Reflection — “Consideration
of some subject matter, idea, or purpose.”
-Merriam
Webster’s Dictionary
Oh, what can I say about my summer
internship other than it was amazing! From the time I was 10, I’ve wanted to work
for a big corporation as some sort of executive. Obviously, you don’t go straight into
becoming an executive so I have to start somewhere small, and I think a legal
intern fits that bill. I really enjoyed
the work I did this summer and I have the opportunity to continue working at
the company for this school year. I also
had to meet with my advisor today to discuss my internship so this post is
super timely.
What
I Did
One of the things I loved about my
internship was the variety of projects/tasks that I got to work on. Because an in-house legal department has to
function as essentially a mini law firm, I had the opportunity to pretty much
work on every type of law they deal within the legal department. I worked on a variety of real estate
projects, such as renewing leases, drafting lease amendments, drafting property
sale agreements. I also worked on a
variety of research projects regarding HR matters and even a personal
jurisdiction issue! I also did a lot of
contract review on large accounts and customer accounts. I also was pulled into a litigation matter
and am super excited to continue with this work.
What
I Learned
Since I took property well over a
year ago, I basically relearned some of the major concepts from property. I also learned a lot about the deviation of
power between the legal department and the business people of a corporation. While a lot of business management states
they need legal to sign off on something, all that means is that the legal
department tells the business side the risks associated with what they want to
do and the business side takes it from there.
I also learned about the distribution of power between inside and
outside counsel. In those types of
relationships, in-house counsel acts more as a buffer between the client (the
company) and the outside counsel. I
definitely felt that most of the times, the in-house attorney would tell the
outside counsel what they wanted to get done and the outside counsel would do
it. There were times where the outside lawyer
was advising the attorney I was working with on what they thought was best in
the situation. I also really learned
about the dynamics between a more senior attorney and lower level
attorney. Last summer, I worked for a
judge so I only worked under a single attorney, which is a completely different
environment.
What
I Recommend
If working in house is something
that interests you, definitely look for opportunities to intern at a
company. You might not get paid, but it’s
totally worth it. I think it gives you a
new perspective on what a lawyer does.
It’s not something that the general public knows about because every
lawyer show focuses on civil or criminal litigation. I also highly recommend being kind and
respectful of everyone in the department, like the paralegals and legal
assistants. The paralegals I worked with
are amazing and so so knowledgeable about everything so it was great using them
as a sounding board and absorbing as much information from them as possible.
In other exciting news, I’m
continuing to work there this school year as a paid intern! Let me know what you were up to this
summer! I’d love to hear about it.
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