Ready for the End?

So…we haven’t been very good at updating the blog on a regular basis. Oops! We’ve just been too busy.  Here’s some updates on what we’re up to:

Amanda has won a VEC case, assisted on some crazy cases, and continues to baffle us with her ability to keep her desk organized (or maybe just baffles me).  She presented some seriously awesome oral arguments at the VEC for the Special Examiner and remains a fearsome advocate for the clients.

Cayman has joined us.  He has a seemingly endless caseload. Cayman has been constantly running out to court, VEC hearings, and client meetings.  Doris is overjoyed to finally have a 3L with a practice certificate here, and Cayman’s docket shows it.

Craig has won a real case! Well Doris argued it, but it was Craig’s work.  He’s working on a lot of commercial cases and he’s even completed all the paperwork for a divorce.  Basically, Craig’s a baller.

Jacobie is the master of the power of attorney.  His sociable nature continues to bring clients back asking specifically to speak with him.  He’s also filed some interesting motions, answers, and wrote an interrogatory!

I (Kat) have been working hard on divorces, custody, and a particular property case that is quite the head-scratcher.  Like Amanda and Cayman, I have also worked on a VEC claim (outcome still to come).

We CANNOT believe how close we are to the end of our terms as summer interns at CVLAS.  In such a short term, we have learned so much!  We’ve been working directly with clients and actually drafting legal documents, so much better than just doing research (although there’s been a lot of that too).  The summer has moved at breakneck speed, and it’s not slowing down.  Back to work!

Updates from Week 3

We have a new intern! His name is Craig, and we were very excited to welcome him to the office this week. He’s super fun and surprisingly tall. Aside from a few bumps of the head (sorry, Craig! You’re just so tall!), he settled in to our routine quickly.  This, of course, includes our daily happy hour coffee runs.

It seems crazy to think that we’ve already completed three weeks at CVLAS Richmond.  We’ve each done some incredible things already: writing motions, memos, divorces, and arguments (no really, Amanda is doing some fantastic things…also I’m sorry I couldn’t remember the exact name of some of the documents you’ve been working on).  Although, I have to say one of our biggest accomplishments was following each other on twitter this week. 

Just kidding, it was probably actually getting work done when CVLAS went internet-free for a couple of days last week.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Legal Research and Writing professors for teaching us how to “book-research” instead of just using online systems.  We actually hit the real books for about two days! 

However, nothing can be as exciting as finding out that David Arquette was across the street from us the majority of Thursday afternoon and we didn’t actually run into him! I’m hoping we get a fun run-in with Ginnifer Goodwin to make up for it…

Celebrity sightings aside, we hope to have another successful week this week.  

9 Lessons from the First 9 Days

1. The Loft is obviously the best place in the office, if you can find/remember to turn on the air conditioning and the light.
2. NEVER freak out until Jacobie freaks out.
3. Amanda can decorate a desk like Martha Stewart WHILE managing complicated legal material.
4. Kat is a ginger. A fact that most people realize upon first glance, but somehow escaped the notice of another intern until the second week.
5. The parking lot becomes a RIVER during heavy rain. (Thanks Tropical Storm Andrea, sigh)
6. Doris WILL give quizzes, which the interns will fail or find impossible to describe.
7. The Henrico J&DR Court and Circuit Court are not in the same building.
8. How to mail, fax, and email like pros.
9. Don’t forget to ask for happy hour prices at the coffee shop.  Also, Rainforest Crunch: all day, every day.

Jacobie, Kat, and Amanda (6/7/2013).

On a more serious note, we’ve all been having a great time so far at CVLAS Richmond.  Everyone at the office is awesome and excited to work with us. We’re even starting to do some substantive work! Right now, it is just the three of us, but we will be joined by Cayman in a few weeks. Summer 2013 is off to a great start!

Update #2

The CVLAS Richmond Interns have been very busy!

Just a taste of some of the legal stuff we’ve been up to:

Emily and Airen survived a four hour trial, and Airen cross-examined a witness.

Cayman has been tirelessly working on memos to the Special Appeals Examiner for unemployment cases.

Alec wrote a memo that got his case dismissed (a good thing!).

Morgan did her first unemployment hearing yesterday.

Amanda is currently in court seeking a protective order for a client.

Krista is quickly becoming the resident expert on guardianship and child custody in Virginia.

We all took a break on Friday and attended the Legal Aid Awards Luncheon at the Virginia State Bar Conference in Virginia Beach. Even though the weather was cold and windy, we all still enjoyed our brief visit to the beach! We had a little time before lunch, so we stopped by the Expo where we picked up lots of free swag, like Lexis pens, coozies, decorative paper clips, cotton candy, beach balls, margaritas (!!), and the plastic sunglasses we are wearing in two of these pictures.  

Alec, Cayman, Amanda, and Morgan trying not to get blown over by the wind

Alec, Cayman, Amanda, and Krista on the beach with their new free sunglasses

The girls (minus Airen who couldn't make it) at the Legal Aid Awards Luncheon
(Blogger keeps rotating the picture & won't let me unrotate it... you'll just have to turn your head sideways, sorry!)

