WORKING: CONVERSATIONS WITH ESSENTIAL WORKERS BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE COURT SYSTEM

Written by Dan Lawton^*

Inspired by Studs Terkel’s 1972 masterpiece Working, which rang out the voices of workers from all walks of life who described what they did all day and how they felt about their work, we decided to talk to some of the essential workers in the court system. This is the third of an occasional series of interviews in which people who are not lawyers or judges talk about the work they do behind the scenes in the court system. In this article, Dan Lawton interviews Robert Porambo, whose work as a process server led to a lucrative attorney services business.

Of all the types of people who might turn up on your doorstep, the one for whom you feel the least warmth is the process server. He arrives, often without warning, bearing a summons, subpoena, or writ. Whatever resides within the envelope he hands you is almost surely bad news, or at the least unwanted news, to you or your client.

So how does Robert Porambo maintain such a sunny disposition? If dealing with masses of people who don’t want to see you in the first place gets him down, he hides it well.