Week four didn’t slow down a bit! Monday afternoon, I had my deposition workshop that had been postponed from week three. I had my outline ready to go and even sat in my office practicing the order of topics I wanted to cover beforehand. I haven’t observed a deposition yet, so my only exposure to the process was the seminar we had; that, on top of almost all of the Tampa office attorneys watching, made me super nervous! Luckily, once I got started, I was able to zone in and only focus on the chatty deponent, played by Steve Berlin, and the challenging opposing counsel, played by Joleen East. At the end, I received a ton of great feedback that I never would have known or thought of when I was initially prepping. I wish the summer was long enough that we had a second shot at some of the workshops!

On Friday, I was given an assignment to research whether a superseding criminal act can absolve another actor’s negligence and, on the following Tuesday, I was able to sit in on a telephone interview with individuals involved in the case. I was on the client counseling team for the Dispute Resolution Board at Stetson, so it was interesting to see how the conversations I prepped for in competition happen in real life. They are very different to say the least! The next morning, I finalized a summary of the interview before hitting the road with Rob Blank to visit the accident site where we were on the scene with an expert. We were on a very narrow and curvy road, so we wore bright orange reflective vests to alert cars. I think the reflection magnified the sun’s rays because I got some (much needed) sun! This experience was extremely helpful for the memorandum I was working on in relation to the case, to be able to see the road and visualize exactly what happened. We were also able to interview other individuals who were involved in the case and piece together what they said with the information we received in Tuesday’s interview.

On Wednesday night, Phoenix, the Miami office’s summer associate, flew into Tampa for the closing argument workshop. We were paired up against each other and prepared together that night. The next morning we met the Orlando summer associates at the Tampa office. It was great to have all four of us in the same place for a workshop and not have to do it via Zoom. Everyone was nervous for their closing, but we had all worked hard and prepared for these arguments. Afterwards, we were treated to lunch at Columbia—a 10+ year Rumberger tradition!

I was able to complete a few assignments on Friday that I had been finalizing all week. It was great to finally check some more items off of my assignment list. Next week, I have a handful of assignments due, so I was glad to be able to finish what was in progress in order to start next week with a fresh to-do list. I can’t believe next week is already the halfway point of the summer! Time is flying by.