This week has been a bit of a blur. I started the week off by going to a law school fair. Which was fasinating it was exactly like a typical college fair only with law schools. As I mentioned in a presentation earlier this week I have been quite daunted by law school. The process seems so over whelming and it has put me into a slight state of denial and panic. However, I am starting to get on top of everything. At the law school fair I signed up for a practice LSAT's and received a bunch of information on several different law schools helping me to form a better picture in my mind of what is out there and what will work best for me. After going through what I liked and didnt like about each school I am feeling more at ease. After a busy week at my internship I had a pretty relaxing weekend. To update you all really quickly about my internship for about the past three weeks I have been writing a paper on breastfeeding. WHAT BREASTFEEDING?? I know that is kind of strange, but a case we are working on involves breastfeeding and the lawyer I was workiong for needed information so its the intern to the rescue. Its not as dramatic as that but it has kept me pretty busy. I was also able to sit in on a deposition prep. Which allowed me to see a deposition from the opposite side of the spectrum. Then my relaxing weekend was very nice I only did two exciting things. The first one is as you can see from the picture below is I saw the White House for the first time up close and in person. After seeing the white house I wandered around with my friends Nicole and Catherine we walked around in search for a cup of coffee that was not Starbucks. Not that there is anything wrong with Starbucks we just wanted something not name brand. An hour later we found a little stand in an alley in Chinatown called Coffee Alley. Sounds sketchy promise it really wasn't! This is one of the best cups of coffee I have ever had as seen below. Lastly my long Columbus day weekend involved thrift shopping. This was one of the biggest thrift stores I have ever been in. I was able to purchase a Blazer, my Halloween costume of a 50's housewife, and a sweater. So exciting! I love thrift shopping. Back home this is one of my favorite activities to do with my friends. One of my favorite purchases back home was a lime green print chair, which is now my desk chair. I have had a grand time this week and even though the shutdown is still going strong I am still having a grand old time.
Lastly this is a picture of a fun lamp I found in the thrift shop!!
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It finally happened. The government has shut down. As I mentioned last week my office has enough funds to keep on going for another 2 weeks. Well week one is almost done and the office has started to get a little bit tense. It started off with a meeting last week on Monday were my division met with the Attorney General and the Deputy to the Attorney General. I was a little late to the meeting because I was speaking with the Senior Assistant Attorney Martha about a project she wanted me to help with. Nonetheless, when we showed up to the meeting it was in full swing with the Attorney General laying out our plans for the next couple of weeks. As previously stated we have enough funds for the next two weeks and they are all praying the shutdown will end before our two weeks are up.
Now as an unpaid intern this shutdown does not really affect me because I do not make any money. Yet to several hundred people who are out of work, it makes quite the difference. I even notice it on my way to work every morning because the metro is not very crowded and the traffic is significantly slow by my apartment building. But back to work. After the government shutdown was announced on Tuesday October 1st several things changed when I went into work the next day after class. For starters I had an email informing me that 400 of the District of Columbia Superior Court had been furloughed. For those of you that do not know what furloughed means it is when you have to come in and work even though at the present time you will not be paid. This is when my office became a little bit frantic because we were running on a shoestring budget in order to stay open for the next two weeks. It became harder and harder for the lawyers to do their jobs. For example, in order to give a deposition you have to pay the court reporter coming in to take down the deposition. Also it the person you are deposing is and expert they also have to be paid for their time. The problem is the District does not have enough money to take down all the depositions that were planned causing several of the lawyers to cancel their depositions. Which puts a major dent in their cases and timelines to file court paperwork. As you can imagine this made several of the lawyers in my office very unhappy because they want to get things done and not have to delay there procedures. I noticed the lawyers in my office were not the only ones who were getting nervous or frustrated. The Deputy Governor was also going around and asking to have everyone's budget for the next two weeks. To see where people were allocating the remaining funds they had, and probably praying that someone would have some extra to distribute the wealth. As this past week has gone on there has been a growing fear among several of the office workers that they will be temporarily out of work. Guaranteed most of them are lawyers and are most likely not having money troubles but it does not mean they do not want to be out of work. Now I of course cannot speak for everyone I know some of the lawyers are a little bit looking forward to having a slight vacation, but they do feel guilty about others being out of work who really need the money. My main concern is at the end of the two weeks does the entire building shut down? If not do I have to go to work because I am not paid either way? These questions will just have to wait and see but hopefully the government shutdown does not last much longer and people can go back to work and being paid. I have hit the one month milestone. Woohoo! I have made it through my first month milestone and none of the bad things my parents and friends have warned me about have happened. I have not been stranded in the middle of nowhere, mugged or felt homesick. *knock on wood* Thank goodness!
