Kristel Enriquez – Legal Assistant Litigation and Aviation Regulations

Hello, I’m Kristel. My name is derived from “crystal” which means clear and transparent.

Born in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, I spent about 27 years of my life in this fast paced city. It’s filled with all the hustle and bustle you could imagine in city living, from traffic to sheer volume of people, and what they call the concrete jungle… it’s all in there.

I was raised in an average family. My Dad works as an Assistant Manager in a logistics company, and my Mom is a housewife – raising and caring for my two brothers and I. Yes, you read it right! Two brothers, and I am the only girl (I am the eldest). Being the eldest I was tasked to take care of them… and those two always run when they hear the word “chores”. LOL

As I grew older, I realized that it’s not always me needing to look after them. My brothers are there for me – to protect me, offer to drive me to work… and even help to look after my kids!

Now with a family of my own, I am raising 3 active, happy kids. And when I say ‘active’, they could turn our once clean house into complete chaos within ten minutes! Okay, I’ll admit it’s not always like that. 🙂 They are now starting to become independent, spending more time in school and as the saying goes: soon the nest will be empty… they will need me less and I’ll be just here when they need me. And in the meantime, I will just enjoy the moment, watch them grow and guide them.

Reading my title as a Legal Assistant for Litigation and Aviation Regulations, who would have thought that my degree is very far from what I’ve become!

I obtained a degree in Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management in a catholic private school. A brief background on my degree: it is a course that involves the study and application of practical and managerial knowledge and functions such as hotel and restaurant operations, culinary arts, and food service.

I worked briefly in a fast food chain as a Management Trainee which is in line with my course. But when opportunities in the airline industry opened for me, it was the starting point where I gained knowledge in legal matters.

At first, the airline company told me that there is no job open for me in the In-flight Department, so they offered me the position of Legal Assistant. I had zero idea of what it entailed, but I was very grateful for the trust they put in me and for believing that I could handle the work.

Every single employee, lawyer, consultant was puzzled on how I landed the job of Legal Assistant after they quizzed me about what degree I held. I would simply handle their puzzlement with: “What connects my nearly impossible to qualify college degree and my job is passion and finding a new perspective in any opportunity that opens for me.”

I started from scratch in this field. Taking little steps from personal assistant tasks such as preparing travel itineraries, organizing appointments and coordinating court hearing schedules, and working my way up through the ranks to drafting Pre-trial Briefs, reviewing Affidavits and gathering pertinent documents for Formal Offer of Evidence.

I’ve experienced a variety of responsibilities, positions and tasks throughout my career, but if you asked me what the toughest thing I experienced was, I would have to say the possibility of retrenchment and how it affected my colleagues. The airline company I was working for was sadly forced to reduce its number of employees due to economic difficulty. When it hit the Legal Department I was not prepared to consider changing to another department because I considered the Legal Department my family. The prospect of losing my job was painful and I kept telling myself “There might be a new perspective and opportunity after this” because I already had plans of going to law school. Fortunately, my boss was able to defend the importance of my job and I survived the retrenchment wave.

Fast forward to today…

I’m a Mom and after taking a break from the corporate world to look after my kids, I am ready to work again. I am looking to team up with dynamic people and find new opportunities as Virtual Assistant. I am positive that with my years of physical work experience as a Legal Assistant, and passion to connect with any task handed to me, I can be an essential part of your team.

For a copy of Kristel’s resume please click here.