It's 106º Outside
Jun. 17th, 2021 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ermingarden...and I'm profoundly grateful for air conditioning.
It's been a while, hasn't it?
I started my summer internship at the DA's office three weeks ago and it is amazing.
The first week was mostly trainings (how to work up files, how to use certain programs, ethical obligations, etc.), but then we were really thrown into the deep end. My supervisor came up to my desk and handed me the opening brief from a guy who was appealing his conviction – she just said, "You're writing the response brief." Folks, let me remind you, I have had a grand total of one year of law school! Plus, all the issues raised on appeal were evidentiary, and I haven't even taken evidence yet…it was definitely a learning experience. I filed the brief on Friday, and it was so exciting! It's good to feel like I'm doing something real.
I have a rotation in the domestic violence unit every Wednesday, working up cases in the morning for arraignment in the afternoon. My first day in DV was something of a baptism by fire: Under California law, when someone has been arrested, the DA has 48 hours before they have to either arraign them (i.e., formally charge them with a crime) or let them go. Those forty-eight hours are excluding weekends and court holidays, so generally if someone is arrested on Wednesday, for example, they'll be arraigned on Friday; Thursday, on Monday; and Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, on Tuesday. That means Tuesdays have the heaviest arraignment calendar, and they've accordingly assigned two interns to DV on Tuesdays rather than one.
As I mentioned, my rotation is Wednesdays...and my first day in DV was the Wednesday after a three-day weekend, which meant Friday, Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday's arrests. I'd never worked up a file in my life, and I was practically buried in an avalanche of police reports, rap sheets, and manila folders! (Working up a file means providing a brief factual summary for the attorney handling the arraignment, and listing other relevant information; in the DV context that includes lethality factors as well as prior offenses, failures to appear, etc.) Definitely a lot of pressure, but I enjoyed the fast pace, and I managed to get it all done adequately.
It hasn't even been a month yet, but already I think this is what I want to do in the long run.
You know how I said I wasn't going to do an exchange this summer because I had another idea I wanted to focus on? Well….I signed up as a potential treat writer for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tolkienrsb, looked at the gallery, and saw an artwork I absolutely had to claim. I'm very excited about this fic! I'm a little nervous, though, as well – you'll laugh, but 5k will be the longest single fic I've ever written, and it's definitely far more than what I could throw together at the last minute, so I'm going to need to be disciplined about working on it.
I'm also working on a shorter fic I hope to be able to finish in time to post it for Jedi June. I have so enjoyed reading people's fics for the fest this year!
And, of course, Happy Pride Month!
It's been a while, hasn't it?
I started my summer internship at the DA's office three weeks ago and it is amazing.
The first week was mostly trainings (how to work up files, how to use certain programs, ethical obligations, etc.), but then we were really thrown into the deep end. My supervisor came up to my desk and handed me the opening brief from a guy who was appealing his conviction – she just said, "You're writing the response brief." Folks, let me remind you, I have had a grand total of one year of law school! Plus, all the issues raised on appeal were evidentiary, and I haven't even taken evidence yet…it was definitely a learning experience. I filed the brief on Friday, and it was so exciting! It's good to feel like I'm doing something real.
I have a rotation in the domestic violence unit every Wednesday, working up cases in the morning for arraignment in the afternoon. My first day in DV was something of a baptism by fire: Under California law, when someone has been arrested, the DA has 48 hours before they have to either arraign them (i.e., formally charge them with a crime) or let them go. Those forty-eight hours are excluding weekends and court holidays, so generally if someone is arrested on Wednesday, for example, they'll be arraigned on Friday; Thursday, on Monday; and Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, on Tuesday. That means Tuesdays have the heaviest arraignment calendar, and they've accordingly assigned two interns to DV on Tuesdays rather than one.
As I mentioned, my rotation is Wednesdays...and my first day in DV was the Wednesday after a three-day weekend, which meant Friday, Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday's arrests. I'd never worked up a file in my life, and I was practically buried in an avalanche of police reports, rap sheets, and manila folders! (Working up a file means providing a brief factual summary for the attorney handling the arraignment, and listing other relevant information; in the DV context that includes lethality factors as well as prior offenses, failures to appear, etc.) Definitely a lot of pressure, but I enjoyed the fast pace, and I managed to get it all done adequately.
It hasn't even been a month yet, but already I think this is what I want to do in the long run.
You know how I said I wasn't going to do an exchange this summer because I had another idea I wanted to focus on? Well….I signed up as a potential treat writer for
tolkienrsb, looked at the gallery, and saw an artwork I absolutely had to claim. I'm very excited about this fic! I'm a little nervous, though, as well – you'll laugh, but 5k will be the longest single fic I've ever written, and it's definitely far more than what I could throw together at the last minute, so I'm going to need to be disciplined about working on it. I'm also working on a shorter fic I hope to be able to finish in time to post it for Jedi June. I have so enjoyed reading people's fics for the fest this year!
And, of course, Happy Pride Month!
