The Art of Being an Advocate
Students Discuss What They Learned, What Surprised Them, and More about Their Summer Work Experiences
Over the summer, Law School students worked at a variety of places, including the US Federal Communications Commission, a human rights NGO based in Tokyo, Japan, and the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. They drafted agreements at law firms, interned for judges, defended indigent clients charged with federal crimes, and much more.
Throughout their summer job experiences, students have the opportunity to forge connections with mentors and peers, strengthen longstanding interests, discover new passions, and gain a deeper understanding of how the law can impact real people. Applying what they have studied in the classroom to real-life cases, students learn what it truly means to be a lawyer.
At the end of the August, we asked a handful of rising second- and third-year law students about how they spent the summer—including what they learned and what surprised them most about their work.
Janelle McGregory, ’23
Where did you work this summer, and what did you do there?
I was the legal intern for Hyatt Hotels Corporation. I had the opportunity to work with a different legal department each week including Operations, Intellectual Property, Privacy, Franchising, Corporate Transactions, Litigation, and Labor and Employment. I researched case law for the operations team on relevant precedent dealing with hospitality related issues. I also got to do a lot of contract work including editing and drafting contracts. One of my favorite parts was being able to sit in on mediations and appellate arguments since I am leaning toward practicing litigation.
What drew you to this opportunity?
I was directed to it by [the Law School’s Office of Career Services]. Before they recommended it to me, I had no idea opportunities like this even existed.
What were some of the most valuable things you learned working in this position?
I learned how to interact with other lawyers daily. I learned how to be more succinct in my writing. I gained more research skills. And I saw how school really does prepare you. CivPro [Civil Procedure class] worked!
How did the Law School help prepare you?
My writing and comprehension skills really carried me through this internship.
What surprised you most about your experience?
How much I learned on a daily basis. Just listening to the lawyers talk, I felt like I was taking in new information every second. It also introduced me to labor and employment law, which was not something I thought I’d be this interested in. I’m definitely adding that to my list of classes I want to take!
If you could give any advice to new law students beginning their summer job searches, what would it be?
Be open to multitudes of opportunities, even if it’s not necessarily something you originally imagined yourself doing.
Chris Musick, ’23
Where did you work this summer, and what did you do there?
This summer, I worked at Human Rights Now in Tokyo, Japan. Human Rights Now is a legal non-governmental organization (NGO) with consultative status with the United Nations. While at the organization, I had two primary responsibilities. First, I drafted written and oral statements for the United Nations Human Rights Council. Second, I contributed to a comparative legal analysis on child sexual abuse material in Japan. Both responsibilities involved researching both factual and legal matters on the cases of human rights abuse.
What drew you to this opportunity?
Coming into law school, I knew I wanted to work in international human rights in some capacity throughout my career. While researching jobs for the summer, I came across the organization as a partner of the school’s International Human Rights Summer Internship Program. While all of the opportunities available were interesting, the global range of topics Human Rights Now offered was particularly fascinating to me.
What were some of the most valuable things you learned working in this position?
One of the most valuable things I learned during my internship was the art of writing as an advocate. Much of 1L writing is focused less on being persuasive to a broader community and more on producing legally sophisticated work. Portraying a narrative was difficult at first, but came more naturally as the summer progressed. Additionally, I learned a great deal about public international law and how nations violate their international obligations. This, too, was valuable, as much of international human rights work involves closing all avenues for offenders to excuse or justify their behaviors.
How did the Law School help prepare you?
The Law School helped prepare me in several ways. The Legal Research and Writing course was invaluable in providing the skills needed to conduct a large amount of my research this summer. Further, the general curriculum and analytic skills honed during 1L allowed me to approach the human rights issues I covered more effectively than I otherwise would have. Finally, the Office of Career Services provided numerous resources on being a solid employee during the 1L summer.
What surprised you most about your experience?
What surprised me most about my experience was learning how many human rights issues are committed out in the open yet have no public visibility. One of the roles of an organization like Human Rights Now is to bring attention to these violations, so much advocacy work is bringing abuses to light. Public pressure is often a better tool than formal complaints about international law violations toward resolving human rights violations. In other words, the law matters, but so does everything else.
If you could give any advice to new law students beginning their summer job searches, what would it be?
Don’t feel pressured to take the 1L job that is the most “prestigious” or pays the best! One of the best things about the 1L summer is that it’s an excellent opportunity to work with an organization you’re sincerely interested in or in a subject you’re passionate about. Further, employers for your 2L summer will be more interested in your experience at the job rather than the job itself, so picking a job you’re genuinely interested in is more valuable to them.
