Isabel Aiello is a good listener. She has to be.

As a civilian paralegal at the Coast Guard First District legal office in Boston, she answers calls every day from Coast Guard members in trouble. Her job is not to judge or to punish, but to listen and interpret the service's complex legal policies.

Most days, she is in her small office surrounded by manila folders, with a phone to her ear in one hand and taking notes with the other. When people call her office she listens carefully. She said she often hears apprehension in their voices, a sign they are in some sort of trouble.

"When you're in the military and you hear ‘legal office', you automatically think M.J. (military justice)," she said, and in the minds of many, that translates to punishment.

"Legal issues are not always fun," said Ben McCarty, the district legal assistance attorney and Aiello's boss. He said the major goal of the legal office is to help people.

But like Aiello, when trying to gather facts, he faces the same reluctance from them.

McCarty said he's repeatedly witnessed Aiello's natural ability to help people relax and open up.

"There would be times they just wouldn't want to talk to me directly," he said. "But by bringing her in [to the room] we were able to get the information we needed.

Aiello said her secret is simple. She approaches every case with an open mind and attentive ear. She hears dozens of stories of people in need. One common story is of service men and women who mismanage money.

"You see some young 21 or 22-year-old petty officer who came in to the Coast Guard right out of high school and they go out and get a car loan for some $600 a month." Which is usually far outside their means, she said.

Aiello said she's convinced military money problems like this could be less if members received debt education at basic training.

And when it comes to helping them with money, she's not just talking the talk.

Every year, Aiello does dozens of tax returns for members for free. Aiello said doing tax returns doesn't fix anyone's debt issues, but it does make life easier and less worrisome for them.

"Money complicates things," she said. Especially in today's American culture where young people spend just to blend in, she said. "It's keeping up with the Jones's."

She grew up with a different perspective. Trying to be as good as the neighbors was not a priority for her family. Her parents were from Sicily and Ecuador and were some of the only immigrants in her Rochester, NY neighborhood.

Aiello describes her parents as hard working, humble and "simple people," and growing up, she said it seemed they were sometimes taken advantage of because of it.

She recounts when her father hired a plumber to replace the lead pipes in their home with copper. After verbally agreeing on a price, the plumber finished and presented them with a bill much bigger than settled on.

"He practically robbed my dad," she said. Not wanting to make trouble, he paid the large fee. Seeing simple people taken advantage of is what compelled Aiello to study law.

She got her juris doctorate degree from the New England School of Law, and soon after was hired by the Middlesex County Sheriff's office, where she worked as a legal assistant to inmates. She later became a legal analyst for John Hancock Financial Services in Boston.

Wanting to get her feet wet in government experience, Aiello took a position with the Coast Guard at the Regional Exam Center in Boston. There, she helped mariners get their operator licenses. Though it was quite different from her previous jobs, she enjoyed the change of pace. "I loved working there," she said.

When the opportunity arose for her to work at the First District legal office, she said she was thrilled. It was a chance to return to the legal field while staying with an organization she had come to love.

Today, she said she feels at home with the Coast Guard.

"It feels like a family," she said, and as part of it, she feels an obligation.

"If at the end of the day I can go home, and feel like I've helped somebody, I know I've done something good," she said.