Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

1. Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

My mentor is Cindy Hafif and works at Hafif and Associates. My mentor is an expert Personal Injury Lawyer. She owns her own law firm and has many lawyers that work for.

2. What five questions will you ask them about their background?

·      What did you study in college?

·      How did your education prepare you for becoming an attorney?

·      What made you want to be in the field of Personal Injury Law?

·      How did you start out your career and what was your journey that made you become successful into owning your own law firm?

·      Considering everybody you have met throughout your career, what personal qualities are essential for success?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?  

My mentorship has worked really well so far. I am able to see all the work my mentor does and see some of the paperwork and steps required for a case. My mentor is willing to meet with me and doesn’t mind helping me out with her cases because there is so much work that goes into it. This experience has been positive so far because my mentor is so kind and helpful. Any time I have a question, I just ask her or her paralegal and they will take the time to explain anything to me. So far I am enjoying my mentorship and I am learning many new things.

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

Some difficulty I am having is I feel like I don’t really know anything about what goes on in a courtroom. I would love to go to court to watch my mentor speak her case, but her trials are always early in the morning during school hours. I need to find a time to watch a trial, because without it, I feel like I am not really experiencing what a lawyer does. I will need to go over with my mentor all her court dates and figure out a time where I can go with her and watch one. The senior team wouldn’t be able to help me on this because it is between my mentor and I. I am also having trouble figuring out where I want to go with my project. My mentoring only shows me so much. The senior team might be able to help me figure out what road I should take next in this project.

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

Now I need to call my personal injury lawyer.

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

The most important thing I learned from my interview was, you really need to love what you do. My mentor would not be where she is today if she didn’t do what she enjoyed. Even though my topic may seem like a lot of work, and it is, the end result makes a huge difference. Every time a case is resolved, you just helped out an entire family or one important person, and that is the greatest feeling in the world.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

My mentor gave me many options for resources and contacts. She told me about a law library, which is just up the street from her law firm, that I can check out books and learn a lot of things about my topic. My mentor also told me about free legal services that are right outside of the library. This service can answer any questions and give me information and insight on my topic. My mentor told me I could also interview them for one of my interviews. The last contact she gave me was her paralegal, which is very important. Her paralegal literally does everything. Any time a lawyer in her firm needs help, the paralegal is there to assist them so their work isn’t as strenuous. My mentor’s paralegal would be a perfect person to interview because the paralegal dips into different cases with different types of lawyers all the time.

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

My mentor who I interviewed is very qualified because she works in the topic that I chose for my senior topic. I got inspiration from her to approach this topic and do it for my senior project. She is very successful with her cases and owns her own law firm. She is a professional in personal injury law and she gave me great insight on what she does and what I can learn from it.

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

Wanting to achieve my goal by accomplishing my dreams. But first, I have to take a big step and go up and over mountain tops to be successful in life.

Write a short explanation of what you are hoping to accomplish through your senior project topic.

What I hope to accomplish this year is figuring out what I want to be in life or what I want to do as a career. Mentoring at my mentor's law firm this past summer and this year will hopefully let me figure out if law is something I want to pursue as a career. So far, law is quite interesting for me. There are some aspects that I enjoy, but there are some parts that I don't like as much. Hopefully, this year by digging up more information, doing independent components, and conducting interviews, I will be able to come to a conclusion on how I relate to law as a whole. This year, I also hope to find new meanings to life. What I mean by that, is finding the deeper picture of how I want to grow up and what I want to be as a person. This senior project will help me with that because mentoring with my mentor this year will show me discipline, how to work with people, and conducting work professionally. I hope that this mentorship will bring a new outlook for me and show me away to a bright career.

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

 

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

           

I plan to interview Cindy Hafif, my mentor. She is the most reasonable person to do my interview with because my topic is about what she does for work. Since, I have mentored with her during the summer, she is the only person in mind that I would even interview.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask. What additional questions do you plan to ask? Ask open-ended questions.

The five questions that are assigned are:

1. I’m interested in studying accidental law. What can you tell me about it? 
2. From your perspective, what could I study that would be significant to other people? 
3. Who else would you recommend I talk to? 
4. What kinds of places or activities do you recommend I do for the mentorship component? 
5. What materials should I read in this field? Who else can I interview?

Some questions I’m going to ask my mentor are:

1. How many personal injury cases have you taken to trial? What were the results? 
2. How long does it typically take to resolve an injury case? 
3. How many cases are you currently handling? Do you think you take to many at a time? 
4. Do you have help with any of the cases? If so, how many people on your team? 
5. Do you enjoy your practice of law? Why?