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Licensed in California, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Texas, Washington, the District of Columbia, and before the USPTO.
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Erik is a second-year law student at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara, double majoring in Philosophy and Communication and receiving a Certificate in Sports Management. In addition to the clerkship at Lloyd & Mousilli, he will be working as a research assistant in the Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors Clinic (MLPS) at UC Hastings.
Excelling in his legal research and writing courses, Erik received the CALI Excellence Award as the highest scoring student in his LRW 1 class. Additionally he received “Honorable Mention” for best oral argument in LRW 2. This year, he will serve as Internal Vice President of the UC Hastings Sports Law Association and participate as a peer mentor for the Hastings Tech Law Society.
Erik is especially interested in the intersection of sports, law, and technology and aspires to practice in the field of IP and commercial transactions upon graduation.
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Erik is a second-year law student at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara, double majoring in Philosophy and Communication and receiving a Certificate in Sports Management. In addition to the clerkship at Lloyd & Mousilli, he will be working as a research assistant in the Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors Clinic (MLPS) at UC Hastings.
Excelling in his legal research and writing courses, Erik received the CALI Excellence Award as the highest scoring student in his LRW 1 class. Additionally he received “Honorable Mention” for best oral argument in LRW 2. This year, he will serve as Internal Vice President of the UC Hastings Sports Law Association and participate as a peer mentor for the Hastings Tech Law Society.
Erik is especially interested in the intersection of sports, law, and technology and aspires to practice in the field of IP and commercial transactions upon graduation.
The first week of the clerkship program was exciting and an absolute blur. After the first few onboarding meetings on Monday, I dove straight into assigned work. I was designated to the transactional sector for my first clerkship rotation.
Starting Monday, I prepared a memo that compared and contrasted corporation entity types and detailed how to designate a B-corporation in Delaware. Since neither Shivani nor I had any background knowledge on B-Corps, we did not necessarily even know what information we needed to compile in order to properly advise her client. The “B-Corporation Certification” is relatively new, so my initial search for detailed information was scarce and it took much longer than expected to find and identify what I was looking for in order to complete the memo. I was thrilled to learn more about corporation entity formation and the tax and business advantages of each type.
Estella and I began working together on compiling a chart of types of open source licensing agreements, detailing what the advantages and disadvantages of applying for each license would be for a client. We are still in the early stages of compilation and will be meeting with Mac again this week to organize our findings and discuss how to proceed.
The most difficult part of the first week was figuring out how to best manage my time and balance the work between two new positions. Schedule management was overwhelming early in the week as recurring meetings were slowly being entered into the calendar and I constantly bounced between various meetings and tasks with little structure. By Friday, I devised a work schedule that would split my time between the two positions by day of the week, since the split brain approach of focusing on both each day proved to be ineffective. Moving forward, I feel much more organized and will not have additional external commitments week to week. It will be essential to have an up-to-date calendar, an ongoing task-list, and an organized Google Drive to find success during this clerkship.
The second week was much more manageable as I settled into a scheduled routine between the Lloyd & Mousilli and UC Hastings Clinic positions. My calendar was organized and I knew what periods of the day throughout the week that I would have meetings and which periods I would be available to work on tasks. I had one on one meetings with Megan and my assigned attorney mentor, Beth, who both had a lot of advice for me and provided direction on how to approach tasks. I am feeling more confident in my ability to produce quality work this week, and I expect to continue to improve as I settle in and become more adept.
Estella and I continued working on compiling a chart of open source license agreements. Our main goal was to determine the fields of use, termination rights, and financial restrictions of a number of licenses. Having no previous exposure to open source, I had to do more research to try and understand how open source works and try to understand the meanings of each license in layman’s terms. As such, reading through the language of each license to distill the information we were looking for proved to be difficult. We had a meeting to discuss our initial findings and decided to meet again next week to discuss questions regarding open source in general to help determine how to best proceed moving forward. Since our meeting, I have asked my roommate, who is a software engineer, to provide some easily digestible information about open source licenses and why parties would choose to use the different licenses we have been examining.
My second task of the week involved compiling a set of email screenshots and creating an easily digestible timeline chart as part of the intake process for one of Megan’s clients. The task was not difficult, but was very time consuming since the screenshots of the email threads were sporadic and often consisted of multiple email strings containing different dates.
Most of my time this week was spent writing my first article about patents in virtual reality. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing the article and doing the research along with it. It has given me a better understanding of the differences between VR and AR; how VR technology is continuing to evolve and what its uses are; and learning what major companies and entities are filing the most VR patents and why.
