by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Relaxing and planning a family reunion are the only things on Linda Roberts Leach’s calendar.
“I don’t have any big complicated plans,”said Leach, who is retiring after 30 years as a judicial assistant. “I’m going to do a little traveling, a little gardening, a lot of relaxing, taking it easy and not being rushed. I might even have time to clean out my icebox. I’m just going to enjoy life — that’s what I’m going to do.”
Leach spent almost 25 years as judicial assistant to Judge Henry Martin Jr.
When Martin retired, she became judicial assistant to Judge Charles Mitchell Jr., where she has worked for five and a half years.
“I worked for Linda for about 25 years and she was a tough taskmaster,” said Martin. “But we got through those 25 years and I think Linda is the finest person that I could have worked with during that length of time.”
“It’s going to be tough,” said Mitchell. “I don’t even know a lot of the things Linda does for me because she uses such good judgment. I’m going to miss her a lot. I also think I’ve been fortunate enough to have the best judicial assistant in the courthouse for a long time.”
Though she is saying goodbye to the legal community, Leach is taking plenty of good memories with her.
“I have enjoyed every minute of it,” she said. “It’s never been like coming to work. It has been coming to socialize with all of my friends, the attorneys. I’ve felt like I have been around friends the whole entire time. It’s been delightful.”
Helen O’Steen, who has worked at the courthouse for eight years, will take over for Leach as Mitchell’s judicial assistant.
“She has been sitting with me for two mornings a week for several months, so she is already working for him,” said Leach.
Judicial assistants schedule hearings, set the judicial calendar and assist attorneys.
“It’s different than it used to be,” said Leach. “When I first came to work here, we typed all the orders. As soon as the attorney finished his hearing he would come out and dictate the order to the secretary [judicial assistant] and then we would do all the orders from that morning. Now they do it themselves.”
Through the years, Leach has watched the legal community grow.
“It has gotten a lot bigger,” said Leach. “When I first came to work here, there wasn’t that many attorneys. You ended up knowing everybody by name and unfortunately now, there are so many new attorneys that you don’t learn their names right off and you don’t get to know them as well because of that.”
Her first taste of the legal community was working as a legal secretary at Dawson, Galant, Maddox, Sulik, Boyer & Nichols for eight years.
“I had no legal experience when I went to work for them. I didn’t know a plaintiff from a defendant,” she said. “I enjoyed working for them, but when I heard that Judge Martin was looking for a secretary — we weren’t called judicial assistants back then — I came over and applied and he hired me. Thirty years later, I’m leaving.
“I never wanted to be anything except what I am — a good secretary and that’s the truth,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed it and it came natural to me.”
With all the changes downtown, including a new county courthouse, Leach isn’t worried about missing it.
“I think we probably do need a new courthouse with more courtrooms,” she said. “Part of me wishes that it had happened while I was still here so I could see it, but I’m sure I will be back to visit friends and see it when it is built. Other than that, I probably won’t come downtown a lot except to visit.”