Paralegal Division Member Keen to Make a Difference in Beaufort and Beyond

May 29, 2025

Bonnie Keen, a native of Beaufort, is enthusiastic about the legal field, and what she brings to it as a paralegal. Given her last name, it is no surprise that diving deep into legal research energizes her. A central aim of Keen’s is to assist firms and clients across the state by improving workflows and processes, thereby opening up more time and resources for attorneys.

Because two of her passions are learning and researching, she has created a career path for herself in which she can do both. This March, Keen joined the North Carolina Department of Justice as a paralegal in the Medicaid Investigations Division. Outside her role with the State, she operates Lighthouse Paralegal Services, her freelance virtual paralegal business, which she launched in 2023.

Beyond her day job and her freelance work, Keen is interested in promoting the profession and exploring the world around her. She is an active member of the NCBA Paralegal Division and has published articles for the NCBarBlog on work-life balance and wellness and ethical considerations regarding social media use. When she is not working or volunteering, she enjoys being active in Beaufort. Keen is an avid horseback rider and enjoys riding horses with her two children. She takes in the beauty of the region by spending time out on the water.

Keen likes to learn all she can about the law, but she did not begin her career with the legal field in mind. It was something she happened upon through her hands-on experience working with the State. Her love for learning about the world around her has always been a driving force; her secondary interest is understanding technological processes. While attending East Carolina University, she majored in applied geography with a concentration in environmental science, and as part of the program, learned mapping software.

After beginning her career by using her mapping software skills, she branched out to other areas in search of the right field for her. In 2008, she was working in federal grant work related to her expertise in geography when she began to think about taking a different direction in her career. That was the year, she recalls, when layoffs began to occur. As she witnessed people losing their jobs, she began to assess what might be best for her future.

Over the next few years, she tried different roles, including those in management, until she began a position in the clerk’s office in Carteret County, her home county, in 2012, a role in which she would remain until 2020.

As a newly minted deputy court clerk, Keen was trained to work in traffic court and then superior court. She found her days to be fascinating because of the different types of cases, the processes involved and the opportunities to learn more about the legal system.

In 2019, after seven years as a clerk, she began the paralegal certification program at Johnston Community College. It was a natural move to make – one she was excited about.

“I thought after all the different courts I’ve worked in and all the different people, I found a lot of good mentors, judges and attorneys. And I saw myself finding things in common with the way that they think. I thought that becoming a paralegal would be a good thing for me,” said Keen. “So I took the classes, and I loved learning.”

At the time, she didn’t know about the paralegal certification exam, but once she did, that didn’t stop her from taking it and becoming a certified paralegal. She was so intrigued by the law that at one point, she considered going to law school. Because she had a young child at the time, she decided that a career as a paralegal was the best route for her.

During her final semester of the certification program, she became an assistant at the District Attorney’s office before joining a family law firm in her first paralegal role.

Now, she couldn’t be more thrilled with the direction her career has taken.

“It’s just been amazing with all of the different people I’ve met and everything I’ve learned,” said Keen. “I love learning new things, and I’m always reading all the resources, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, and new cases and appeals. I find that to be interesting.”

With eight years of experience as a clerk, she recalls many highlights, such as strengthening her ability to work with different audiences, to be adaptable and to maintain a sense of humor in moments that were challenging or where others were feeling a sense of stress.

But most of all, she felt she built a strong foundation for her future career as a paralegal, and for what she would accomplish in founding her business.

“I learned to be resilient in each kind of environment and with every type of courtroom or case that was handled. There were confidential aspects in some cases. In others, there were very emotional people in the courtroom and difficult personalities to deal with. I handled working with judges who expected different things. I think that’s what I loved about it.

“I learned that I’m very resilient to the different types of things I needed to adjust to. I think it most importantly was a way to know that everybody is going through different things, whether it’s the staff in the courtroom or the people showing up for the court cases, everybody is interpreting things differently. There’s a level of compassion that you need to have. I’ve just always felt that in helping people.”

Keen says the role was eye-opening and helped her to be patient. She continued to draw on the skills she had developed as a clerk and took them forward into her work as a family law paralegal. During these years, she realized she was keen to bring her paralegal skills together with her background to help firms across the state.

“For about a couple of years before I started my business, I just always thought, I’m helping one office, but I’ve got all these skills I’ve learned in other counties. I’ve got all these references. There was always this thought in the back of my mind – there’s got to be some way I can help more than one office,” she said.

As Keen started to research how to create a paralegal business, she was inspired by others who had paved the way. She discovered Jacqueline Foster, who informs others about setting up a business plan. LinkedIn was a valuable resource, where she found mentors to talk with who gave her the tools she needed to get started.

She set up her freelance business and began subcontracting in September 2023. At first, she worked with people in different states. As she worked with these clients, she learned how to do workflows. Then she added more clients in North Carolina, clients she met through her connections in the clerk’s office.

