Day 3 was another great day at the Polanco law firm. I am having a great time really getting to know all of the individuals that work here and the cases that they handle. During the morning, I was running all around the office looking for files. We had a stack of receipts, probably the size of a text book, that had to be put in the files corresponding with the name on the receipt. We started with the file cabinet, but soon learned that most of the files we were looking for were floating randomly around the office with little order. We spent all morning looking, and still didn’t find them all! But during this time, I had a great conversation with the other intern (who happened to have just started out with the firm) about her college major and aspirations. While we were often unsuccessful at finding files and it could at times be frustrating, I realized that it is extremely important. Lawyers need to be able to focus on their cases, so I was happy to make sure that they were able to do just that instead of them having to run around and look for files themselves.
The rest of the day I preformed a myriad of smaller tasks. I made copies, entered data, bought USPS labels and scanned items. One of the most interesting times of my day came when I was scanning papers in. A lawyer and an intern acting as a translator put a client on speaker phone and gave me the chance to listen to her story. She was someone who came to the United States because she and her brother feared for their lives in their violent home country. It was fascinating to hear her journey and also to listen to the types of questions that were asked by the lawyer. I learned a lot about how people immigrate to the US to find freedom and began to feel very grateful that I was born in such a peaceful country. It was also extremely interesting to see the American legal system at work and learn about what type of information is used to help undocumented immigrants stay in the United States. After another successful day at the Polanco law firm I cannot wait to spend more time learning from them.