Ask for clarification on tasks and assignments. If there is something you do not understand or if you are unsure what is being asked of you, it pays dividends to ask for help. You may end up spending a lot of time on a task, only to have to go back and spend even more time altering your work because you did not produce the information that was needed.
I started out the week editing and finishing up the last bit of the article I started in Week 2 about patents in VR. I did extensive research on global trends in VR patents, discovering that in the last 3-4 years the Asia-Pacific Region (led by China) has eclipsed the North American Region (led by the U.S.) in the quantity of VR/AR patents being filed per year. Companies like Magic Leap, Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung continue to pace the field in VR patents. VR patents are currently trending toward a focus on real-world object rendering, which means that companies are developing technology that would allow consumers to directly scan objects in their surroundings into their VR environment to interact with.
My first actual task for the week consisted of doing research on what is necessary to allow a Delaware Corporation to do business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, I looked into different third party service providers who could help the client prepare the necessary forms to complete the process. Typically, once a company decides to expand to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), it has to become well-versed in the country’s subsidiary laws or hire someone (third party) to help complete the incorporation process.
I volunteered to work on a Founders Stock Purchase Agreement late Wednesday night. Unfortunately since I started after I got home from working in the clinic, I did not have anyone to turn to with questions as it was very late already in Pacific Time. Not having any background on FSPAs, I read through all of the files on Drive and did my own online research. I unknowingly experienced some technical issues with the form’s template that led to a poor demonstration of my abilities in my work product. The issues were cleared up the following day, but as I scrambled to make the changes while working in the clinic, I missed some important details that were added to the form after addressing the technical difficulties. After receiving feedback again Friday morning, I dedicated more time to make sure I paid an extreme attention to detail in shoring up the last of my mistakes.
In my last task, I took a first pass at drafting a client intake questionnaire and creating shipping and return policy forms. I read through a few templates and did some online research, reading through other companies’ policies to help determine what questions to ask in the questionnaire. I then drafted what a hypothetical shipping and refund policy would look like, leaving “fill in the blank” options to be filled in with the info gathered through the questionnaire.
My biggest advice from this week is to stay calm when something goes wrong. After an initial mistake that was a product of something out of my control, I became flustered, which led to making a few additional mistakes. Technical issues can happen from time to time, as is the nature of it all. However, in the future it is important that when something out of my control causes issues, that I address them calmly and with attention to detail as to not make additional mistakes that I could have avoided otherwise.
This week was an excellent learning experience for me. Due to conflicts, I missed the Week 3 clerkship check-in meeting and was very glad I was able to attend Monday’s meeting this week. It was great to sit in with Estella, Tiffany, and Megan and hear about the different assignments and experiences everyone else had undergone over the last week. I appreciated being able to ask questions in a less formal environment and hearing Megan’s anecdotal stories, which she always relates to some of the issues us clerks are experiencing. After the meeting, I stayed on and talked with Tiffany about our experiences working thus far and our professional interests and goals. On Tuesday, I met with Feras to discuss the Patents in VR Article that I had written last week. Later, the clerks had an intro to time-keeping for billable hours seminar with Beth. It was reassuring to hear that it is typical to only be able to report a fraction of the time you spent “working”. I had been feeling a slight sense of dread seeing how few hours I was able to actually report on my time sheet as compared to how many hours I was sitting at my desk “working”. After the seminar, I had my attorney mentor meeting with Beth, where she explained her huge win this week in her Toyz case against Toys R’ Us. Learning how she structured her arguments was extremely informative in understanding how to incorporate circumstantial occurrences into logical legal arguments. The rest of my time was spent working on tasks
My first task of the week was completing an outline for my 60 Second Legal video that we will be recording in the coming weeks. My chosen topic is “How to Form a C-Corporation in Delaware”. I did the necessary research on the steps to complete the process and wrote up an outline. Once I start filming to create the video itself, I will have to trim down my notes and only include the essential information to keep the video to 60 seconds.
For my second task, I researched and put together a how-to guide on incorporating an LLC in Nevada for Megan. It mostly involved digging through Nevada’s Secretary of State website to find the forms and links needed to file. After completing the how-to guide, I followed up by creating an operating agreement template for a single-member LLC in Nevada. Using the practical law function on Westlaw proved to be invaluable as I was able to look through numerous standard form agreements to use as guidance. Upon finishing the template, I filled in an operating agreement for the Nevada client Megan was working with.
