From young adulthood, Vancouver’s Michelle White felt a calling to become a lawyer. But many obstacles stood in her way.
She grew up in a low-income family, where no one had attended college, and she didn’t have much guidance on how to achieve her dream.
Life went on, as it does, and she found herself raising a family and working full time in various office jobs, later as a legal assistant.
It wasn’t until 2014, as she navigated a complex divorce — ending her 24-year relationship — that she learned, firsthand, how emotionally driven the family law process can be. That experience, in which she chose to represent herself, became the turning point in her career.
And now, nearly three years later, White, 49, is the first certified Limited License Legal Technician in Clark County.
“It just seemed like sort of the right fit and a good challenge to be in this emerging field,” she said. “I’m hoping to impact people’s lives, making things simpler for them.”
The license allows White to give clients legal advice in family law areas, such as divorce and legal separation, child support, parenting plans, and paternity, agreed relocation and domestic violence actions.
The Washington State Bar Association developed the program under the direction of the state Supreme Court as an affordable option for people to obtain legal services.
“What we are really trying to do is bridge that gap. Not many people can go spend hundreds of dollars on a divorce attorney,” White said. And cut rates often lead to cut-rate service, she added.
White has lived in Vancouver for the past 12 years and has been a practicing paralegal since 1994.
She was born and raised in Eastern Washington, working from the time she was 14 years old. Her first job after high school was at the Hanford Site, and she later worked in budgeting for Rockwell International. She eventually sought change and was hired by the University of California for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s legal department in 1988.
It was her first taste of the legal world.
White assisted on a case in which relatives of radiation-related cancer patients sued the government over nuclear testing. The litigation was never completed, however, and when the project ended, she split days working as a legal secretary in the litigation and intellectual property departments.
She was later encouraged to obtain her paralegal certification and did so in 1994 through California State University, East Bay.
White worked for various legal firms and departments over the years — including First Independent Bank, which was later purchased by Sterling Financial Corp., and ESCO Corp., in Portland — while also operating a consulting firm on the side.
During her divorce, White met with a financial planner and looked over opportunities to attend law school. But in the process, she discovered a more affordable option: the legal technician program.
“I come from a family where there were multiple divorces by both parents. I’ve seen a lot of stuff, not all positive, and ways not to handle a divorce and the impact on children,” White said. “There is a lot of focus on winning — winning at all costs. But those costs sometimes are very substantial on relationships at the end of the day.
“There is a better way than both parties going at it,” she added.
She applied for the program and was accepted in 2014 but opted to delay a couple of years, because she was finalizing her divorce and getting her family organized, she said.
The program requires an associate degree or higher; 45 credits at an approved paralegal program; live, online classes through the University of Washington School of Law; a paralegal core competency exam; LLLT practice area exam; LLLT professional responsibility exam; and 3,000 hours working as a paralegal or legal assistant supervised by an attorney. White said she took an advanced paralegal core competency exam to avoid taking some classes.
It was difficult to balance classes, work and raising her family as a single mom, she said. White also squeezed in time to work with attorneys to gain some more experience in family law.
Longview attorney Elle Couto described White as a “really competent, smart person.” They met about two years ago through a friend of White’s who came to Couto for family law help. White and Couto began talking and started working together on the case.
“She has helped me a ton on this,” Couto said.
White said she’s heard that some lawyers are concerned that legal technicians will poach their clients. “But our market isn’t going to necessarily be the same,” she said, adding that she sees the potential for a collaborative relationship.
Couto agrees.
“There’s a segment of society that attorneys aren’t servicing. There’s a gap. Lawyers are charging anywhere from $200 to $300 an hour, and people can’t afford to pay that,” she said. “Some people don’t need attorneys, just someone to help them with paperwork, and that’s where LLLTs come in.
“There’s plenty of work to go around,” Couto added.
White hopes to open Washington Family Law Services, a one-stop-shop, which will feature a family law attorney, counselors and legal technicians.
White is in the process of obtaining approval to work with the Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program to assist clients without means to hire counsel.
“Our role is to give people access to legal advice at an affordable price,” White said. “It doesn’t need to be this complicated.”
