Working with Short & Stevens Law this semester has been immensely beneficial to my future career in a multitude of ways. Although I always thought I wanted to pursue law, I wasn’t entirely sure before the internship because I had never actually experienced what it was like to work in a law firm. Not only was I able to expand upon my professional skills, such as using Microsoft suite, communicating efficiently and effectively, and overall how to carry myself in an office setting, but this internship was a definite source of personal growth, too. I became more confident in my skills and abilities, and I felt like I really did put in the work to get where I am, getting rid of my mental blocks and imposter syndrome. This experience laid a foundation for me to grow upon in the future, and reaffirmed that this is the field that I want to pursue and will be successful in.
Being an English major was a definite help in my work there because without the skills that I have developed in my classes, I would have had a much harder time understanding and deconstructing these complex legal documents. In each of my classes, it is a necessity to be able to analyze not only the content of a source, but also the rhetorical choices and grammar used to convey a message. With this, I was able to pull the main ideas from long blocks of texts to compare and contrast language in various provisions to make educated decisions on which ones should be used. I was also able to identify which language and provisions signify different uses for each document. Therefore, strong reading comprehension skills are required to be successful in this internship.
Although to pursue law full-time I would still have to go to law school and learn more of the legal terminology and language used in other fields of law, that all comes with time and experience, and this internship was just one step towards my future success.
To all incoming interns: be confident in yourself, and don’t be afraid to use your voice. In the beginning, I was too nervous to ask questions or voice my opinions without being asked directly and thought that asking questions was a sign of incompetence. However, it truly is the opposite. Asking clarifying questions is one sure way to make sure you are producing the wanted results the first time around. And even if it isn’t the first time around, making mistakes is a part of learning.
Whitney, Amanda, and Sherry created such a welcoming environment at Short & Stevens and all have so much knowledge to learn from. I am so grateful for their guidance this semester and am extremely happy to have participated in this program, which I know I am walking away from with so much more than I could have expected.