I am very excited to have hit this milestone because it means I lose my tourist status. I now know how to use the metro system effectively. I know when is the earliest time I can cross the street to get to my next destination. I have eaten lunch at the food trucks without fear of food poisoning. At my internship I have learned everyone’s name, where there office is and helped them with at least one project. Which for a girl who has a serious difficulty remembering names is an amazing feat. Washington D.C. is a city of opportunities! I have learned so much and met so many people who I never thought I would come in contact with. My highlights for this month are Connie a grant specialist who writes the criteria for federal grants for museums, Kerry Kennedy who spoke at the Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism Awards on Thursday who graciously took my business card, a finance lawyer I met on the metro on her way to capitol hill to meet with a finance committee and a political cartoonist named Jen Sorensen who won a RFK Journalism award. These are so far four of the most impressive people I have met in D.C. aside from my professors at W.I.I. and my coworkers at the Attorney General’s Office. Strangely enough, two out of four of these people I met on the metro. Proof that everyone takes public transportation. All of them have been women and each one of them have proved to me that you have to try really hard to make it in there fields. They have also shown me that we need to incorporate more women into the work force. Honestly this idea took me by surprise, ever since women fought for the right to vote and earned it I felt that we have had an even playing field. However, this past month I fully realized that the scale has not been as properly balanced as I thought. When I talked to the Finance lawyer going to Capitol Hill (whose name I cannot, shamefully, remember) was telling me, when she started to go to meetings there was at least a couple of women in the room. However numbers have been dwindling, to the point where she would be the only woman in the room at her next meeting. This thought has been replaying in my head over and over again because I thought that we had more women in office than ever. As you can see my scale has been somewhat out of line. While this statement is true that we have more women in office than before it is not enough to be a 50/50 representation. However, aside from my slight political enlightenment this week by reflecting upon this past month I can proudly say that I have kept my active trend going and it is officially a habit. *Note: it takes at least 28 days to form a habit. So this past week we had the symposium on Syria. This allowed me to learn more about a controversial issue facing our nation in foreign policy. On Tuesday after class, my friend Nicole brought some of my class to a free concert at th National geographic center. There was Latin 1960s rebellion music playing with a wonderful singer and band jamming their hearts out. However, before the band came on stage two Latin dancers gave us all a quick lesson on dancing. This was no piece of cake but tons of fun because it didn't matter that we all looked kind of silly. Thursday night Dr. Dollhouse, president of W.I.I., invited us along to the Newsuem to see the awards ceremony of the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards. This was a wonderful experience and it is actually were I met two of my most influential people from D.C. (Ms. Kennedy and Mrs. Sorenson). I loved the awards ceremony they told stories of Mr. Robert F. Kennedy, why this award was so important to his legacy, and the hard-to-talk-about topics of each reward winner. The topics ranged from Healthcare and stealing hospitals, to poverty in Belize, and the economy. The food after was amazing! I am still getting used to the idea that with every speaker and get together there is amazing food. On Saturday my friends and I took a small day trip to Baltimore. We spent the day wandering around the touristy harbor area attempting to get to a historic island but we missed both of the boats to get there. For lunch we stopped at an Irish Pub/restaurant and I had for the first time ever Fish and Chips. It was a wonderful experience and some of the better food I have had while in Washington D.C (yes I know it was in Baltimore)! After lunch and missing our boat we did discover a little festival were people were handing out free cupcakes. The rest of my week has been relatively uneventful. I found out today that my office will continue to be running in the possible government shut down that is looking to be more and