New attorney excels at “eating whales,” wants to help others conquer challenges
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
(Editor’s Note: This continues the series of profiles about solo and small firms in the Grand Rapids area. If you have a suggestion for a firm to cover, please email cprice@legalnews.com.)
For Melinda Schmuck, succeeding at becoming a lawyer was far from a foregone conclusion.
In fact, at a low point in her life, when she had a GPA?of 1.7, was renting a low-cost room in a trailer park, and worked as a bartender, one of her instructors at Northwestern Michigan College told her she really should abandon all thoughts of going to law school.
But when he said that she could not afford it, that her GPA?was too low to qualify, and that her lifestyle and habits made it appear that she would never stick to her plan nor would she fit in if she somehow got an acceptance, he showed that he underestimated Schmuck.
She identifies closely with the character named Melinda Mae (though she diligently points out that her real middle name is Marie) in the Shel Silverstein poem about a girl who was told she was too small to eat a whale. In the poem it takes Melinda Mae 89 years, but she finishes every bit of that whale.
Melinda Schmuck took a lot less time.
“At first I sort of quit trying, but then I decided I would take it as a challenge, so I turned my life around,” Schmuck says.
She moved to Grand Rapids — her home town is Kingsley, south of Traverse City — and changed her lifestyle choices. She attended Grand Rapids Community College and then went on to Ferris State, where she graduated cum laude with a degree in Business Administration.
“I originally started at Ferris thinking I’d be an interior designer, so I intended to transfer to Kendall. But then, because I’ve always loved entrepreneurs, I ended up in Business Administration. It also helped me graduate as soon as possible.”
Her LSAT scores landed her a full-ride scholarship at WMU-Thomas M. Cooley Law School. At school she was very active, participating in moot court and on the Law Review, and serving in the Access to Justice Clinic as well as with the tenant clinic through the Renters’ Alliance. (Many of her initial cases as a solo practitioner have been in the landlord-tenant arena.)
Schmuck interned with Judge Kathleen Feeney of the 17th Circuit Court, Family Division.
After graduation, again cum laude, Schmuck studied on her own for the bar exam — “I’m not saying anything negative about the bar prep courses but I just knew that’s not how I learn,” she comments — and after passing took time out to have a baby, while working at Farmers Insurance.
“I thought about returning to Farmers after the baby, because I liked it really well,” Schmuck says, “but then I just thought, I have to take the leap.”
So, thanks to a diverse network of contacts, Schmuck hung out her shingle at a suite of law offices on Michigan Ave. In the same complex are bankruptcy lawyer Jeffrey Portko of Advocate Law Offices, who acts as controller of the space; Tom Baynton, another bankruptcy attorney; Naesha Leys, focusing on criminal defense; and Beth Striegle, who specializes in land use and zoning law.
Schmuck appreciates how open they and other lawyers she has contacted are to helping her succeed. “Everyone is so supportive and helpful,” she comments.
At the same time, Schmuck is taking matters into her own hands and forging her own path. “I was always independent, ever since I was a little kid. When we walked across the street, I would insist on holding my own hand,” she says. “And I’m not joking,” she adds.
She seeks out opportunities for mentoring and training, such as through Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women and SCORE. Her undergraduate business degree has helped her to write a sound business plan, and she has a keen sense of marketing.
“Right now I’m trying to go where I don’t think other attorneys will be,” Schmuck says. “There’s such a huge market of people who aren’t being reached by attorneys, so I’m trying to explore finding clients by going to meetings like the Rental Property Owners Association,. It’s not like I’m pushing it real hard; I’m just kind of making friends.”
Schmuck’s attitude is that people who could benefit from legal services are often intimated by engaging an attorney, both because of costs and because of their perception that lawyers are pompous and greedy.
While she understands well that that is a misperception, she wants to be careful to remove any barriers that might lend to that stereotype. Her approach is casual and welcoming.
That does not mean that she is not also detail-oriented and fastidious. The first installment of her blog, “Melinda’s Law - Because No One Likes Murphy,” includes everything anyone might want to know about hunting and selling Morel mushrooms.
As with her own planning, Schmuck encourages clients to research and think things through. “I try to be an attorney on the side of prevention. I think it saves legal costs that way — it’s cheaper for people when they put their ducks in a row at the beginning,” she says.
While being the lowest-cost attorney in the area is not her goal, Schmuck is not driven by getting rich. “It’s about helping people and living out of love rather than being motivated by money. I think eventually the money will come. But I mean, I’m not just throwing caution to the wind; I do have a cutoff if owning my own firm doesn’t end up going anywhere.”
Schmuck’s chief challenge is finding a niche within some practice area about which she feels passionate.
Right now that area is agriculture, so she is investigating, in her methodical way, what the law practice opportunities might be. She is exploring urban agriculture as well as supporting food-business or farm entrepreneurs with legal compliance. She is asking growers and advocates what kind of legal help they might need.
Working with the Agriculture Mediation Program of the Dispute Resolution Center piqued Schmuck’s interest. “Producers who are getting benefits from the USDA can go to mediation if they’re outside of compliance with the federal regulations,” she explains. “A lot of them don’t understand these laws, but they want to do the right thing, and there is a need for someone to help them comply with these complex policies.”
She found the work fascinating, and it dovetailed with a personal interest in local food economics and healthy eating. Schmuck was the first student member of the State Bar Agricultural Law Section.
She also has over 100 hours of mediation training, most in the general civil area.
Schmuck and her husband, who works as a logistics manager and has a small car-detailing business called Cousins Quality Detailing, keep expenses at a minimum so that she can focus on making her legal career thrive.
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