Twenty-four-year-old Mikala L. Holt, Esq., ’19, doesn’t like to waste time as she pursues her goals. “When I first visited Husson during an Open House, I was planning on pursuing a four-year Bachelor of Science in paralegal studies,” said Holt, an associate attorney at Boothby, Silver & Ricker, LLC in Turner, Maine with a satellite office in Farmington. “Then, John Michaud, the director of the legal studies program, talked about a 3+3 program. That’s where students study at Husson for three years and then transfer to Maine Law’s three-year Juris Doctor (JD) program.” Completing a year of Maine Law’s JD program satisfies any outstanding requirements for Husson’s pre-law bachelors’ degree."It sounded great to me. So my first day at Husson, I switched from paralegal studies to the legal studies pre-law program. With year-round studies and some great academic advising from Associate Professor Maggie Campbell, JD, I was able to complete my Husson pre-law degree in just two years with only two-and-a-half additional years at Maine Law.”
Holt's primary practice areas include estate planning, estate administration, guardianship and conservatorship representation. Looking back, Holt attributes her interest in becoming a lawyer to an experience she had when she was 15. “Back then, my grandmother, who I was very close to, was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer. At that time, I was vacillating between going into oncology or becoming an attorney.
"Then, Attorney L. Clinton Boothby came to my grandparents’ home and consulted with my family. He’s now my boss. The way he made our family feel and the help he provided in our hour of need made a big impression on me. Six months later, I reached out to Clint and asked him if I could job shadow him for a day, just to make sure that becoming an attorney was reallywhat I wanted. As you can imagine, law and medicine are very different careers.”
“I went in and he offered me an internship for the summer. I was 16 at the time. By the end of the summer, I knew I wanted to become an attorney.”
Holt now has the career she always wanted. “I come from Livermore, Maine - a pretty small town. Our community is very close knit. When something happens to a family in the community, or the community at large, we all rally together and help one another. I love being a part of that. Livermore is part of who I am. It makes me happy to give back and help my neighbors anyway I can.”