THE RETRIEVER WEEKLY FOCUS February6,2001
PAGE
17
You
Don't Have to Be a Corporate Stooge Monkey
The Titillating Adventures, of a Day in the Life of a
Legal Intern Who Hasn't Sold His Soul
BEN BEATON
Retriever Weekly Staff
Writer
Behold!
I am intrepid, I am daring, I am ... an intern. Like many other students, I am serving
as an intern to help determine what sort of career I want to pursue. In the past, I have worked as an intern for
government agencies, performing tasks ranging from photocopying reports and
running errands to drawing out the molecular structure of chemical weapons and
writing programs to run a machine the size of a warehouse. But right now, I work for a judge.
How, you might ask, did a 20-year-old
math major, in his third year of college, who had never taken a political
science course before in his life end up as a judge's intern? I became interested in law through the Maryland
Student Legislature, a statewide organization that acts as a model General
Assembly. In order to write bills for
that organization, I had to get acquainted with the law. To my surprise, I found it kind of
fun. So, when I heard about the Political
Science Department's Legal Internship Program, I decided to check it out. I talked to Dr. Harold Levy, the coordinator
of the program, and filled out an application.
Later that same day, Dr. Levy interviewed me, asking the standard
questions about background, GPA, major, etc., as well as running through a
"script" to determine how well I could handle working in an
office. Once accepted into the program,
I was given a list of placements from which to choose. Among them was Anne
Arundel Circuit Court, to work with Judge
Ronald A. Silkworth, which is where I was placed.
On my first
visit to the courthouse, I was kind of intimidated. To get into the courthouse, you first need to pass through a
metal detector, with big, gun-and-handcuff-toting sheriff's deputies
standing
by. Then, once you've walked into the
building itself and start realizing how huge it is, you start wondering where
the judge's chambers are. Well, it
turns out that they're only accessible through two doors, both of which are
only accessible by employees possessing special security cards. Everyone else has to call up the security
office and justify their need to enter the inner sanctum of the judges'
chambers. And all that is after trying to park in dowtown Annapolis.
Now, of course,
I know all the deputies by face, and some by name. I no longer have to pass
through the metal detector, since they know me by sight as well. I have my own
security card and can enter and exit back hallways at my pleasure. The only
thing that still holds some trepidation, due to the nature of my task, is the
law library.
Officially, I work for Judge Silkworth.
Sometimes I'll sit in on his courtroom proceedings, absorbing the procedures,
and following the action. Mostly,
however, I work for his law clerk, Dorothy Heslop. The law clerk is the legal machine behind the judge. She does the legal research on all the
cases, making sure that the judge has all the current law on the subject when
he hears a case. Once the judge has
ruled on a matter, the clerk writes out the opinion, which lays out the
judge's ruling and the legal justifications for it.
With an intern, it turns out that
Dorothy now has to do slightly less of the legal research on her own.
Within a week of starting work, she sent me to the library to research all
the relevant law on an upcoming
case, and write a summary for the judge. Now, four weeks later,
I've finished that, written a summary on another case, have been assigned
a third case, and am almost finished writing one of the judge's opinions.
Of course, I also get to make photocopies for Sandy, the administrative
assistant. This rarely happens,
but since Sandy got me free parking at her church, thus saving me lots of
money in parking, photocopies are no problem (especially since the copier
is completely automated).
One of the great things about the
internship is the people I meet. I
interact with judges, prosecutors, public defenders, civil attorneys, police
officers, sheriff's deputies, courtroom clerks, bailiffs... the list goes
on.
Another cool facet of the job is that it
is not as formal as I expected. In the
courtroom formality carries the day (which is why I have to wear a suit), but
once out of the courtroom, it is similar to any other office I where have worked. The people are nice and have a sense of
humor about their jobs. The law clerks
eat lunch together every day and talk about, well, everything, just like any
other office.
It is important for me to be comfortable
in the atmosphere, since I don't get paid.
This is commonly perceived as a downside, but it has its
advantages. If you're a paid employee,
you have to do whatever they tell you to.
As an unpaid student intern, you still have to do some things you'd
rather not, but you are primarily there to learn, not do mindless tasks. Of course, after spending two days puzzling
out the legal intricacies of a Motion to Compel Discovery, a little mindless
drudgework isn't bad.
One major misperception of the legal
profession is that in order to be a part of it you have to sell your soul and
forget your moral principles. In fact,
one of the questions I was assigned to answer in this article was whether
I considered myself a "corporate stooge monkey." I can
definitely say that my principles remain intact, and my soul remains
unmortgaged.
The same holds true for the judges of
from CLERKS, page 17
the Anne Arundel
Circuit Court. When I see Judge
Silkworth asking questions of a convicted defendant, he is not just trying to
get him out of his courtroom. He tries
to get him the treatment or guidance he needs to help him solve his problems so
that he can get his life in order. One
day, I sat in on some of Judge Silkworth's probation reviews. That's when people he has sentenced to
probation come back to the courtroom so he can check on their progress.
I think it said something when over half of the probationers thanked him
for turning their lives around.
When I saw that, it made me think, "Maybe I should do this
with my life." I felt as if I might want to go to law school and
choose law as a career.
Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But
this internship has most definitely opened my eyes to a whole new career
that I had never before considered.
It is still teaching me things I had not known about myself, skills
I had not known I possessed.
And that, after
all, is what an internship is for.