Her Story
About Shirley
I started my legal career right out of high school, where I was in the legal club and participated in mock trial throughout my whole year of high school. I started going to college but needed money, so I applied for the clerk's office at the courthouse in Broward and got the job. Within 6 months, I had already gotten a promotion to be an in-court clerk, which is one of the top positions before management. Being a clerk clerk is basically sitting next to a judge on a daily basis, doing trials, pretrials, everything that you could think of, writing down everything. Work and college did not work together - work kind of got in the way, and college was just dropped off, and I kept on going in the legal field till now. I stepped away for a short time, maybe for like a couple of years about 10 years ago, and went into the medical equipment field doing logistics of the medical equipment industry, but then I went back to the legal industry because it's what I've wanted to do my whole life. I've been in my current position for 5 years as a paralegal doing civil litigation. I work with people who get transferred or request to work overseas in war zones anywhere in the world. These people go over there and work, and they come back hurt, physically or mentally, and they call our firm, and we process their claims for their injuries. On a typical day, I'm constantly talking to different people from all over the world, asking what treatments they've done, what is their status of treatments with the doctors, handling litigation with opposing counsel, doing trial preparation for cases that are going to trial. I have to deal with a lot of interpreters because we do talk to different people from all over the world with different languages, so I have to constantly be requesting or reserving, making reservations for interpreters for both trials and different kinds of appointments throughout the day.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shirley
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the kindness of people, to be honest. Sometimes in a professional environment, you kind of have to find someone to be your mentor, or your guide, or whatever, and you don't really find that often. You have to find that one person who's kind to you to teach you along the way. Because if you don't, it's kind of like a sponsor. You always need like a sponsor, someone you could run to, and if you have any questions or whatever, you obviously have the knowledge now because someone gave it to you, and the only way someone gives it to you is by being kind and giving you their knowledge. Not a lot of people do that. So along the way, I found that the people who are the kindest are the ones who you kind of have to thank your success for in a professional environment. It has nothing to do with personal stuff, it has to do with work stuff, work ethics, work ethic, everything. You have to find someone kind enough, and then sometimes they may not be kind to you at the moment, they're trying to teach you their way, but you have to try to see where they're coming from.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is the early worm gets the bird - always be on time. It's a funny one, but it's true.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The only advice I wish I could give is: Read your emails once or twice, if needed. Seriously, reread all of them. You have to always cover yourself, no matter what industry you're in, whether it's medical, legal, whatever. Before you go, always cover yourself. Because if you don't read that email, or it just slipped away, you have to make sure you didn't miss something about that, because then it's on you. Your responsibility, it falls on you. And be original and be yourself, and give that whatever you want to have inside to the public and to whoever you're writing to. It doesn't matter if they don't care, that's the uniqueness of you working there. It's your signature.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think AI is really taking over, but not because of like the jobs - it's more like people are using AI thinking that they could use it for their benefit of their cases, and it's not the case. Unfortunately, it's a great tool, but it's sometimes it could be a double-edged sword. The public tries to use it and then tries to manipulate their situation and go against what the firms or offices are trying to let our clients know, or guide, and they go against it because of ChatGPT or they fight about it. It's a very challenging situation. Sometimes our attorneys are using ChatGPT to write documents, court documents, and the privacy issues there - that's the biggest problem. Our firm does not allow our attorneys to use ChatGPT, but they still do it anyway.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Family is first. Families first. And I don't know, I think that if, in a professional field, if someone respects your time, like, you know, your time at work, and also your personal time, that's very valuable. Same thing with friends, same thing with family. I think time is very valuable. Doesn't matter if it's professional or personal. Everyone has somewhere to be. If someone respects your time, that's very valuable.
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