[1][2] Paulose's parents are Joseph, buildings and grounds superintendent for the Hopkins, Minnesota school district, and Lucy, a software engineer.
[5] Paulose's legal career began in 1997 when she worked as a law clerk under Judge James B. Loken of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
[12] The Chief Judge of the District and the Federal Bar Association honored Paulose as one of the 30 leading Minnesota women history makers.
Paulose has provided legal analysis for various media outlets, including the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, and MSNBC.
[14] On August 3, 2006, while Paulose was serving as interim U.S. Attorney in Minnesota,[5] President George W. Bush[3] sent her nomination to the U.S. Senate, which unanimously confirmed her[4] on December 9, 2006, the last day of the 109th Congress.
Subsequently, Leah McLean of the Minneapolis television station KSTP ran a piece likening it to a "coronation", showing a program that referred to a "processional" and included a U.S. Marine color guard, professional photographer and choir.
[16] Paulose has dismissed the criticism, saying the program KSTP based its report on was inaccurate and had been discarded long before the ceremony, although the color guard and choir were indeed present.
[18] Representatives of government watchdog groups said the donation was inappropriate and that the money spent didn't include the cost to taxpayers of event planning by Paulose's employees.
On April 5, 2007, three of Paulose's top administrators—First Assistant U.S. Attorney John Marti, second in command; civil division head Erika Monzangue and criminal division head James Lackner—voluntarily resigned those positions, reverting to simple assistant U.S. attorney status, reportedly in protest over Paulose's management style.
[23] Paulose's defenders say that three simply had trouble changing their ways to accommodate an aggressive young prosecutor determined to bring the office more into line with the Attorney General's policies, and it had nothing to do with politics.
[24] On April 17, 2007, the Associated Press reported that the House Judiciary Committee had contacted Paulose for voluntary questioning about the "firings of 8 U.S. federal prosecutors"[25] On May 31, the Los Angeles Times wrote that Paulose's predecessor was removed from his post for failing to pursue voter fraud cases that would prevent a significant number of Native Americans in Minnesota from casting ballots in the 2004 election, and that Paulose's appointment stemmed not only from her credentials, but from her work in private law filing "election lawsuits on behalf of the Minnesota GOP".
[7] Minnesota Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten wrote of the event:In a classic campaign of character assassination, the media dinned into our ears the claims of anonymous leakers in Paulose's office.
[28]Paulose is a contributing author for the American Bar Association focusing on Supreme Court cases and a guest writer for the Asian-American Press.