Week 8 (April 6, 2015)

Hello! This was my 8th week on site!

On Tuesday, I spent a lot of time trying to fin other studies about social media and family law to incorporate into my Senior Research Project. Though there are many statistics and facts about social media in law, there are not many specifically about social media and family law.

Wednesday and Thursday were both pretty standard days at the office. I answered the phone and scanned lots of documents and sorted through closed files to pull out all the staples and take off all the sticky notes so that the file could be scanned and placed into storage. On a more exciting note, I drafted several preliminary divorce documents using the client's information and I believe there were about seven different ones that I filled out for my on-site mentor. I also helped a client pay a balence on her account over the phone (which was a new experience). All in all, it was a good week!

See you soon!

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Week 7 (March 30, 2015)

Hello! This was my seventh week at my internship! All is well. As mentioned in my earlier blog post, Mr. Levine was out of the office this week. Our paralegal was also gone for two out of the three days that I was there this week for a conference in China.

On Monday, both Mr. Levine and our paralegal were gone, so it was just my on-site mentor, her husband (who was recruited to help out), and me in the office. For a large portion of the day, I was on the computer and answering phone calls. The phones weren't too crazy, thankfully. My main purpose for being there was to help my on-site mentor as much as possible. I don't know how to do even half of what the paralegal does, but I knew enough to help with standard office stuff, like scanning papers and drafting subpoenas to be sent out (mostly for personal injury cases, but for family law cases as well).

On Tuesday, both Mr. Levine and our paralegal were gone again, but this time it was just me and my on-site mentor in the office until it was time for me to leave, at which time her husband arrived to help her answer phone calls. Again, most of my day was spent answering the phone and helping out with basic stuff. I did, however, get a change to view a lot of blogs of my fellow classmates and I was elated to see how well everyone's projects are turning out. I even made a major life decision based upon a quote that I found on my classmate's blog. Here's a link: http://dariabazzi.blogspot.com/
I also filed all the papers that had been piling up since our paralegal left. This process included sorting the files by client, then by date, and putting them in our folder of files to be put into the clients' binders. There were so many papers! But it was fun. I secretly love organizing (shh dont tell).

On Wednesday, Mr. Levine was still gone. However, our paralegal was back! Yay! She told me and my on-site mentor all about her trip to China, which was fascinating. In addition to this, my big project for the day was actually putting the filed papers into their respective binders based upon the client. Within these binders, there are tabs that are used to sort the client's paperwork. These tabs are labelled: client information, minute entries, letters, client's emails, husband's discovery. wife's discovery, exhibits, DPL notes, husband's pleading's, wife's pleadings, costs, etc... It took some guesswork and guidance but it took me literally all day. Minus conversation time. But hey, it was my first time doing that and I'm sure I'll be faster at it next time! :) I answered the phone all day as well, and ended up filling out some preliminary paperwork for a client over the phone, which was neat. Usually, the phone calls consist of people telling me that they want to speak to my on-site mentor about something, so this was an interesting change of pace.

See you next week!

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