more likely. The Attorney General’s Office has funds saved to be able to function for another two weeks without any more federal funding. Although, I am not a paid employee I have my fingers crossed that there will be a reasonable spending bill passed shortly. However, I am excited to do keep on going and do this week all over again. One month down only about 2 more to go! This week I was very busy. Thankfully the Attorney General had many tasks for me to do. Varying from printing out papers from depositions for a stipulation of the facts documents, to retyping documents and I even got to organize one of the lawyer’s desks. Which as strange as it seems I have been dying to do since the day I got there because none of the lawyers have organized desks. Needless to say but the lack of organization has been driving me crazy! I also went to my first trial. I was extremely excited simply because, it was my first trial so it could have been on taxes and I would have been pumped. To give you a quick rundown... **One a quick side not this was a public trail so I should be able to tell you all about it since anyone could have attended. So, the Plaintiff was suing the District of Columbia for being unlawfully terminated after she was fired from two higher up positions. She worked about one week at each position. It would have been a normal trial except for two aspects. One, was she was asking herself questions and two, she had a bit of a meltdown in the court room. Now guaranteed I have seen two year olds throw better melt downs, she just made everyone kind of nervous when she stated she could shoot a gun and wanted to kill all public officials. You can see how these statements made everyone uncomfortable, especially after all the events of Monday morning. It wasn’t long after the court Marshalls showed up to escort her out of the building. Her case did end up going to the jury, and they did not give her any damages dismissing her case. On a happy note she was able to get help this weekend at a Mental Hospital this weekend. This trail made me realize several important aspects of court. 1) It is always a good idea to have a lawyer representing you. 2) Sometimes people need a platform to stand on and going to court is there platform. 3) Mental Health is a serious issue that must be addressed in the field of law. 4) Even though people may not have a justified case they still may need help through other facilities. So that was the start of my weekend which was confusing and a bit scary but it gets happier I promise. I kept myself very active this weekend to keep up the trend of seeing the most out of DC as possible. On Friday night I went to a hockey game with some of the other students from W.I.I. We got to see the Capitals play against the Chicago Black Hawks. I can honestly say this is the first game of hockey I have actually understood because I had the lucky seat between my friends Greg and Robin. Who are both faithful hockey fans and were able to answer my several questions throughout the night. On Saturday I got caught in the rain at the H-Street Festival. Which surprisingly enough did not dampen the party at all everyone just whipped out umbrellas or sought the lining street shops for shelter. Luckily I brought my umbrella but they can only cover so much. Sunday was a day full of surprises. It began with several of us heading off to the National Mall to see the National Book Festival. While we were there we could see a couple streets down huge mobs of people crowding around and hear Latin music playing. Well naturally with the large mob of people we thought that maybe there was a protest going on. So we ran over to check it out only to see a parade of dancers each representing a country in Central and South America. We stumbled upon a wonderful celebration of Latino culture. It was really wonderful to see so many people out celebrating their heritage. After the Fiesta DC (the actual name of the event) I went back to the book fair and stood in line to meet an author called Tamora Pierce, who wrote several of the books from my childhood. Her line was extremely long so I never got to have her sign my book, but I did happen to get a picture of her after the events people made her stop signing books. She stayed an extra half hour to try and get through her entire book line which you will see by the picture below was pretty extensive. Well that puts a bookend on my week and I cannot wait so see what this one brings.
This past week was my first full week juggling class and my internship. It was not as easy as I thought it would be but most certainly do-able if I plan better for the up coming week.
