I seriously cannot believe how fast the summer went by. This past week was a blur. I say that because we were in between assignments and preparing for the mock trial. With it being our first week of practice, of course, we were a little rusty but we were able to work out the kinks toward the end of the week. Phoenix and I will be more than prepared for the trial. It will be fun seeing all of it come together. A special thanks goes out to our coaches Patrick Delaney, Lindy Keown, Sally Cully, Maggie Sanders and Suzanne Singer from Miami. We spent last week creating our opening and closing statement and direct/cross examinations for both trials. Now it is up to us to individually re-fine our work based on the feedback we’ve received from attorneys. This week should be even more exciting with practice because we will start condensing our script into an outline. It is exciting being able to complete assignments and prepare for the mock trial. It allows us to see how it really works in practice because not everything just stops because you have one trial—or at least I have been under the impression that it does not.

Other than mock trial, I was able to attend mediation with Steve Klein on an uninsured motorist case. It was in Tampa, so we drove down that morning and returned that evening. Unfortunately, the mediation was not as successful as we had hoped but I was able to get good experience because this was my first one. Overall, I am very grateful Steve invited me to join him.

I spent the majority of the week working on some research for Suzanne Hill and LaShawnda Jackson that consisted of case evaluations and a research memorandum. The cases are substantive so I have been able to find some great authority to support our position. Week 8 is finished, and who can believe that we only have two weeks left of the Summer Associate Program!