Today was my first day shadowing a criminal defense attorney at his law firm. I learned about the ethics code by which attorneys and their employees are bound, including that I am unable to share specific details of cases. I was introduced to the concept of an attorney serving chiefly as an advocate for their client, as well as the ethical boundaries in the profession. Additionally, a lawyer must define their personal moral boundaries to ensure they can serve as advocates for their clients. I began my day by organizing documents for a case about a man involved in a car accident to aid the attorney. There were hundreds of pages of medical records to sort through, which I organized chronologically to help build the case. The firm also kept records of all past cases but was running out of room to store records for new cases, so I helped reorganize the files, taking out files for cases that occurred during or before 2014. It was a wonderful first day!
