Now that I have finished three weeks of the Summer Associate Program, I feel a lot more confident in the areas I am learning. I have had a wide variety of assignments and balancing that with seminars, workshops, and small in-office meetings on a daily basis have been extremely beneficial.

On Monday, Eric and I had a meeting with of counsel Brad Davis about writing a reply brief to an appeal. It’s a mortgage case and is very interesting. After that, we attended the Associate College Luncheon where the attorneys in the Tampa office were presenting on being Second Chair. It was a little long, but it was very informative and necessary to say the least. After that, I had a chance to finish up the work from the previous week, and looking forward to getting some new assignments this week.

On Tuesday, I was able to turn in my research for associate Robert Barton, and was instructed to go ahead and move forward with drafting the Motion to Dismiss due the following week. All on my own? Yes, same thing I was thinking, but after I became so familiar with the case law just by researching, drafting the Motion to Dismiss was the easier/fun part. But just because I said it was EASIER doesn’t mean it was easy. It was still complex, but was more interesting than the research. I think drafting motions allows for your creativity in the beginning portion. I also met with partner LaShawnda Jackson and turned in my deposition summary that she will be sending to the client. I must’ve proofread it five times just to make sure it was perfect, especially since I know it would potentially go from LaShawnda’s hand to the clients. The rest of the day, I continued to work on the writing assignment and other assignments I’ve had.

On Wednesday, we had a lunch seminar on depositions that was given by partner Darryl Gavin and associate Shenele Pettis Bright, with a few side comments here and there from “The” Bud Kirk himself. Some FAMU students were in attendance as well so it was a nice amount of people. We went over both the formality and strategy of taking a depositions. I think some wires were crossed because we had two full catered meals to choose from: Sandwiches or Fajitas. I chose my entrée (Fajitas) from one side and dessert from the other (of course deli places have the best cookies). Gotta love options! J After the seminar, we were given our deposition material packet, and of course I got started right away.

On Thursday, since I had already previously written my deposition outline the night before, I was able to meet with Shenele and my mentor associate Lindy Keown, just to give me a few pointers and see if my outline flowed like I intended. I was able to do a few dry runs alone to make sure that it was near 20 minutes and not too short or too long. I was also able to work on some research that Managing Partner Frank Sheppard assigned me. Before I know it, Thursday’s workday was ending and we were one day away from the weekend and completing another week at RK.

It’s now Friday, and I am finishing up my blog post for the end of the week. I just finished deposing Darryl and it was the best time ever. I may be over-exaggerating it a bit, considering I just finished the deposition about 2 minutes ago so my adrenaline is still pretty high. You all are getting a real-time post here. Oh, and not to mention, I ordered an iced caramel macchiato this morning and I don’t even drink coffee. A part of me feels like Sonic the Hedgehog, the amount of energy I have right now is crazy high. I now understand why the Starbucks line is always long. If this is what being a lawyer feels like, then I may have found my competitive edge after playing basketball all these years after all.

Darryl was an entertaining witness. He would say “I don’t know” often and give me the run around in his answers, making me work twice as hard. I thought I would be stuck to the Q&A on my outline, but I re-typed the outline about 15 times so I knew my questions, follow-up questions and even the follow-follow up questions too like the back of my hand. I was able to engage in conversation with him and get him tied up in his own web of discrepancies. There were certain points where I couldn’t get him to answer how I wanted and I was screaming on the inside because I would ask him the same question seven different ways, and he still wouldn’t budge. After 20 minutes, I think, I finished and let out a deep sigh and smiled because I was looking forward to the feedback. I was more excited about finishing so that he could advise me on how to get tough answers out of a witness rather than just being excited about being finished. Of all the things, even though I have yet to try them all, I think a deposition may be the most interesting to me. Or maybe Darryl just made a great witness. Either way, I look forward to continuing to add to my arsenal to get locked and loaded for the Mock Trial. Here’s to Week Three at RK.

Disclaimer: Sorry for the long post, I mentioned I never drink coffee. 😀