For my third task, I took a Domain Transfer Agreement form and turned it into a template that could be used for a client and highlighted the information that still needs to be gathered to complete the form. I also began working on creating a definition and term sheet for an NDA template. I am creating a list of explanations for terms and clauses in an NDA that will later be integrated into the firm website to explain to clients and customers in simpler terms what each clause means.
My biggest takeaway from this week is how important it is to collaborate with those around you. Whether you are directly working with someone on a task or just talking to others to hear about their interests and experiences, those conversations will help you see different perspectives. I was very happy to have a lot more Google Meet interactions this week since it makes communication more personal than messaging over Slack.
I felt I had much better balance between my two positions and was able to accomplish what I set out to do this week. I got to have an introduction into soft IP this week. I also had to prepare and take a new professional headshot for Daisy because I did not have anything more recent than my college graduation.
My last outstanding task from my transactional rotation is completing a list of explanations for terms and clauses in an NDA that will later be integrated into the firm website to explain to clients and customers in simpler terms what each clause means. I have been using Westlaw as my main source to help in my endeavors. I plan to have it finalized this coming week.
I spent a lot of time this week on my 60 second legal video. I created a PowerPoint and included images and links that I thought would be beneficial for the final product. Cutting down my first outline into a slideshow that I thought I could squeeze into a 60 second video proved to be harder and take more time than I thought. I had to cut a lot of information down that I thought was important initially, but later realized that it would have to be cut down. After sending in my slideshow to Feras, he helped edit it to cut it down further. The actual filming of the video was incredibly difficult. I have not spent much time in front of the camera before and it was a good learning experience for me. Filming the 60 second video took me about 50 or so takes. I continually messed up, had to cough, skipped a line of my script, etc. So it took me forever to get a clean take. It gave me an appreciation for people working in film and the amount of time and effort they put into getting such a small amount of usable footage.
I met with Allie to receive my first soft IP related assignment which I will begin working on more next week. I will be working on an office action, which is a notification from the USPTO where the examining attorney lists any legal problems with a chosen trademark, as well as with the application itself. I will be working with Allie to identify an adequate specimen to be resubmitted for the client’s trademark application.
As I have settled in and become more familiar with Slack, I realize how important the various channels are to know what is going on with the rest of the firm. It is important to read and engage with channels and topics that don’t necessarily concern you directly because it helps with involvement with the rest of the firm. Sometimes in the remote environment you can become removed from those around you that you don’t interact with on a day to day basis, so interacting with the general and fun channels on Slack is a good way to stay visible and involved.
Officially halfway through the summer, I feel like I have finally settled into a good routine. I had my mid-summer review with Feras and Megan this week which was incredibly helpful. I relayed that I had been struggling adjusting to working in general as well as figuring out how to balance my time and work schedule between two positions, leading to dissatisfaction with my own performance. Feras and Megan were very understanding and gave me specific areas in which to improve for the second half of the summer. I am extremely grateful for the time and energy that they provide to the clerks and helping us learn as we work through so many things that we haven’t necessarily seen before. Following my review I was able to immediately have my attorney mentor meeting with Beth, who always gives incredible advice. This week, I made the true transition into the Soft IP rotation and have really enjoyed it so far. To top off the week, I was accepted into the UC Hastings Startup Legal Garage Corporate Module for this upcoming academic year.
My main task this week was focused on a demand letter from opposing counsel to one of L&M’s clients. The demand letter was in regard to a trademark issue concerning potential consumer confusion. I reviewed the demand letter, read over a few TTAB decisions, and wrote a first draft response. A couple days later, I was fortunate enough to sit in on the meeting that Feras and Megan had with the opposing counsel. I had not witnessed a meeting between counsel before and was extremely interested in analyzing Feras’ approach. I admired Feras’ ability to remain calm during the meeting, despite a somewhat hostile demeanor from the opposing associate. Feras then updated the letter draft and asked that I conduct some legal research to find supporting case law. After spending a late night Thursday researching, I attended my first Trademark Team Meeting and submitted a follow up edited draft later Friday.
My second task this week was following up on a client email regarding a copyright infringement issue relating to DMCA filings. The client asked what the requirements were to file DMCA action on Twitter and Tik Tok. Additionally, the client provided an example of a YouTube video he claimed to be infringing, which unfortunately I did not believe he had a strong claim for due to fair use laws.
Next, I assisted Allie in an office action and to produce a different specimen after the initial application was declined. It was difficult to find an example of the client using their mark in commerce and meet the specific requirements. I hope the specimen image I was able to produce is adequate in meeting the requirements.
My last task of the week was to shadow Allie file she filed a trademark application online with the USPTO.
