I spent part of this past summer interning with the North Carolina Department of Justice, in the Land, Groundwater and Waste section of the Environmental Division. I was pleased to have this opportunity to combine two of my core interests – public service and environmental law. I am very grateful to the North Carolina Bar Association Government & Public Sector Section for supporting my interest in public service with a $1,000 scholarship to help cover my expenses for the summer.

I am a law student who has entered law school after changing careers, and the impulse to serve others drove my decision to go to law school. I joined the Navy after high school because I was drawn to its ideals of service and leadership. My time in uniform built the foundation that allowed me, a few years later, to build my own business as a freelance editorial manager, writer, and editor. In choosing law school, I returned to those ideals; I was seeking a way to deploy my writing and research skills in service to others, and to society at large. Working with the Environmental Division allowed me to combine that impulse to serve others with my deep personal concerns about environmental issues, including climate change and the vast amount of waste humans create.

My internship experience was, inevitably, shaped by the pandemic. The DOJ was largely remote, so I spent a lot of time on Teams and a lot of time responding to research requests online. In some ways, that routine wasn’t very different from my previous work as a self-employed editor. But the lawyers I worked with in the section made sure I was engaged with the section’s business and that I had opportunities to see and do things we are not taught in law school. They brought me along to (virtual) depositions and (in-person) deposition prep sessions and introduced me to some discovery tasks. They asked me to investigate some regulatory issues, which itself was an education in administrative law and the CFR. Then, they included me in client meetings to discuss those issues. I was also invited along on a tour of the Department of Environmental Quality water laboratory, where we learned about the tools DEQ uses to monitor not just water quality but entire aquatic ecosystems.

Perhaps most importantly, the lawyers I worked with this summer treated me as an integral part of the team. They asked my opinion on the issues I researched, debriefed with me after meetings and depositions, and included me in discussions about the cases we worked on. It was at these moments that I really learned what a lawyer’s work looks like. As a first-generation law student, these moments were invaluable. Those moments, along with the generosity of these busy lawyers, are the lessons I’ll carry forward as I begin my own career.

October 28, 2021/by GovernmentandPublicSector