Intern in an Attorney’s Office, Essay Example

Criminal Justice Responses

Currently working as an intern in an attorney’s office, I find myself setting new goals virtually every day. More exactly, as each task I undertake exposes me to aspects of criminal justice new to me, I am inspired to gain some level of expertise in them.  The work engages me on a visceral level, and I am daily made aware of the range of subject matter to be acquired, if any worthwhile career in criminal justice is to proceed.  Essentially, then, I can condense this ongoing process of identifying goals into one: I wish to learn as much as I possibly can, and acquire a real foundation of legal knowledge.  I am aware, of course, that this is an enormous field of study, and that no individual may hope to be truly expert in all facets of it.  Nonetheless, my goal here remains fixed, and realistic: I wish to learn, again, as much as it is in my power to absorb.

This goal directly relates to another, that of gaining actual experience in the law.  Thus far, I have attempted to use my internship as an process of instruction in a way removed from what is expected of me.  With each day’s assignments, I find I mentally gauge the relative impact and importance of the matters these assignments serve.  In the law, knowledge is a form of experience itself, I believe, as familiarity with case law and procedures is relied upon by all those working in the profession.  Consequently, in acquiring a deeper level of knowledge, I enhance my experience., and better equip myself to take on more challenging duties.

Lastly, and somewhat more pragmatically, a goal of mine is to move beyond internship.  This has been a necessary and valuable process for me, and I am mindful of how much I have gained from it, which no other type of education could have provided.  Nonetheless, I seek to move forward and establish myself in a thoroughly professional capacity.   An internship has its many advantages, but it is a phase from which to move forward, and this is a very specific goal of mine.

I most definitely wish to remain working within the criminal justice system, and my sights are currently set on becoming a paralegal. Based upon my experience to date, this is a typically underestimated career, at least as it seems to be perceived outside of the legal arena.  The work is seen as being vaguely “secretarial” in nature, and somewhat thankless.  The reality, of course, is radically different.  My own feeling about paralegal work is that it provides a foundation for the criminal justice system fully as meaningful as any other necessary function.  In a very real sense, the paralegal enables the processes of the system to proceed.  The more capable the paralegal, the more prepared the attorney, and the more professional and exemplary the court’s sessions.  If only by virtue of investigative work and fact finding and confirmation, the paralegal reinforces the integrity of the attorney, and consequently the system being served.

I am drawn to this career as well by a certainty that paralegal work will broaden my own experience in a way nothing else may, save for pursuing a career as an actual attorney.  Depending on where I am placed in this position, I am confident that my job will lead me into interesting, and sometimes unusual, channels of criminal justice.  I further feel that I am well-suited to the work; I have an inquisitive mind, an expanding base of legal knowledge, and a commitment to working toward a specified result.   In this job, I will most definitely be within the criminal justice system, in a manner necessary to it, and also exposed to the extensive range of subject matter required by attorneys.  This is work that is inherently a learning experience and, as noted earlier, I am profoundly attracted to it for this reason.  To be of real value to an attorney, or to a team of attorneys, is an accomplishment I rank very high, and one I look forward to achieving on a regular basis in this career.

My internship has been under the care of two supervisors, and I can candidly assert that the levels of supervision given me have been more than satisfactory. I appreciate that it may be difficult to attend to an intern’s progress; the position is intrinsically untrained, at least to an extent, and there is also the factor of the importance of the legal work to consider.  However, as I believe I capably met the expectations of me, so too was I assisted in doing so through the supervision.  Expectations on all sides, then, have been met, in my estimation.

I would go on to specify that each supervisor helped me in distinct ways.  My field supervisor, for example, assigned me pragmatic tasks to complete, from properly filing client documents to participation in closing processes.  These tasks gave me a valuable and literal sense of the importance of timing, attention, and thoroughness in working with an attorney, experience I will certainly find useful as a paralegal.  Then, my academic supervisor helped me more in areas related to acquiring skills, such as writing a resume and learning the techniques of good interviewing.  Combined, this efforts on their parts gave me confidence and helped to hone and develop a variety of skills.  Equally importantly, they gave me vital support in this foray into the real world of the criminal justice system.

Lastly, I wish to convey that my supervisors gave me something else: they reinforced my determination to move on from an internship merely by virtue of exposing me to the realities of their own professionalism.  While I believe I met the expectations regarding my performance, I must acknowledge that no intern is ever without hesitancy, or in need of direct guidance.  That this was given to me, then, allows me to see how I myself may be so capable in my career.  In working within a professional environment and required to contribute to it, I was able to more clearly envision taking my own place as a professional.