For starters I had my first full week at the Attorney General needless to say I was SUPER excited. To explain what I currently do at the Attorney General I work in the Civil Litigation Unit in the third division of the department. Usually interns work under one lawyer one on one however, I am currently working for all the lawyers in the division. So how is that possible? My day usually starts arriving at work around 8:45 am, swiping my name badge and walking through a little security sensor. Thankfully I only set if off once this week much to the amusement of the security guards. Then I wait about 5 to 10 mins for the elevator (it really takes that long to come down to the lobby). So I am up in my cubicle by 9 am. Then it is the waiting game for the first lawyer to come in so I can get my first project for the day. Most of the lawyers are pretty busy with case work so they look a little bit like dear in head lights when I come in to their offices asking for something to do. After a couple of mins of them shuffling around the massive stacks of paper on their desks they give me something to do. Obviously I cannot tell you the nitty-gritty details of the cases but I can stay the names of the things I have helped write so far. My first day I wrote the draft of objections for a employment case and drafted questions for the cases deposition. This made me really excited because the deposition was scheduled for Wednesday (of this week) and I was asked to sit in. I have also written two answers to complaints. A complaint is when someone sues the district of Columbia or one of its workers relating to their service at the district. So if the district cannot get the case dismissed right off the bat, then usually they have to write an answer to the complaint. The answer explains why parts of the complaint are not true or the district does not have enough information to prove that the claim is true. The district asks for specific proof that the claims are true in the answer for anything that the district can not prove with its own records. The other thing I have done at the office was scan and organize the files from a case that has been going on for the past 20 years into the computer system. Which kind of took me a while. Okay so my deposition story!! I got to work on Wednesday morning very excited because this was going to be my first deposition ever. I was singing before I left the Paramount much to the amusement of my suite mates. I worked on one of my answers until a half an hour before the deposition. That is when the lawyer was doing the deposition (his name is Alex) told me that due to budget cuts we did not have enough money to have a court reporter to hold the deposition. He then proceeded to go home early for the day while I sat and finished my answer until 5:30 pm. I was kind of bummed out that the deposition fell through which explains why I was a little bitter about Alex leaving the office a little early. I did go to my first deposition today! With another lawyer named Denise. Which was really exciting! I can not tell you what it was about but I did learn some very important things about depositions. 1) It is very important to keep a straight face during the entire deposition. 2) You need to ask the Who, What, When, Where and Why even if the client doesn't give you a straight answer keep asking questions! 3) It is always what people do not say that is the most important So that was my first work week but what did I do this weekend? The most interesting thing I did this weekend was help out at a food pantry called Bread for the City. WII because they are so wonderful made it possible for 10 people to go to the pantry and help out. Basically we helped bag fresh produce into individual baggies. This was so when individuals came to the clinic they can grab the food and go in a quicker line. This also prevents one person from taking too many. My favorite part about the clinic was after we bagged vegetables we had a tour of the facilities. They do so much more than just food. They have a medical center, social workers, financiers, and lawyers. I was really excited about the lawyers working for the non-profit. My goal is to go back and volunteer again some point during the semester and pick a lawyers brain about working for a non-profit and the type of work they do. That has been my week not to hectic and crazy. I hope everyone got home safe and sound. Have a wonderful evening! That is a good question! D.C. is not the city of lights nor is it the city that never sleeps. In fact I have difficulty finding many shops and stores open after 7 pm. I came to Washington D.C. the city of Justice all because I want to be in the center of what is happening. You know it is all about location, location, location. This is where everything in politics is happening and as a political science major this is important to me.
So that is why I came but how exactly did I get from Nazareth College all the way here? At Nazareth I heard about this program called the Washington Internship Institute or W.I.I. for short. W.I.I. is an internship placement program that helps students find internships in Washington D.C. Through their own connections advisers help prospective students prepare materials for the process of finding an internship such as writing a resume and cover letters. After four months of Nazareth's application process of finding references, recommendation letters,and participating in interviews and meetings with members of administration I was approved to apply to W.I.I.'s program. I was then able to apply to W.I.I.'s process which was not as complex as Nazareth's since the application and forms were either the same or almost identical. Then after a few short months with help from my internship adviser Jason Patrie, I was accepted to be an intern at the Office of the Attorney General. So in D.C I have an internship at the Office of the Attorney General in the third section of the Civil Litigation Unit. Which is really exciting! My goal career of becoming a lawyer is now just a couple of desks and 3 years of law school away. |
AuthorMy name is Shannon McCullough. I have Political Science and Legal Studies degree at Nazareth College of Rochester. I have previously interned at the Office of the Attorney General for DC. Currently, I am studying my Masters degree in International Relations at Shandong University in Jinan, China. Archives
September 2016
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