Day Five, 26 March 2017

Today I went to my mentor's law firm to discuss another case he has received. His client is a woman who is charged with murder for supposedly hiring hit men to kill her former business partner. Apparently she and her business partner sold marijuana and recently were facing issues with the business. My mentor explained that his client could also be sentenced to the death, so the case is pretty serious. He explained that there is no direct connection between his client and the hit-men, just a phone call that was illegally uncovered.While he was explaining the premise of the case, he received a phone call. After he hung up, he explained to me that it was the mother of his client and she was asking him how everything was. It's crazy to imagine having your own kid be sentenced to death, and this rests on the case and how the lawyers perform. My mentor then introduced me to Tony Serra, a lawyer he is working with on the case. My mentor explained to me that Tony Serra is a very famous old attorney who has defended members of the Black Panther Party and other serious cases. I felt very honored to have met such an important lawyer and to have him partner with my mentor on this case. It was incredible to think that this man had been a lawyer for so long and here he was before me, working on this new case. Tony Serra defended civil rights for so long, so it was amazing to see someone who has made such an impact on history in person. My mentor then told me his schedule and appearances for this case and we made plans.


Time logged for this session: 3.5 hours
Total time logged: 19 hours

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Three, 4 March 2017

Third day, I went to my mentor's law firm in San Francisco. He introduced me to more lawyers he worked alongside with. They were all very nice, and some looked very stressed out. My mentor told me stress is a factor that comes along with being a lawyer, but it is avoidable in some cases. He told me about a case that he had coming up involving a DUI. He was defending the man who got a DUI for the third time in nine years. My mentor told me the background information of the case and how he planned to defend him. It was interesting to see all the factors that went along with the case. For example, my mentor told me the man had just gotten a divorce and had attempted suicide. These factors all played a part in the case, and could possibly effect his sentencing. It was interesting to see how all these pieces came together as my mentor presented his defense. He told me the first court appearance was scheduled on March 10. Although we just spent the day talking with the other lawyers and ...
Read more

Day 10, 14 April 2017

For my last time meeting with my mentor, we just went back to his law firm and he introduced to more people who worked there. We sat down and he showed me his schedule, and future cases he had coming up. He said some of them were in San Jose, and said that part of being a lawyer is commuting to a lot of places for your trials. He taught me how to file some of his papers and how to make some calls to the clients. He told me communication is huge aspect of being a lawyer, and if you don't know how to communicate then you're not doing your job. He told me it's mixed with a lot of time management, pressure, and a sense of competitiveness. He said it's a lot of commitment to become a lawyer, but in the end he enjoys his job. He showed me what you need to do to become one. You have to get bachelors degree, then you have to go to law school, pass the bar exam. It's a lot of work to become one, but he seems to like it. From this I was able to learn the steps to take to actu...
Read more

Day Nine, 10 April 2017

Another brief yet interesting day. My mentor and I went back to the courthouse in Hayward to speak with one of the judges about his current case. He simply needed to make an appearance with his client and ask to reschedule some dates. The other lawyer failed to have his client show up, which is why the dates needed to be changed. My mentor, however, was busy on all available days, so the judge asked my mentor to hire someone to show up in his place. My mentor then asked me to wait inside the courtroom as he went to the back of the room to get some files. As I sat down, another trial was happening before me. It was those glass windows again, and there was an inmate in his orange jumpsuit standing behind the glass window. He was speaking to the judge directly and he asked his lawyer to hand the judge a handwritten letter. The judge quickly skimmed through the letter and put it down. The man then asked if he could say something. He said something along the lines of "I don't deser...
Read more