We have also visited a few local spots for lunch, including Lift, Nick’s International Foods (where you must be very particular about ordering...very Seinfeld-esque), and the food carts by MCV. We recommend them all!

Bringing back the blog

After two and a half weeks of working here in the CVLAS loft, we're finally getting around to putting up our first post. We've been hard at work on all sorts of issues: custody disputes, divorces, bankruptcies, unemployment, you name it... 

Yesterday most of us took a break from the loft and attended a conference put on by the Virginia Poverty Law Center explaining updates to relevant areas of Virginia law that will come into effect in July. We especially appreciated how the explanations of upcoming changes gave us better insight into the legislative process in general and how specific policy goals are achieved. We are also grateful to Cayman and Alec for being so savvy in consumer rights and winning fun prizes for us. 

Cayman won a "magic firefly" (in case you're not aware, it "soars to incredible heights!" and "glides down with awesome spiral action!"). It also comes with a "high intensity light for day or night launches," but so far we have not been able to find this light. It must not be very intense. Needless to say, the loft is a perfect location for firefly launches into the conference room. 

Alec won a "mystical tree," which is an "amazing tree [that] grows like magic." It does, in fact, grow like magic. At 9ish AM this morning it was just some cardboard twigs, and now, at the end of the day, it looks like this! 

That's it for now! 

Legal Aid on Purpose

As an intern at CVLAS this summer, I think I’ve probably gained more real-world knowledge about the practice of the law than I ever will in law school. I’ve gotten to represent clients before the Virginia Employment Commission, observe courtroom proceedings and client meetings, and write briefs and memos for all kinds of different cases.

The summer has been enlightening and rewarding in a lot of ways. For instance, one of the first clients I encountered was a woman who was about to lose her home and be sued for rent she didn’t owe. At the trial, the judge read a bench memo, listened to a great oral argument from my supervising attorney, and ultimately ruled in favor of our client. And I wrote that bench memo. It was a really amazing feeling to know I had done something to help someone who really needed and deserved it.

On the other hand though, my introduction to the realities of our justice system has been eye-opening in some pretty disappointing ways. Maggie said in an earlier blog post that “the law doesn’t always provide justice,” and even though I think we all know that on some level, it can be really hard to see in action. It’s infuriating to see public benefits agencies deny or withdraw help from people who really need it, even though the whole point of public benefits programs is to help people who really need it. It’s discouraging to see landlords who treat their tenants as nuisances or liabilities, rather than people. It’s heartbreaking when a client’s situation is so bad that the best result in a case is a protective order or a divorce.

And I think, for me, the hardest thing about all of the difficult cases that I’ve seen come through our office this summer is how the deck always seems to be stacked against our clients. About a month ago, we listened to speech from Larry Harley, the 2011 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year. He pointed out that one of the most frustrating things about our society is that “we expect everyone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but then we turn around and take away their boots.” But he said something else as well—that he is a legal aid lawyer on purpose. And that really resonated with me, because after 9 weeks at CVLAS I’ve come to see how crucial free legal services are for people who have no other options. I can’t imagine where our clients would be if the amazing lawyers and staff of CVLAS weren’t there to make sure that those clients don’t fall through the cracks.

As my internship is starting to wind down, I’ve done a lot of reflecting; about the cases I’ve helped with this summer, about the ups and downs of our justice system, and about the type of lawyer I want to be one day. It’s been challenging, educational, and ultimately, really, really wonderful. I’m so glad I’ve had the chance to spend a summer working with people who are legal aid lawyers on purpose. As long as people like Steve, Marty, Doris, Chris, and Freddie are a part of the legal field, I’m still pretty sure that it’s a field I will be proud to join one day.

You know, provided I pass that pesky Bar thing…

Jail House Rock

Last Friday all of the interns got to take a field trip to the Richmond City Jail. We were incredibly excited to go, since none of us had ever actually been to a correctional facility before (probably a good thing). We got a full tour of the building and an overview of all of the planning and procedures it takes to run a jail. It was definitely an eye-opening experience in a lot of ways, and a really great experience for a group of future lawyers. One thing that stuck out to all of us in particular was hearing about an inmate who actually got to graduate high school despite being incarcerated. Here's a link to the story. It's pretty heartwarming.

Also, here are some fun facts about jail, for those of you who are interested:

- Jails are usually run by cities or counties, while prisons and penitentiaries are run by federal and state governments.

- If your sentence is 12 months or less, you go to jail; if it is more than twelve months, you go to prison (this is also the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony).

- Some states have actually started contracting out prisons to private companies. There is a lot of debate about the possibly ethical issues that this raises, but proponents say it could help alleviate the problem of overcrowding.

- Speaking of debates over prison conditions, our partners at the Legal Aid Justice Center have a history of fighting for prison reform in the US. Here's a cool article from a couple of years ago.