Nancy Sheu, ’22
Where did you work this summer, and what did you do there?
As a summer associate at Rutan & Tucker in Irvine, California, I had the opportunity to rotate through each department at the firm and work with various attorneys on real, substantive assignments. Since I was leaning toward a transactional practice, I loved how the firm accommodated my interests so that I didn’t spend the whole summer simply writing research memos. Instead, I was able to work on assignments that are actually given to first-year associates in the transactional departments, such as drafting agreements, creating performance schedules, summarizing due diligence responses, and sitting in on client calls.
What drew you to this opportunity?
I was looking for a firm where I could see myself working there for the long term, and one of the first things I found out about Rutan was that many of the partners had in fact started off as summer associates. After finishing the summer program, I can honestly say that Rutan is a firm that really invests in its young attorneys in the hopes that they stay. The firm is also unique in that there are nearly twice as many partners as associates, so even first-year associates often find themselves working directly with partners and taking on a good amount of responsibility very early on in their careers.
What were some of the most valuable things you learned working in this position?
The most valuable thing I learned was to never doubt myself. In the beginning of my summer, there were so many times where I stopped myself from asking questions that I thought were dumb or not worth asking, only to later find out that they were completely legitimate questions. I learned to trust myself and my abilities because while it is true that, as a law student, I didn’t know much about practicing law, it wasn't helpful for me to believe that I didn’t know anything at all. Changing my mindset gave me the confidence I needed to ask questions and really take ownership of my assignments.
How did the Law School help prepare you?
Thanks to my Legal Research and Writing class, I was able to structure formal legal memorandums to effectively communicate my findings. The class also helped me improve my writing more generally so that it was clear and concise, which made all the difference for every assignment I completed. Even when I was working on transactional projects like a lease review, I still had to tap into my legal writing abilities in order to explain my findings to the assigning attorney, so I’m very glad I had the chance to improve my writing beforehand.
What surprised you most about your experience?
I was blown away by how quickly I bonded with so many of the attorneys. I expected to meet people who would become my mentors, but I never expected to become good friends with the attorneys at my firm in just a few short weeks. Even though I have completed the summer program, we still keep in touch and I am incredibly grateful that I get to finish up law school with such an amazing support system.
If you could give any advice to new law students beginning their summer job searches, what would it be?
Try to figure out what you really want out of your legal career. This means drowning out what other people are doing and focusing on what you believe will be the most fulfilling and sustainable career choice for you.
Alberto Vargas, ’23
Where did you work this summer, and what did you do there?
I split my summer between two remote internships: a judicial internship with Judge [Dabney L.] Friedrich on the [US District Court for the] District of Columbia and an internship with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s (MALDEF) Midwest office. For the judicial internship, I worked on the first draft of an order resolving a motion for compassionate release and did a lot of research and cite-checking on some fascinating cases that are unique to the District of DC. My main project with MALDEF was drafting a motion for summary judgment for a voting rights case.
What drew you to this opportunity?
I was very lucky to learn about Judge Friedrich through my Appellate Project (an outside organization) mentor. My mentor had clerked for Judge Friedrich and mentioned that she was an excellent jurist, and that the internship would be remote. I was looking for a remote internship because I was interested in working for a DDC judge, but my son had just been born a few months prior and I preferred to spend the summer in Chicago. For MALDEF, I knew that I wanted to use my legal training to work for the community that raised me, and this was the perfect opportunity to do that.
What were some of the most valuable things you learned working in these two positions?
There are a ton of practical things that I learned, a lot of “how-to,” like how to draft a motion for summary judgment, how to use Westlaw in a different way compared to LRW [Legal Research and Writing], and how judges work through a case. It’s easy to forget that the practice of law looks very different than law school, so it was incredibly valuable to get a peek at what different practices looked like.
How did the Law School help prepare you?
The LRW classes were incredibly valuable and helpful. A large part of both jobs was legal research, analysis, and writing—exactly what LRW teaches. Doctrinal classes were incredibly useful background information and helpful for developing the skill of thinking like a lawyer, but, with the exception of Constitutional Law I and Civil Procedure, I’m not sure that any particular class prepared me more than others for the experience as far as substantive knowledge. Each work project was so different that what is really helpful about the classes is practicing in-taking and sifting through huge amounts of material.
What surprised you most about your experience?
