Mary Beth Lavallee
Mary Beth Lavallee was raised in Creve Coeur, Illinois by wonderful parents. Her mom was always at all of her school and extra-curricular events in the crowd cheering her on. Mary Beth's dad worked nights until her sophomore year of high school but always urged her to work hard and do her best. Both parents taught Mary Beth not to judge people by anything external but on how they treated people and their values and actions. She has one older sister who is now one of her best friends (once they got past that "take your little sister with you" stage!).
Mary Beth is married to David, "a wonderful man." If she could have written a description for the perfect (or almost perfect) husband, he would fit the bill! She has 2 daughters who are the joys of her life. Amanda is a physical therapist in Oregon who loves to participate in marathons and triathlons. Allison just finished her second year of law school at St. Louis University. She worked at Quinn Johnston part-time for 6 years and apparently was impressed by what she saw! She is working at Trans State Airlines in their legal department for the summer. David has 2 daughters. Elizabeth will graduate next year from ISU with a major in art therapy and Julia will be in her second year at Kendall College studying the culinary arts.
Mary Beth was a high school teacher for 10 years before taking time off when her children were little and then returning to school for paralegal studies. A teacher's day is usually structured by lesson plans. However, when she became a paralegal, she learned that you may think you know what you will being doing on a specific day but that can change in an instant. An example includes going to an accident scene almost immediately after the incident to help an attorney investigate the facts which entailed tromping through fields in a dress and heels! Mary Beth likes the variety of activities that are included in the paralegal role, especially making sense out of massive amounts of documents involved in large cases.
Mary Beth originally wanted to be a doctor, but when she realized she could not stand the sight of blood that pretty much put an end to that career! Mary Beth started with Quinn Johnston in 1988 with an internship for her paralegal program. She was very impressed with the caring attitude, generosity and ethical behavior of the Quinn people, so she was thrilled when she was asked to stay on after the internship. Mary Beth has been with Quinn ever since!
If Mary Beth were not working at QJHPC she would hope to still be involved in legal work somewhere. If not, then perhaps laying on a sunny beach somewhere!
David, her daughter Allison, Mary Beth, and her daughter Amanda
Mary Beth with her husband David