Never Too Late: Irene Pozzolo, self-discovery through eDiscovery
Irene Pozzolo has always sought to make herself indispensable.
As the daughter of first-generation immigrants and eventually as a single mother, her life has been a balance of family responsibilities with finding her place in the working world.
Irene is proud of where she is now, leading a group of professional paralegals who oversee the discovery of electronic evidence at the Department of Justice. Irene and her team are crucial in ensuring Canada’s lawyers have what they need to manage their biggest cases, sometimes involving millions of pieces of electronic evidence.
But from growing up in her family’s bakeries in Victoria to supervising paralegals collecting evidence for some of Canada’s highest profile legal cases, Irene’s career has not been a straight line. It has been a journey where she had to find her confidence to stand-up for herself and claim her space.
The family business
Growing up in Victoria, the daughter of Italian immigrants, Irene started work as a teenager, managing the operations of her family bakeries. She had a knack for organization and a keenness to learn but, deep down, she knew the bakery was her parents’ dream and not hers. She was more attracted to spreadsheets than kneading dough. The problem was, like many teenagers finding their way, she wasn’t sure what she wanted out of a career. She had barely started at university before the family business needed her back.
Working with family can be rewarding but it can also be tough. After six years of bakery work, Irene felt it was time for her branch out and forge her own path. She decided to travel in hopes of gaining a new perspective. “I told my family that I wasn’t asking for their permission, just their blessing,” said Irene. It was a big step for her.
Irene grew up in a close Italian family. This family photo was taken in 1981.
She went to Europe and found her way to Dublin where she worked at a small cheese shop. Irene eventually returned to Canada after 18 months with a future spouse in tow and they moved to Vancouver to start their next chapter.
A new career
As a food industry professional, Irene began working in the culinary field as it was her comfort zone. She soon realized she needed a complete fresh start though, and decided to try something totally different.
She got a job at a legal research firm where she would work for nine years. Growing up in a bakery teaches you a thing or two about hard work, and Irene sought to make herself invaluable. She took classes, learned specialized software, and raised her hand whenever there was a new assignment to be had. During her time at the company, Irene and her spouse started a family and had two children.
It was at the research firm that Irene first appreciated how difficult it was to be a parent – especially a mother – in a professional environment. To maximize time with her kids, she would opt for positions that allowed for telework, often at lower pay. She worked early mornings, weekends, and sometimes got the job done in those little spaces in between that parents carve out for themselves. She also worked as hard as possible to avoid layoffs when times were lean.
Irene sitting on flour bags alongside the original Italian Bakery equipment and snacking on a baguette circa 1988.
When she came back from her second maternity leave, her duties had been given to her backfill. She had to advocate to for herself. “I ended up getting that work back, but I had to fight. You can't just push people to the side like that,” she said. To make matters worse, her employer indicated that without a degree, Irene’s career at the agency was capped.
It didn’t feel fair.
Haunted by her lack of formal education and the need to support her family, Irene realized that she always put her needs last. Over a decade into her career, she had still not found the direction that she craved. Her family’s bakery, her spouse’s job, raising her kids; Irene had always put her career aspirations behind other things.
It was time for a change.
Betting on herself
Irene’s closest friend was her advisor and inspiration for career direction. “Have you ever thought about paralegal work?” she asked.
Irene had a knack for organization, writing, and technology. Through her career at the legal research firm, she sat front row as evidence collecting in legal cases had shifted from analog to digital, the rise of eDiscovery. Her friend’s encouragement, paired with her natural skills and work experience, provided her with a direct path to paralegal work.
It felt like the stars were aligning.
Motivated and focused, Irene started applying for paralegal jobs but soon found that without a formal education, they were out of reach. As a mother of two young kids, her availability for further education was also limited.
But she didn’t quit.
Irene reached out to an advisor at a local university to explore her options. The advisor explained that Irene wasn’t eligible for the paralegal program because she didn’t have a university degree or work in a law firm. However, she could complete the legal assistant program instead. This would get her foot in the door at a law firm and allow her to apply to be a paralegal in the future. The program was ten months, close to her home, and even had onsite childcare. She went for it hard, balancing her new studies with her family and her job but it was tough.
