Law School Summer Programs: U.S. Attorney’s Office
This past summer, I had the fantastic opportunity to spend ten weeks working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida. I had tremendous opportunities to gain hands-on experience and take on substantial responsibility even with only one year of law school experience. Further, fighting white collar crime in my hometown community, recently dubbed the nation’s “mortgage fraud capital,” was extremely rewarding.
The Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office have awesome programs each summer that are very popular with students. I chose to go to a smaller office (only seven Assistant U.S. Attorneys) and work in its white-collar division, where I worked on a wide variety of cases including tax evasion, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. Additionally, I had the opportunity to work on drug-trafficking, immigration, civil litigation, and human-trafficking cases. Working in a smaller office was very unique as I spent a tremendous amount of one-on-one time with a small group of attorneys and still had the opportunity to work on high-profile cases. Over the course of the summer, I even had three of my very own pre-indictment cases to manage and worked with the federal agencies investigating these cases, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Secret Service.
Another great thing about working at the U.S. Attorney’s Office was the amount of time I spent in courtrooms throughout the summer. The Assistant U.S. Attorneys were great about bringing my fellow-interns and me to court as often as possible, and it was not uncommon for us to be in court four or five times a day. Further, in just ten weeks I had the opportunity to participate in three trials—which can take years in the private sector to do. In one particular trial I even had the opportunity to create jury exhibits for a money laundering trial to show how the money flowed through the scheme, in addition to numerous motions and research memorandums over the course of the internship.
Being a “Fed” for the summer was more valuable in terms of experience and job satisfaction than I can explain; it felt great waking up every morning to go (help) enforce justice and the law. Additionally, I was able to learn valuable trial strategy and the importance of prosecutorial ethics from my field supervisor Doug Molloy—Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney of the Fort Myers Division and legendary prosecutor in South Florida (see the original Miami Vice). Additionally, because of the great SPIF program at HLS, the school subsidizes expenses for students who spend their summer doing public interest work—including working at the Department of Justice or U.S. Attorney’s Office.
For those who have not considered public interest work, it is very rewarding and I highly recommend the program. Whether you want to go into the public or private legal sector, a summer at the U.S. Attorney’s Office can be outstanding training for your career.
[thanks to ktylerconk and hls in focus via cc]
Go to Lunch With Your Law Professor: Get Personal
I always find my professors a little intimidating the first couple of weeks of class before I get to know them a little better. I’m especially afraid of them when they use the Socratic method…but this semester I got a head start. My secured transactions professor offered to take us out to lunch in small groups and put out a sign up sheet the very first class. A couple of friends and I decided to take him up on his offer and went out with him last Wednesday after class. The day that we were scheduled to go out to lunch with him, our Professor started class by saying how disappointed he was in us as a group. I thought he was going to say something about us not understanding the material or something but instead he said that no one had signed up for lunch with him for the rest of the semester. I felt relieved and glad that he really wanted us to sign up for lunch with him. Professor Kaufmann insisted that we had to pick the restaurant so of course we went with Thai food, our favorite. We walked to 9 Tastes in Harvard Square.
The walk over was full of small talk and long awkward pauses because none of us knew what to ask or say at first. About halfway there we came to an understanding that we would just alternate asking questions. By the time we got to 9 Tastes we knew what everyone was doing for the summer and that our professor had clerked for Justice Rehnquist on the Supreme Court. Our conversation in the restaurant was much less awkward. We slowly became more and more comfortable talking. Professor Kaufmann told us how he came to write a biography of Justice Cardozo, what the law school was like forty years ago, and how he came to teach secured transactions. We got to know our professor on a more personal level as well, which was really nice.
I sometimes forget that my professors are people who go home after work and have normal lives. I find that my professors intimidate me less the moment after they mention a child or spouse in an anecdote they tell in class. So getting to know my professors helps me to get over my fear of the Socratic method, which Professor Kaufmann definitely loves to use, and just focus on learning the material rather than freak out because I might be called on next. I definitely think the rest of my class should take advantage and sign up for lunch as soon as possible. Teachers who have been around as long as Professor Kaufmann have a lot of wisdom to share and not taking advantage of that seems just silly.
[thanks to nicmcphee and hls in focus via cc]
Law School Dress Code: Jeans & T-Shirts or Suits & Tie?
The first time this concept occurred to me, I was packing my bags for law school and my mother was staring at my clothes as I packed them. I asked her what was wrong and all she did was ask me whether that was all the clothes I was going to take with me. I said that of course it was because I had just packed all the clothes I owned. She looked at me in disbelief and said, “Don’t you know where you are going? You need to take some dress clothes.” She refused to believe that my jeans, t-shirts and sweatshirts were going to do the job. I didn’t really want to argue so we went to the store to buy some more “professional-looking” clothes. The first few days of orientation it was humid in Cambridge, so I didn’t need my “professional” clothes then. When classes started, I tried to wear slacks and collared shirts but after a while I noticed that not many other people were wearing anything fancier than jeans and polos or blouses. I decided to push the more “work-like” clothing to the back of my closet and get back to my more comfortable clothing.
Although I had returned to my more normal attire, I didn’t stop paying attention to what everyone was wearing so that I wouldn’t slip up and find myself completely underdressed. After a while, though, I stopped worrying about it because I realized that people were all over the board. Male students tend to wear jeans or khakis and polo shirts. Female students tend to have more variation. In my section, there were a few women who definitely shared my mother’s mentality. They came to class everyday with perfectly coordinated outfits and nail polish that matched their lipstick. Then there were people like me who generally didn’t wear makeup and only wore jeans and sweaters to class. Toward the end of the semester a friend of mine and I even started to wear sweats to our 8 a.m. property class because we routinely went to the gym together after class.
It wasn’t until the middle of the spring semester of that year that I thought about the subject again. I was sitting down with a group of people for lunch in the Hark. Somehow we ended up talking about clothes. I think someone said that they didn’t like wearing t-shirts and then suddenly another student from my section saw his opening and let us all know how he felt about the way students dress at HLS. I know he isn’t the only one that believes people should try a little harder when they are getting ready in the morning, but he went as far as saying he believed there should be a dress code. “This is professional school,” he exclaimed, “people should be dressing like professionals.” His plan involved a ban on jeans, sweatshirts and t-shirts. As someone who loves to be able to wear her gym clothes to class (and no, I’m not the only one), I have to say that I’m glad there isn’t a dress code here. I do applaud this guy though, I have never seen him wear gym shoes to class and I have never seen him without a collar.
Rest assured there is no dress code at HLS. I think people feel pretty comfortable wearing whatever they want and I don’t think that anyone ever looks out of place. On any given day there will be one person wearing a suit to class and another who looks ready for the gym. If you’re like me, you shouldn’t worry too much about buying special new clothes just to come to law school. You should just come with whatever makes you feel comfortable.
[thanks to ed yourdon and hls in focus via cc]
