Michigan National Guard Sgt. Steven Schultz will transition next week into his new position at the Wayne County, Michigan prosecutor’s office as an attorney after graduating this year from Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Wayne started his distinguished career 24 years ago, 22 years of it spent in the Michigan Army National Guard. For the past 16 years, he has worked as a paralegal, assisting in a variety of cases for the Michigan National Guard. For the past 6, he worked as a full-time paralegal technician and staff sergeant at the Lansing, Michigan Joint Forces Headquarters judge advocate general’s office.
Schultz was able to pursue a career in law thanks to his military service. He was trained as a paralegal technician by the military, and was then deployed in Iraq from 2007 to 2008. Upon returning, he completed a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University, and returned to active military duty in Lansing. He continued to serve as a paralegal technician, and his duties expanded to overseeing law student interns.
It was one of his law student interns that first led Schultz towards becoming a lawyer. His intern, Jaclyn Vidusic, thought he would make a good lawyer. She pushed him to take the law school entrance exam, and he eventually relented. He scored high enough to be offered free tuition to attend Thomas M. Cooley Law School, which he attended at night so that he could continue his work in the military as a paralegal. In 2015, he completed his Juris Doctorate degree, but that might not be his only accomplishment this year.
Schultz has also submitted his officer commission packet. If he is approved, he will also receive a commission into the Michigan National Guard as a first lieutenant. Between his potential duties as a lieutenant and his new position as a prosecuting attorney, Schultz certainly has a lot on his plate. However, the time he spent as a paralegal technician in the military gave him the discipline and qualifications he needed to juggle a full time job and law school. The lessons he learned while in the National Guard will continue to follow him throughout what will hopefully be a successful career in the military and in service to the law.
