Lawyers

Later in the week, we met several attorneys who specialized in different fields. On Thursday, we met Mr. Bailey and several of his colleagues. He worked in a firm that focused on mortgages and foreclosures. We got to meet with him and his colleagues, and here him argue for his case in court. Fortunately, the judge was already favorable to his side and ended up combining this case with the other foreclosure case, ending Mr. Bailey's involvement in the case. One of the more interesting aspects of seeing that court case was that the two other attorneys were phoned in for a conference call. On TV, attorneys always argue their case in person, so it was interesting to see an alternative to the traditional in-person approach.

On Friday, we met another lawyer named Ms. Halstead. She worked in last will and testament law and estate law, meaning that she helped people write their wills and solve issues in dividing a deceased person's assets. In addition, she works on charities, and explained the differences between a public charity and a family foundation in terms of the law and the tax code. This was fascinating to hear about because law is often thought to be only in the courtroom, but in fact it affects many aspects of life.

During our internship, we also worked with attorneys at the Gina Mendola Law Office. They are an all female law firm (now with one male) who work on civil rights and discrimination cases. While we were there, the attorneys had us review two discrimination cases and write down all the documents needed from the other side during discovery. It was really interesting to see how the actual process of law worked, since every lawyer who takes on a case has to go through that same process of discovery.