001, so I went back to junior college to complete a highly recommended paralegal program in the county. It took me about a year and a half to complete, and I graduated at the top of the class. The college then hired me to become the program tutor. I was also accepted into law school, but after some hard-fought moments of decision, I chose not to go that route. At my age at the time and being a single mom, I didn't feel it would be the best choice to put out so much money for law school and still have time to pay it all back. I went on my first interview as a paralegal and was hired by a former district attorney for the County of Orange who now does personal injury and criminal law. I started as just an intern and have been working for this employer for the last 5 years, and I am now his senior paralegal. In October this past year, I got to sit with him through trial - as a paralegal, you're not legally allowed to sit at the council table, but I had a seat directly behind him and was basically co-chairing within the legal limits on a personal injury case. One of the highlights of my life and career was when I had some case-saving research that I did on the fly in the courtroom. We probably would have lost that case, but I was able to immediately start doing research sitting there in the courtroom, and that research saved the case and we ended up winning. As a paralegal, you don't get those opportunities very often, and it was hugely rewarding to go home and tell my now-teenage son about it.