B.J. Knapp of Poplar Bluff believes anything is possible.
Married with two daughters, a full-time job as a legal secretary and paralegal and no college degree, Knapp’s ambition was to become an attorney. Her dream became a reality last month when she was sworn into the bar by 36th Circuit Court Presiding Judge Michael Pritchett.
“This dream has been going on for seven years and it finally become a reality,” Knapp said. “Now it’s here, it is surreal.”
Knapp clerked for a judge in Boise, Idaho, before relocating to Poplar Bluff where she became a legal secretary and paralegal for local law firms.
Several different factors opened her eyes to law school.
“One of them, I saw the legal secretary side, and I always wanted to see what actually happened in the courtroom,” she said.
She was working for Moore, Walsh & Albright LLP when they allowed her go to a murder trial in which the suspect was acquitted.
Walsh explained, “She was very much involved in the preparations. She got the bug on that case.”
When Walsh opened his own firm Walsh Law Firm LLC, Knapp went to work for him.
Knapp admitted, “I think it’s fair enough to say yes” the case influenced her to go to law school.
“I had no college,” she said. “I started at Three Rivers. In 2016 I got my two-year degree. Then I went to Hannibal LaGrange University through Three Rivers while working full time, raising two children and being married. Then in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, I started law school in Carbondale. I had an apartment, I’d stay there five days and come home on the weekends to be with my family.”
One daughter was in high school and the other at Arkansas State University studying nursing when Knapp headed to law school.
“When I decided to go back to school, we sat down with the girls and we told them the commitment it would take, the things it’s possible I would miss. Together as a family, we all agreed that was the best thing to do. They knew how passionate I was about it. We always supported each other no matter what. It’s still that way today,” she said
Today, older daughter Sydney is a registered nurse and younger daughter Mackenzie is in esthetician school at ASU. Her husband Richard is a Poplar Bluff police officer.
While Knapp was earning her associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, Walsh said, “She would actively be in the courtroom with me and would go into chambers to make strikes for cause. I remember they made me identify everybody, because she wasn’t an attorney of record. I would treat her just like a lawyer in the courtroom. I’d ask her ‘any more question I need to ask this witness,’ you know, things like that.”
Knapp said, “Steve always encouraged me.”
Concerned about being away from her family, Knapp was careful where she applied to law school.
“Carbondale was the only one I applied to because it was relatively close. I couldn’t go to Columbia and still have a family. I think that would have been too difficult. I got in the first time that I tried,” she said.
Walsh said, “Can you imagine going to Carbondale at age 38, let alone away from your daughters, away from your husband and not really sure what you’re facing? She called me after the first week and said, ‘Steve, I’m not doing well. I tell you. I don’t know if I can stay here.’ Of course, we encouraged her. The schools don’t give feedback. It’s a whole other world. “
After working diligently to be admitted to law school, Knapp added, “School is difficult. I was able to do it. I was one of the only older students, I put myself out there to a couple of younger ones I kind of related to (who were) my daughter’s age. There was a couple that really just took me in and was willing to keep me around, I suppose. I was definitely the mother figure amongst our group, to which I had no problems.”
While in law school, she was able to do an externship with Walsh’s firm and earn college credit, which she and Walsh described as “a win-win situation.”
Knapp graduated in May, took the bar exam in July and got her results in September.
Walsh said, “I’m delighted to have her as an associate because I know how talented and focused she is. She has a great work ethic. I let her do a deposition the week before she passed the bar, which we can do. She did great. She will be a force to be reckoned with.”
Knapp is drawn to criminal defense and personal injury and civil rights violations cases Walsh does.
Knapp had a word of advice for anyone, especially women, planning to go into a career from square one. “I would say no matter what age you are, no matter what your education is, as long as you have your family and friends to support you, anything is possible.”