NALA Volunteer Spotlight: February 2021
NALA Volunteer Spotlight: Barbara E. Mills ACP
February 2021
Barbara E. Mills, ACP, has been a litigation paralegal for the last two decades. An impressive resume – including a Master of Science in Speech Pathology, a paralegal certificate, and an Advanced Certified Paralegal credential in Trial Practice – Mills is no stranger to hard work. After an inspiring career diligently working to help children with special needs, she switched careers to another passion of hers – trial work.
“My absolute favorite part of being a paralegal is trial work,” Mills said. “I love to be in the courtroom with my attorneys. I like seeing cases that I have worked on, sometimes for years, be resolved with a great outcome for our clients.”
One of her professional accomplishments includes being the lead trial paralegal on several bellwether trials in MDL proceedings. She said is it very important to do what you love.
“If you don’t like what you are doing, try something else! One of the beautiful things about law is that there are so many different types, so you aren’t stuck in one thing,” Mills said. “I started out in tax and probate and hated it! It wasn’t long before I tried litigation and absolutely fell in love with it.”
Her dedication to the paralegal field is evident through her awards – including a NALA LEAP Award and NALA Affiliate Award – as well as her service as past president and NALA Liaison for the Charleston Association of Legal Assistants (CALA). Mills has been a NALA member since 2002, has volunteered as the NALA Ethics Chairperson, and is currently serving on the Professional Development Committee (PDC).
When she is not busy working and volunteering, Mills loves to read books and watch television shows and movies based on the law. Her number one passion, however, is traveling the world.
“I have traveled all over the world and been to five continents,” she said. “I try to visit a different country every year and have been able to do this for the past 15 years.”
When asked who she would like to meet – in the past or present – she replied, “I would have loved to meet Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I think she did so much for women – not only in the legal field, but in general for women to be respected for our ideas. I would also love to meet Georgia O’Keefe because she is one of my favorite artists, and I think she had an incredible way of envisioning things.”
Mills recently moved to Florida with her husband, dog, and cat. She is the proud mother of two grown sons.
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