Irene decided to leave her job at the agency. “I hadn’t been without a job since I was thirteen” she said. With her kids relying on her, it was particularly scary. But she had a plan: she had applied and was tentatively accepted to the university’s paralegal program, providing she obtain work in a law firm.
Irene secured an internship at a firm where she leveraged her winning formula of hard work and collaboration to again, make herself invaluable. She was offered a permanent job at the firm as a legal assistant and they supported her education to become a paralegal. She called the university to formally enroll but they told her that classes were full.
She couldn’t get this close and have the door shut on her! She insisted. She appealed to the program coordinator and the professor agreed to open another spot in class for her.
She was in.
Irene’s tips:
- Make yourself invaluable: “If there is a need, fill it. Test the programs, take the communications courses, dive into the work others don’t want to do, and learn from every colleague you can. Be the team member everyone needs, and everyone wins.”
- Power to the parents: “Nobody gets stuff done like a parent who is juggling lunches in between meetings. When hiring if you see a break in a resume of five years, you better believe that person is going to be resourceful.”
- It is never too late: “Don’t like where you are? Change it. No one else can do it for you, and every day that goes by is an opportunity to become something better. It may take planning and effort, but before you know it, you will be closer to your goal than you could have ever imagined.”
Joining Justice
Irene’s perseverance and hard work was paying off. She studied to be a paralegal while applying for government jobs. If she was going to be a paralegal, she wanted to work on files she cared about, in an environment where she would constantly learn new things. She also wanted to be treated equally. With a load of career experience under her belt, she had experienced gender pay gaps and other injustices. Irene wanted equal pay for equal work.
Because she didn’t yet have her paralegal certification, Irene applied to legal assistant positions and qualified for one at the Department of Justice. She still remembers receiving a phone call from Erika Grant in the department’s British Columbia office.
“I was excited to hear from Erika. She really gave me my start, recognizing my potential from my previous work,” said Irene. Irene began assisting several departmental lawyers and rose to the occasion, making herself invaluable by understanding and innovating their processes. She even found a mentor in a senior paralegal at the department with whom she had previously crossed paths, Sandra Corrigall. Things were looking up.
But her paralegal certification was not complete, and neither was her journey to Justice.
Over the next couple of years, she studied for her paralegal certificate while working at the Department of Justice. As she was about to graduate, the Department was running a job competition for paralegals. She applied and, to her great delight, was successful. But when it was time to finally start her formal experience as a paralegal, she was torn. She loved her work as a legal assistant and the wonderful lawyers she worked with. “It was thanks to their support and encouragement, that I decided to do it”, she explained.
So, finally, after all her work and dedication, Irene Pozzolo became a paralegal for Canada’s Department of Justice.
And it felt great.
What is eDiscovery?
“Discovery” is a pre-trial procedure in which the parties identify information that is relevant to a case and produce or present that information to the opposing side. E-discovery is the process by which electronic information is produced and presented, like emails and other electronic documents. These pieces of evidence can make or break a case.
She didn’t stop there though. With her certification in hand, she kept learning. After a year working on one file, Irene’s experience and interest in eDiscovery caught up with her, and she joined the Evidence Management Team of the National eDiscovery and Litigation Support Services group.
Irene’s team is responsible for reviewing large projects and litigation files, often of national importance.
“We get involved when files are very, very big with lots of documents, lots of information and we assist litigation teams to sort of cull them down to a manageable size,” she explains. “We streamline the work needed for litigation teams and give them something they can work with.” Irene sees her team almost as a subcontractor for the teams at the Department of Justice. She has worked on files with hundreds of thousands of pieces of electronic evidence and getting that down to a working size is challenging and rewarding.
She is now an acting supervisor with the team and sharing her experiences to help others in the way that they helped her, hoping to repay some of the mentorship she received.
“My team seems happy, my employees seem happy, and I've had people say that I found my niche,” she said.
Irene graduating from the Paralegal Program in 2019 at Capilano University in North Vancouver, BC.
Now, at 44 years old, in a fulfilling position with a great team, Irene has never been happier in her work, while having time to balance her family. She is even considering returning to finish her university degree. For Irene Pozzolo, a new career was a new beginning, one that she hopes inspires others.
Life can change fast but it is never too late to pursue your goals.
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