Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | September 7, 2026 | wbjournal.com BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor W orcester law firm Mirick is in the midst of an unusual staffing transition: eight longtime employees, nearly all of them non-at- torneys, are retiring within a roughly 18-month window, taking with them a combined total of well over a century of institutional knowledge. e departing staff include Kath- leen Goulet, the firm's human resources manager, who joined Mirick 40 years ago and will have 47 years of tenure by the time she retires; Randall Gomes, a client financial services manager with the firm since 2007; and Carol Corbett, a senior accounting specialist for 19 years. e retirees include several long- time legal support specialists, who have worked alongside the same at- torneys for roughly two decades; and three long-tenured paralegals. "ey're pretty instrumental, and they've been here so long," said Chief Operating Officer Diane Power. "We were always concerned about who's going to succeed them. ey have so much institutional knowledge." Mirick began preparing for this wave of retirements roughly five years ago, said Power and Chief Human Resources Officer Betsy Landry, building on lessons already learned managing attorney succession. "We've been very intentional in the past about planning for the retire- ment of attorneys and really focused on that transition specifically with respect to our clients," Landry said. "We realized we had to take that same type of intentional approach with our non-attorneys, because we had so many key members, particularly of the leadership team, that were going to be retiring." The role of non-attorneys Attorneys tend to draw the spot- light in succession conversations, but paralegals and legal support specialists play a substantial role in client-facing work, Power said. Paralegals conduct legal research, prepare and source documents, sit in on client meetings, and oen serve as the primary point of contact for day-to-day requests. "ey're the right-hand person," Power said. "ey typically have a lot of client contact." Nationally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 376,200 paralegals and legal assistants working in 2024, and projects they will see little net job growth through 2034. ree of Mirick's eight retiring em- ployees are paralegals with institution- al knowledge of specific clients and workloads has built up over roughly two decades each. e retirements arrive amid a broader reshaping of law firm support staffing nationally. Support-staff cost per lawyer at U.S. law firms has been rising even as some traditional support roles have shrunk, according to omson Reuters Institute, while more specialized functions such as knowledge management have grown. e length of service among Mir- ick's retiring employees is far from typical. e median tenure for U.S. wage and salary workers was 3.9 years as of 2024, according to BLS. Even Passing the torch Worcester law firm tackles a wave of successions with strategic planning and an assist from AI PHOTO | MATT WRIGHT Paralegal and legal assistant employment Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment estimates Year Massachusetts United States 2019 6,480 329,870 2020 7,110 332,720 2021 8,430 336,250 2022 7,490 345,240 2023 7,520 355,020 2024 7,520 376,200 F O C U S LAW & ACCOUNTING Mirick professionals (from left) Accounting Specialist Paula Brenneman; Chief Human Resources Officer Betsy Landry; retired senior accounting specialist Carol Corbett; Legal Billing Specialist Stefanie Karapatsas-Hall; Chief Operating Officer Diane Power; retiring Client Financial Services Manager Randall Gomes; and Intake and Records Specialist Peter Bott

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