Terri Smolinski is Stephanie Leet’s paralegal for the Federal Workers’ Compensation department.
She works with Stephanie representing federal workers around the country. Her daily activities include taking phone calls, doing administrative work, and making sure everything goes smoothly for our clients.
Terri has a background as a manager in the trucking industry. However, when she and her husband adopted their two youngest children, Terri decided to be a stay at home mom for a season. When her kids both finished school and transitioned into adult life, Terri knew she wanted to renter the workforce and was finally ready to go after her lifelong dream of becoming a paralegal.
So, she went back to school to earn her Associates in Science with a focus on Paralegal studies. Law was a passion of hers ever since she was on a mock trial team in high school, so when we opened our office in Chesteron, she jokingly said “Hey, there’s my next job when I go back to work.” Little did she know that immediately after she graduated school we would be hiring paralegals for that office. It was a match made in heaven for Terri and the firm.
Although she’s finished with her degree, Terri never wants to stop learning. She’s always in the middle of several online or correspondence courses on everything from knitting to holistic medicine. She loves watching documentaries and even has a subscription to the Great Courses, so she’s never left without answers.
Terri is a great encourager, which makes her excellent at her job. She understands that her clients are often dealing with stressful and scary things, so she wants to make sure that they feel looked after and lifted up.
As you can imagine, Terri is also very close to her family. She has a loving husband, Jim, four beautiful children, and two amazing grandkids with another on the way. Her family also includes two dogs, a cat, and two bearded dragons!
A perfect weekend would be spending Saturday with Jim, maybe checking out one of their favorite restaurants, then Sunday attending church and spending time with her grandbabies, maybe watching a movie and having a great meal.
Terri loves cooking and can’t pass up a cookbook without buying it. She and Jim actually plan small trips around visiting their favorite restaurants. They also enjoy visiting Florida for Disney World and are looking forward to going to Haiti on the mission trip with their church.
