Dawg Days of Summer: Part 3
After months of classroom lectures, coursework and reviewing cases, rising 2L and 3L students venture outside the walls of William H. Gates Hall and work in-house at law firms, companies, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and elsewhere. For a few short months, they take a break from their legal education in the classroom and work alongside practicing attorneys.
As the final segment in a three-part series, two J.D. students below reflect on how their time away from classroom instruction supplemented their legal training and provided for an exciting experience along the way.
Olivia Bravo
As I enter my final week at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, I reflect on all I have learned through this experience and feel especially grateful. I have made real connections with the attorneys in the IP Litigation practice group and have had great exposure to the attorneys of other practice groups through coffee chats, happy hours and after-work events.
Throughout the summer, I saw how the assignments I was given had positively impacted the work of my team. Cases that I had found were often used in the brief, motion and pitch phases of projects that my team was working on, so I felt I was contributing to a greater goal and that my work was always valued. This was extremely motivating because it felt like I was really participating as a first-year associate. Additionally, it solidified my interest in IP litigation!
One invaluable part of this experience was the two weeks I spent with Meta. While there, I experienced life as an in-house counsel and heard from different attorneys — many of whom previously came from law firms — about how their practices changed once going in-house. I think working in-house is something that is less spoken about and to see behind the curtain of the legal department of a huge tech company was special.
I have loved my time at Dorsey and am looking forward to returning next summer!
Skylar Fisher
This week, I wrapped up my internship at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), and I am very happy with my experience. All my expectations were exceeded, from the substantive work and the office culture to the outdoors access in the Blue Ridge Mountains. To celebrate the end of our internships, my office took us out on the Nantahala River last week for some more white-water rafting, which was incredible.
This experience has supplemented my legal education by giving me a peek into the actual life of an environmental litigator. Through multiple projects, I was able to see the entire lifespan of a case, which is pretty special when you consider that environmental cases can take years to see a resolution. I’m grateful that my supervisors were so open to questions and invited me into these spaces that were a bit over my head.
One especially impactful project I worked on was a “claims memo” for potential Clean Water Act litigation. This work required me to map out every argument that could be made for and against our claims, from standing to tiny factor-based analysis of the facts. I had a lot of autonomy in developing arguments, and this project required that I take ownership in chasing down any questions that popped up. The level of independence required to complete this memo was intimidating but it was also my favorite project because it felt so close to real-life lawyering.
Leaving Asheville feels bittersweet. The best part of this summer was getting to work with and learn from such passionate attorneys, and I hope to keep in touch with all my new coworkers-turned-friends. I am excited to get back into the swing of classes in Seattle for my final year of law school, but now the real career search is about to ramp up in earnest. Luckily, I have a few weeks to just relax before diving in.
Thank you very much to everyone at UW Law for this opportunity to share my experiences at SELC!