I worked at a small general practice firm that handled a majority of family law and criminal cases with a few real estate transactions and civil suits. My responsibilities and duties as a legal intern varied from writing memorandums of law and doing basic legal research to shadowing different attorneys in the courtrooms and conferences. I was a little nervous at first when the head of the firm, my boss, told me that I was going to be partaking in a lot of legal writing, but he assured me that being thrown right into the mix was the best way of learning and the firm was happy to answer any questions I had. They basically treated me like a summer associate, constantly handing me work to finish that on more than one occasion piled up to the point where I had to turn it down.
Working at the firm was a great experience. It was a small firm with only 5 attorneys, so the atmosphere was very relaxed. There were days when it got a little hectic but overall everybody seemed happy to work there and most of the time the office was empty by 5 pm.
My first assignment was to do research for a family court appeal regarding the custody rights of an 8 year old boy. I give a lot of credit to the attorneys that practice family law. My experience with the cases handled by the firm has definitely influenced me into considering practicing any type of law other than family law. The cases and clients get very emotional and somewhat depressing and I could see myself getting too emotionally attached to one case or another. It was hard to discern between a hard working mother who has just had a bad run of luck and a dead beat parent who could not and would not take care of her children. Depending on who the client was, it would not matter either way, because you have to represent the best interests of your client and not the other parties whether the other party is the child or not.
Besides the dismal family law cases, I also worked on a couple criminal cases, which involved a motion to reduce a sentence and a conference with the DA, who I got to reduce a sentence from a large fine and community service, with possible jail time to an ACOD. An ACOD is an acquittal in contemplation of dismissal. Basically, if the person doesn’t get in trouble for a period of six months the charge is taken off their record, so it was a big accomplishment for me. I also wrote a couple memorandums of law which, after they were read over and edited by my boss, were submitted to the court
If you haven’t worked in a law firm before, regardless of the size, you will be quite surprised coming out of your first year of law school. First year classes are for the most part doctrinal and are based mainly on theory. This is far from actual practice, where the cases, to the extent I found, were pretty one-sided, and if you were on the short side you had to convince the other side it was cheaper to settle or argue a procedural error. Despite the drastic contrast between the real world and law school, I found it is easy to make the transition. My legal practice skills class was the most helpful. Basic skills in research and legal writing are the main tools needed for a summer internship and ultimately a career in the law.
The job also had some perks. My boss would, on more than occasion, take me out to lunch or for drinks after work. I was also invited to many local business mixers where I was able to network and meet people in other firms and different businesses. I was also connected with the New York Bar Association at the 70th anniversary of its Young Lawyers Section …