“I would be contacted by one of the attorneys in a county I had worked in, and it is important that you have that personal kind of relationship where that person recognizes or remembers you,” she said.

One of the most rewarding facets of her business is being able to assist attorneys with tasks, so that they have more time available.

“Whether you’re doing project work or helping office procedures, there’s just so many things attorneys need help with. The main thing about it is, I thought about my colleagues that I’ve met along the way, and even friends I have who are attorneys, and they’re fully booked and slammed and trying to work overtime and trying to catch up. They can’t have family dinners every weeknight because they’re always having to do the overload work of what’s left over in the office after the staff leaves at five,” she said.

“But the freelance paralegal comes in and can take that caseload.”

Approximately twenty percent of her tasks over the last two years have been paralegal work, she says, such as typing motions and dealing with discovery. The other parts have involved reviewing documents for the NC Driver’s License Restoration Project, helping other clients with invoices, organizing documents, billing, and assisting with project management and procedures. She finds that she can help attorneys with time management.

Although there have been challenges along the way, the rewards have outnumbered them.

“At first, the challenges for me were figuring out what I wanted to do because I kind of took on a little bit of everything to figure out how I wanted to be, and what kind of work I wanted to do as a freelance paralegal. I learned how to program workflows with case law software. I’m glad I did that because I think it helped for future knowledge and knowing how things work, like with different software programs and new technology.

“Everything I’ve done has always come back to me tenfold. You’re going to have ups and downs, but I can definitely say it was always a lot, a lot of good learning. Learning and researching are two of the things that really drive you. Sometimes now, I’ll get something I’ve never done before, and I’ve been able so far to figure out what was asked and turn in a good product.”

Now, while working her full-time role with the State, she will continue to take on some clients as part of her freelance business. She anticipates expanding the depth of her knowledge. She says that freelancing can provide opportunities to build important skills.

“I think freelancing can really help you to learn a lot of different things that can contribute to a good position, if you also want to have a W2 position.”

At the same time, she says there are some ethical obligations paralegals should be aware of if they are interested in working in a full-time role and freelancing.

“You have to make sure that you’re paying attention to any conflict of interest and give full disclosure. I had a new person recently with my business, and as soon as I took my position for the State, I said, I can’t deal with anything when it comes to this, this and this. I want to gear my business toward project management and nothing to do with health care,” she said. “I think that for me, it’ll probably have to be more workflow based or office processes and maybe helping to create some of those for people.”

Even with a full schedule, Keen has taken time to provide resources to other paralegals, whether that is through writing blog posts or providing information to other paralegals who might be interested in freelancing. She enjoys connecting with others in the profession through the Paralegal Division, which has broadened her understanding of the profession.

“North Carolina means so much to me, and I love being able to give back by being a member of the NCBA and communicating with others in my field,” she said.

“It’s nice that the other people are putting out articles and talking about what kind of work they’re doing. It’s like, wow, I didn’t even know we could do all that, or that pertains to law in this way. There’s so many different areas of law. It’s a way that we can all discuss different issues and topics and how things are contributing. It’s another learning resource and a good way to socially keep in touch.”

When asked what drives her to share information with others, Keen says it is because she wants to create opportunities for others, who will, in turn, benefit their clients.

“Most importantly, I think that we should teach people who want to do this and provide the information so that it’s kind of a leadership role. I think that you should teach others how to do what you’re doing. There’s still so much work out there that is needed. The market for freelancing is not even nearly over saturated,” she said.

What advice would she give to paralegals who are interested in establishing their own freelance business?

Beginning with people you know is helpful.

“If you’ve been there to gather the contacts and the references for judicial officials, attorneys, paralegals, start talking to these people, even if you worked with them in the past. When you start expressing that idea, at least for me, I got pointed in the right direction. I got good advice and found good mentors who helped me. There’s a lot now on LinkedIn that you can find about doing the business, but just by starting with the people, you may end up getting your business from that,” she said.

“Keep working your regular job. Start it on the side, and then you’ll have references from the people you’ve done work for, and you might even get full-time work from those clients sooner than you think. You have all the power because you’ve got your business. You know how to keep it going, and it’s just going to grow from there.

“There are some people who might be like, that might be a good idea for my office. Would you talk to me more about it? If it’s something that you can provide, you’re giving them their time back. Everybody wants their time.”

Paralegals who freelance can contribute to the good of the profession, but they must first have the courage to try.

“It takes a certain degree of brave ability to put yourself out there, and a lot of people you know can discourage the idea, but those aren’t your people. Everybody has a different set of people or type of law or type of work that they want to do,” she said.

Through her professional experiences, Keen has taken a deep dive into the law while also assisting clients in becoming more efficient. Her example is inspiring, and her enthusiasm is inviting. She models what can be accomplished when a person asks, “What can I do to make a difference?”

---

Jessica Junqueira is communications manager for the North Carolina Bar Association.

---