As I sit down to write this week’s blog post, I cannot believe that it is already Week 5 of RK’s Summer Associate Program! This past week consisted mostly of conducting research on numerous issues including class actions, trade secrets, premises liability, and discovery. I also was able to attend my first in-person deposition, which was extremely eye-opening and interesting.

Week 4 commenced with finishing my draft of the Motion to Dismiss that I spent the majority of Week 3 working on, as its due date was Monday at 5:00 PM. Having gotten most of my research done over the weekend, I came into the office ready to write the motion. After reading over a couple of previous motions drafted by some of the attorneys in the past, I transcribed my research, added in the analysis, and was able to put together a finished product by the deadline. I could not have been more proud of my work and all the time that went into finally finishing it.

On Tuesday, I was assigned a couple of very interesting research assignments on trade secrets and jurisdictional discovery, both of which I did not know much about prior. However, after conducting preliminary research, I was able to familiarize myself with the applicable standards in Florida and Eleventh Circuit. I then wrote memoranda of law on both to the partner that assigned them synthesizing my findings, which, fortunately, were favorable to our clients.

Wednesday was a very exciting day for me, as I got to attend my first in-person deposition. Experienced partner Jacey Kaps conducted the deposition, which was of one of the plaintiffs who was injured in the alleged accident. In my opinion, Jacey did a terrific job not getting sidetracked and going through everything chronologically, starting with the plaintiff’s work history before getting to the incident. I took detailed notes in anticipation of writing a deposition summary during Week 5, which I was assigned shortly after. For the rest of Week 4, I spent my time on more research projects, specifically dealing with premises liability.