I was surprised at how much responsibility employers were willing to give to interns. Sometimes it’s amazing to think about all that I learned during my 1L year, but all that learning also showed me how vast the law is and how much I don’t know. It’s possible to feel overwhelmed when you have to jump into a project, but my employers were always very willing to answer questions and understood that I knew some things but didn’t know a whole lot more.
If you could give any advice to new law students beginning their summer job searches, what would it be?
Some good advice I received is that 1L is a particularly good time to explore areas of the law that you think you may have an interest in but are unsure about. It’s easy to go along with the inertia and stability of a firm position for 2L summer (I say that having accepted a 2L firm position with which I’m very happy). 1L summer is a great time to try something different if you can swing it financially.
Natasha Wiltz, ’22
Where did you work this summer, and what did you do there?
I worked at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the Broadband division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. While I was there, I wrote an order ruling letter, conducted research on the Privacy Act, and drafted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for a band of spectrum. I also had the opportunity to virtually meet Chairwoman [Jessica] Rosenworcel and have many virtual coffee dates with FCC lawyers and engineers.
What drew you to this opportunity?
During my 2L year, I took Hacking for Defense, a course that exposed me to telecommunications and the FCC. I was fascinated by the fusion of law, engineering, economics, and policy in the work that takes place at the FCC. I was drawn to the FCC because I wanted to experience this fusion in action, particularly when it comes to licensing and rulemaking.
What were some of the most valuable things you learned working in this position?
New attorneys and interns at the FCC face a steep learning curve since there is no law class that can prepare you for the technical knowledge you will need to understand. Regular, informal conversations with the lawyers and engineers about their work was absolutely crucial for me in dealing with this initial learning curve.
How did the Law School help prepare you?
The Bigelow Legal Research and Writing course was crucial for gaining solid legal research skills. Other courses where I had regular writing assignments with detailed feedback from my professors, like Current Issues in Criminal and National Security Law, were instrumental for me to develop an effective writing style as an attorney.
What surprised you most about your experience?
How well I fit in; how kind, intelligent, and helpful the people were; and how much I loved interning there! I was also surprised by the interesting and current issues I worked on as well as by the intricate structure of the FCC and how politics is involved.
If you could give any advice to new law students beginning their summer job searches, what would it be?
Take courses that will expose you to a variety of potential practice areas—you never know where you’ll find what you love! Don’t be afraid to ask lawyers to speak with you about their experience in their practice area and if they can connect you to other attorneys that have similar interests as you or know of opportunities you may like.
Erik Zimmerman, ‘22
Where did you work this summer, and what did you do there?
I worked at the Federal Defenders Office for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery, Alabama. While there I worked in both their Trial and Capital Habeas Units. In the Trial Unit I worked on teams defending indigent clients charged with federal crimes. In the Capital Habeas Unit I worked with attorneys representing clients who had been convicted, at the state level, of capital murder and subsequently sentenced to death. The Capital Habeas attorneys work to bring collateral appeals in federal court challenging death sentences in order to get the state death sentence overturned.
What drew you to this opportunity?
I was interested in the possibility of working on death sentence cases. But I was also interested in working on criminal justice issues on the front lines. The Deep South has some of the most punitive and unfair criminal justice systems so I knew my work in Alabama could have a real impact on the lives of defendants, and I knew I would get to work with an incredibly passionate team of attorneys.
What were some of the most valuable things you learned working in this position?
On a practical level I gained real-world trial experience. The internship program provided weekly workshops where all the interns were required to do mock opening statements, detention hearings, etc., in front of attorneys and judges. On a deeper level, though, I learned how deeply flawed our criminal justice system truly is. On one attorney’s approximation some 75 percent of the office’s clients struggled with either mental illness, substance abuse, or both. I saw this play out in the cases of nearly every client I worked with, and it made me passionate about working to change the criminal justice system.
How did the Law School help prepare you?
My work in the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Clinic helped me develop legal research and writing skills but it also gave me insight into the civil rights involved in the entire criminal justice system. And it was great seeing research I had done in my clinic pop up in my research this summer. For example, I was asked to research legal precedent related to prison phone call privacy, a topic I had spent many months discussing and researching in the clinic.
What surprised you most about your experience?
I thought for certain that I would enjoy the death sentence work the most, but I quickly realized I love trial work and I am especially passionate about public defense. I walked away from summer knowing for certain that I hope to build a career in criminal defense and civil rights related to the criminal justice system. The trial experience I got this summer also made me realize I love trial work, something I never would have assumed about myself.
If you could give any advice to new law students beginning their summer job searches, what would it be?
Be open minded about what you think you want to do with your career. If you shut yourself off from potential experiences you might miss out on something you truly love!