I know I say this every week, but this week was exceptionally busy! I began the week by attending the cross and direct examination workshop. I spent the majority of my weekend reading the deposition and preparing and practicing my direct and cross examinations, so I felt well prepared by the time Monday rolled around. Unfortunately, we were short on time, so I was only able to present my cross examination during the workshop, but I think it went well and I really enjoyed it! Cross examining is definitely my favorite of the two. I think that’s when you get to really show your style. After the workshop, I got to leave work a little bit early to go to the Rays game with my office! I had such a great time with everyone and the Rays even won!

On Tuesday, all of the summer associates attended the opening and closing seminar with Rob Blank, with the workshop scheduled for Friday. This was my favorite workshop because Michaela joined us in Tampa! Having Michaela there made the workshop a lot more fun and also more effective as opposed to video conferencing. This workshop was the most nerve-racking because we had to present our closing arguments in front of five people from the Tampa office and await their feedback. All in all, everyone did a great job and the feedback was incredibly helpful! It was interesting to see how everyone took such different angles on the same fact pattern. After the workshop was over, we went to the Columbia for lunch—a Rumberger tradition! I had never been there before, but it was delicious!

This week, I was also able to attend my first set of depositions with Carie Hall and Rob Blank, which we were defending. As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, aside from the seminar and workshop this summer, I really have not had much exposure to depositions, so this was a great experience. The depositions lasted for the majority of the day, so I felt like I was really able to get a grasp on the process. Eventually, I found myself silently objecting to opposing counsel’s questions and hypotheticals.

Next week will be spent trying to catch up on my assignments so I can hopefully get ahead before we receive the trial packet on Thursday. I am excited to see what our fact pattern will be!