Today is the last day of work for one of our long-term colleagues, Mary Lou Trache. Mary Lou, a nurse paralegal, has been with us for 18 years and is now retiring. We had a nice lunch for her yesterday, which I think everyone enjoyed.
For the last 15 years Mary Lou has handled most of the intake calls and emails for our Federal Tort Claims Act medical malpractice group. The estimate that others came up with was 25,000, but I think that might be on the low side. Any way you figure it, we get a huge number of contacts. Mary Lou has talked with people from all 50 states, other U.S. territories, and even from other countries now and then. She has consistently been insightful and kind to those who come to us asking for help. It’s not an easy job. Our callers are frequently dealing with difficult or tragic situations. Often there is nothing we can do for them – and that is plain from the start. Frankly, some can be difficult, to put it nicely.
As I talk with clients in my travels around the country, I frequently hear about how nice our staff is. Our people are consistently helpful and friendly. Obviously, this is something I really like to hear. Mary Lou is someone whose name I hear frequently. This really says something because our clients only interact with her at the very start of their case. She has been our first impression – and she has made an excellent one thousands of times.
Mary Lou will be missed and her shoes will be hard to fill. We cannot do what we do without a skilled and dedicated team of people. Without a good support staff and back office operation, even the best lawyer will be close to useless. The lawyers at Rawls Law Group are very lucky to work with great and very skilled people, but the luckier ones are our clients.
Good luck, Mary Lou, and thank you for everything.