MEMBER VOIR DIRE - katelyn schaffer (ottawa)

BY AGNES JURY (MASON)

KATELYN SCHAFFER (OTTAWA)

For the spring newsletter, we meet RAM’s new member and Ottawa County Referee Katelyn A. Schaffer.
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Katelyn has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Grand Valley State University. She began her legal education at Michigan State University College of Law. During her legal studies, Katelyn took an interest in the effectiveness of alternate dispute resolution. She began pursuing this line of work by receiving civil and domestic mediation certifications and mediating both civil and domestic cases through MSU’s Conflict Resolution Clinic in courts throughout East Lansing, Charlotte, Mason, and Holland.

Finding a passion for helping people through mediation, Katelyn took a nontraditional path by accepting a full-time position at Ottawa County Friend of the Court as a Friend of the Court Investigator while still attending law school. After graduating and passing the Bar Exam, Katelyn began representing clients as an associate attorney at Bank Rifkin (where she also clerked during law school). Her dedication to addressing complex family law issues now continues as a domestic relations Referee. To date, Katelyn’s proudest moment as a lawyer, and a very hard but rewarding experience, was successfully trying a contested change of custody/domicile motion with her former colleague Erica Brown. 

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Like most practicing attorneys, her advice for someone who is considering law school is “Don’t do it. Just kidding”. Katelyn would encourage prospective law students to think about what aspects of the law they are drawn to and to find a mentor. Katelyn wishes people knew that in the practice of family law, the truth is always stranger than fiction. She has a lot of crazy stories, many of which she unfortunately can’t share with us.
 
Also like most people, Katelyn wishes someone would invent a teleportation device already. Until then, if money were no object, she would never drive and would have a personal driver in a big SUV with a strong WIFI connection. Otherwise, her choice of superpower would be to be able to fly.
 
Katelyn manages the stress of practicing family law by spending time on Instagram and Facebook (including repeatedly laughing at the zoom hearing where one attorney had a cat filter on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOofzZOyl8) and loving on her pets. She has a 3-year-old Pitbull/Australian cattle dog/boxer mix named Rosie and a 14-year-old short haired cat named Zooey.
 
What you will not see Katelyn “enjoy” doing is yard work, cooking, or most domestic chores.  If she could have dinner with any three people it would be Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Serena Williams, and Meryl Streep.  If she could trade places with someone, it would be Taylor Swift, or Coco Gauff.
 
Katelyn’s happiest childhood memories are around a tennis court with her family and her most treasured material possession is her GLIAC tennis championship ring that she earned  being a part of the dream 31-1 varsity tennis team at GVSU. Playing or coaching tennis is her favorite hobby which she would like to continue doing into her 90s (even if at a snail’s pace). So, it does not come as a surprise that Katelyn’s favorite place to spend money is The Tennis and Golf Company, her favorite place to hang out is at any tennis club or wine tasting room and her alternative dream career would have been an anchor on the Tennis Channel. If time travel was possible, Katelyn would tell her 16-year-old self that everything works out in time, so to enjoy the present moment. When Katelyn gets nervous or stressed, she often repeats the following lines from the book “Peace in Every Step” by Thich Nhat Hanh: “Breathing in I calm my mind, breathing out I smile.”
 
Please welcome Katelyn to RAM. We all look forward to meeting you soon!