Blog 14: Interview 3 Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

 I plan to interview my mentors paralegal Luz. Luz is a paralegal that works in my mentor’s law firm and also works for my mentor.

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview?

I have contacted Luz to schedule an interview and she said she would tell me her availability. It will be sometime within the next two weeks.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

What are the best ways to make sure the client is satisfied?

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

What is the definition of satisfy and how does it relate to the ending result of a case for a client?

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.

What are the steps into informing the client during their case? What do you tell the client and what do you leave out? Is their a way to give out too much information to the client?

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am doing my mentorship at my mentor's law firm called Hafif and Associates.

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

Cindy Hafif, my mentor, is a Personal Injury lawyer. She has been in this work for years and became successful enough to run a law firm.

3.   How many hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).

I have done 26 mentorship hours during the school year so far, along with 19.5 summer mentorship hours. I have also completed 26 hours for my independent component one.

4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.

I have learned how to make a case, file a case, destruct a case file. I learned my mentor's tips and tricks on how to stay neat and organized for all the paperwork that is required in Personal Injury cases. I've gotten to sit in meditations, depositions, and court trials. I plan on doing all that I can do in learning new things with my mentor and attending more of these meetings.

Blog 12: Holiday Project Update

1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

I met with my mentor 3 times over winter break. I helped her with some files and made nametags for her Christmas party. I also went to LA with her to a mediation that took 15 hours! It was honestly super boring but I did learn from it.

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

I learned that being a lawyer is really hard and sometimes boring work. As a lawyer you have to always pay attention, have the right paperwork, give good advice, always seem awake and not let your guard down. Since a lawyer’s client is paying them, they have to know what they’re doing, present themselves, and be ready for anything. During the 15-hour mediation, my mentor had to do all of this and more, while I’m sitting there trying not to fall asleep. To be a lawyer, I learned, you really have to love it and love everything that comes with it.

3. Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

I plan to interview my mentor's paralegal, Luz. She is a highly qualified lawyer and does a lot of work for my mentor. I think she give me a lot of good information on what she does, how she became a successful lawyer, and what it takes to be a lawyer.

Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

I’m most proud of the information I put out in my presentation without stumbling very much. I am also proud I made time limit with everything that I wanted to talk about. Notecards really helped me with what I wanted to say, so I wouldn’t blank out during the presentation.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.


I would probably give myself a P, because I did all that was required by context and time limit. I presented my hook, EQ, went in depth with Personal Injury Law, talked about my mentorship and interviews, cited an article, interacted with the audience, dressed appropriately, and made the time limit.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

If I could go back I probably would bring in props and/or books to give my presentation more visually pretty vibe. In my lesson two I will change that and bring in a book or two.

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

I am mentoring at my mentors law firm. I am somewhat shadowing my mentor. Sometimes I will just follow my mentor around and see what she is doing, and other times my mentor will give me a task to do such as helping her with cases. I also help her paralegal and do work with her in cases. All these tasks are related to my topic because all the cases are personal injury. Yes there are many lawyers that work in her law firm, such as her paralegal.

2. How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

My mentor is a family friend and all I did was ask her and she said sure no problem, as long as I am willing to work.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person

I would say I am very comfortable with my mentor, but I have a professional relationship with her in a way. I’ve grown to really respect my mentor with what she does because she puts in so many hours, with hard work, and really loves what she does.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

My mentor has been really busy these past two weeks and hasn’t really had any time to be interviewed. But, my mentor was willing to do a short interview with me. I need to work on thinking of follow up questions under pressure. When I’m being recorded I get nervous and I can’t ever think of follow up questions.

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

I do currently have a mentor, Personal Injury lawyer, Cindy Hafif, and I already have completed the interview.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.  

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to narrow down my topic to because it is already narrowed down. What I have been thinking is:

How can a lawyer make a client happy and give them what they deserve in their case? This can be narrowed down to professionalism, executing a case as fast as possible so there won’t be stress on the client, trustworthiness, and truth.

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

I will next go to the law library near my mentors firm and pick up books about my topic. This will help me get reliable and updated information about my topic.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

Some possible essential questions I have been thinking about are:

How does a personal injury lawyer ensue the best outcome/overall satisfaction of their client?

How can a personal injury lawyer earn trust with their client, remain professional, and execute their job with quality and results the fastest?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

1. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I plan on attending my mentor’s mediations and depositions. These usually go on from 4-5 hours. Depending on how long they are I should attend from 4-6 of them. The rest of my hours, probably the remaining 5-10 hours will be writing up on what happens during the mediations and depositions.

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

To show my evidence, I will log all my hours on the blog and will write up a “summary” of what is said during the mediations or depositions. I have summary in quotes because I need to talk to my mentor on seeing what I can make public and what I cannot.

3. Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

Hopefully during these mediations and depositions I will be attending will let me expand on what happens in the field of law and what can be thrown around. I will be experiencing this live and be able to start figuring out what I like about it and what I dislike. I get to learn about people’s lives and it’s all very exciting and different.

4. Update your Senior Project Hours log.

Sounds good and I will keep on it.