Week One:
Christensen & Ehret, LLP

June 1, 2015

Tomorrow marks my first week of my Cornell Fellowship at Christensen/Ehret LLP in Chicago, and I could not be more excited to continue my journey! This internship has been, and will continue to be an extremely beneficial learning experience. Thus far I have really been exposed to the business aspect of law. This encompasses how this law firm generates revenue, different methods of billing clients, how the firm balances their budget in consideration of their expenses, as well as some other business elements. I will also be exposed to development and retention of clientele (firm expertise, marketing, recruitment of attorneys, etc.) in addition to learning about the practice of law which will include trials, settlements, document management, and much more. Due to these aspects, I believe that this internship will holistically introduce me to the idea of what it really means to practice law.

The very first lesson that I learned was the importance of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality. There are certain things that I will learn, ranging from how Christensen/Ehret LLP is run all the way to the specifics of different cases. The main goal of confidentiality is to foster trust and instill confidence within clients that their attorney is in fact competent and has their best interest at heart. Without this installation of trust and confidence, clients do not exist. Due to this clause, many things that I have learned or have experienced will not be shared within my blog or during the Fellowship Showcase in December.

Building upon this, on my first day I was immediately thrown into the pool, and for the days thereafter the employees here helped me float. I learned how attorneys bill their clients (clients may be billed hourly, which Christensen/Ehret does, or they may be billed contingently). After I learned the billing system, I was taught how we pay bills along with how we process checks. This was a much harder system for me to learn, as billable hours are usually (hopefully) prepared first hand by attorneys and then given to clerks, but the bill/check system is something that must be prepared, checked, and double checked by yourself. Although I needed much help, I was able to learn how to pay and deposit a large amount of bills that contained even larger sums of money. Cornell College Politics professor Hans Hassell greatly encouraged me to enhance my statistical skills, and these skills were extremely helpful for these purposes.

This week I also learned a great deal about preparing for a case, this time around specifically negligence. I have gotten to do a little bit of research that could help illustrate a certain pattern of institutionalized negligence. I did this using different state and government sites, collecting data, and compiling it into one document, something that is drilled into us Politics and International Relations majors. I also got to use LexisNexis,  which I was thankfully introduced to in my 6th block Race, Sex, and the Constitution course taught by Craig Allin and supported by Meghan Yamanishi. I actually ended up emailing Meghan Yamanishi to refresh myself on how to narrow my search within the database, so that I could look at cases that may have set a precedent for the current case my law firm is preparing for. As I will be accompanying two of our attorneys to a deposition in this negligence case, I have also learned a lot about depositions. Although I have not seen it in action, I have learned the different strategies in which an attorney will prepare a witnesses for different, often abrasive questioning styles, as well as learning how attorneys will help deponents with fluctuating and improving their narrative presentation.

In addition to these lessons I have learned in the office, I have gained a lot of experience from being in a big city such as Chicago. As I am currently living at home (I move into my downtown Chicago loft May 31st), I have had to use a lot of public transportation. For someone that has a car, I had absolutely no idea how to take the train from my home in the suburbs to the city, and then how to navigate my way through the streets. I also learned that stopping to ask people for directions in the morning does not make people happy. Nonetheless, I have figured out how to figure out where different things are within the Chicago Loop such as the train station, art museum, courthouse, and much more just by exploring on my lunch breaks. Once I end up having to go to a different district of Chicago, I will again have to learn a new method of transportation, the El, which is Chicago’s transit system.

After a jam-packed week of learning, I am excited and extremely thankful for the opportunity that Mr. Mark Christensen has presented me with and I cannot wait to see where it takes me! Stay tuned.