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By Jenny Leisten |
| Like
many other students, I dreaded searching for a summer position. The
thought of spending my first internship cooped up in a law firm library
utterly depressed me. I wanted hands-on, practical experience with
the law. I wanted to actually get to meet clients and help them.
I wanted to fight the bad guys. I wanted to have fun.
Thanks to the Public Interest Job Fair, I found a great position at North Central Legal Assistance Program. For those of you unfamiliar with Legal Aid (as I was), it’s basically free legal assistance for low-income persons. To qualify for services, a family has to meet the federal guidelines for poverty. Most of my clients this summer didn’t even have a telephone. Resources are slim at Legal Aid, which is actually an advantage for summer interns. Since there is always too much work to do and too few people to do it, I was immediately given a lot of responsibility. On my first morning, I had 12 cases to handle. By the second week, I was doing all the domestic client intake. By the third week, I was representing clients by myself before the Employment Security Commission. At the end of the summer I had closed over 60 cases. Most days, I began work at 9 a.m. I usually had around four to five phone calls to make – some to clients, some to witnesses, others to attorneys. I drafted various documents – complaints, answers, motions, interrogatories, etc. On Wednesdays and Thursday I handled intake, which meant that I spent 15 to 30 minutes interviewing new clients about their legal problems. On Fridays I presented these cases to the attorneys at the staff meeting, where the attorneys bombarded me with questions, half of which I had not thought to ask the client. Based on the facts of my presentation, the attorneys decided whether they could accept the case. Perhaps the best (and scariest) aspect of my internship was going to court with a client who truly depended upon me to set things right. The responsibility of representing a client is overwhelming and yet exhilarating. Whether it is a home, unemployment benefits or custody of a child on the line, the attorney’s preparation and performance in court has an immediate and significant impact on the client’s life. Over the summer, we went up against some real nasties – people who habitually exploit the underprivileged because they believe no one will care. Unfortunately, that’s usually a pretty correct assumption. We sued slum landlords, abusive spouses and unscrupulous salesmen. A short war story: A landlord rented a trailer to a client and her children. The client noticed that the water from the faucets was discolored and tasted bad, but the landlord repeatedly assured her that there was nothing wrong and that the water was perfectly fine to drink. After her children became seriously ill, our client paid for a county water inspection. Tests revealed that the septic system had leaked into her well, which was now fecal. When she confronted the landlord, he refused even to lower the rent. We stepped in and persuaded him otherwise. The landlord settled that case. The best moment this summer occurred as my supervising attorney and I were leaving the courthouse parking lot after gaining a particularly favorable decision for our client. The opposing side (an irate ex-husband and his 18-year-old girlfriend) honked their horn at us. When we turned to look, they made a rude gesture involving the index finger. My supervising attorney gave me a big grin. “That’s when I know we’ve done a good job,” she said. |
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