The best advice that I learned this week is to be proactive in asking for help and feedback. The clerkship is so important as a learning tool. The more questions you ask and the larger variety of tasks you get to observe, the move you get out of the experience.
Due to the 4th of July, this week was somewhat of a truncated workweek. We moved our weekly clerkship meeting to Thursday and got to meet Tyler as he onboarded this week. The biggest introduction for this week was the Clerkship Mock Trial event for next week. We met with Lema on Friday for an introduction to the case and the issue we will be doing research for and arguing. Having only done one oral argument in my Legal Research and Writing Class this last semester, I am a little nervous to prepare for a longer presentation. However, there is no better place to practice than the supportive environment we are in. Additionally on Friday I had my attorney mentorship meeting with Beth which is always one of the highlights of my week. She’s been a great mentor and I really enjoy the mix of talking about advice for the legal field and general life experiences. Next week we have our last rotation switch, so I am excited to finally work under Beth in litigation.
To start the week, I followed up with the DMCA issue I had worked on for Shivani. I updated the memo I had sent with some additional information and was happy to see when some of my exact language was used in correspondence to the client.
The first cut of my 60 second legal video came out to 1 minute and 20 seconds, so I edited my script to cut it down to 1 minute. I will be shooting the next video draft over this weekend. I also started doing research for our Mock Trial next week. I definitely have more research that I will need to do this weekend so that Tiffany and I can practice together early next week.
I assisted on one of Allie’s cases, doing office action research on how to overcome a 2(d) refusal. I created an in depth memo detailing the factors that the USPTO uses in determining potential likelihood of confusion of a mark, then determined some potential avenues that we could take to address it for the client.
My advice this week somewhat overlaps with the advice I wrote about last week. I had a lot of meetings and direct interactions with other people this week. It is invaluable to try and create this face time while in a remote environment. It’s helpful to create clear expectations for tasks and assignments as well as boost morale.
It is absolutely unbelievable that it has already been over two months since the summer started. It has gone by incredibly fast and I notice myself learning more and more. We have reached our final summer rotation, in which I will be working with litigation for the remainder of the program.
This first week in litigation was somewhat of a blur because the clerks spent most of our time preparing for the firm’s clerk mock trial. I did have my first litigation team meeting this week, and I was both surprised and impressed at the speed and clarity in which Lema operated the meeting.
My favorite part of this week was the amount that the clerks interacted amongst ourselves. We often have short conversations throughout the week about how our tasks are going, but this week added another dimension as we all were focused on preparing for our mock trial oral arguments. It was so great to be in close contact with one another throughout the week and we have been discussing plans to do a virtual happy hour all together sometime in the next week or so.
I was assigned 2 tasks this week in my first experience in the litigation rotation. Due to the intensive prep for the oral arguments this week, I will be doing my outstanding tasks this weekend. I will be developing a letter to serve interrogatories and requests for production as well as create actual interrogatories for another case.
Mock trial was a different kind of beast to prepare for this week. I have never spent so much time doing research for something, and still felt so unprepared. One of the main issues I had was that we were asked to develop an argument using an Erie doctrine analysis. Unfortunately, my Civ Pro class did not cover the doctrine at all because we ran out of time at the end of the semester. After talking to my fellow clerks, who all spent multiple weeks learning about Erie in their courses, I realized how far behind I was in terms of learning the substance and being able to create a functional application of the doctrine for an argument. So, besides simply researching case law to write the pre-mock hearing memo, I had to try to learn what the Erie doctrine was and how to apply it. I was not prepared for how complicated it would be, since the bare definition of the doctrine seemed relatively simple. Luckily, Tiffany recommended some video and other resources to help me cover the material. Both Tiffany and Tyler were extremely helpful during the process and were always available to answer questions I had. So many times they were able to offer insight and clarify confusion I had about the nuances of the rule.
Since we were all initially struggling writing the memos, I asked Lema if we could extend our deadline from EOB to midnight (CT). Despite the extended deadline I still ended up having to work on it until 2am PST (4am CT). After trying to learn Erie, do legal research, and write the brief for about 13 hours on Tuesday, I had a quick turn around to working full days on Wednesday and Thursday in Clinic at UC Hastings, then trying to prepare for the oral argument at night afterwards. I know for a fact that I would not have made it through this week without Tiffany’s help. We stayed in constant communication messaging and scheduling calls to talk through ideas we had about the memo and mock trial. She was an absolute boon for me this week while I tried to get a handle on how to argue the subject matter that I was having such a difficult time even understanding. She was so kind and patient with me as I bombarded her with a million questions. Come Friday, the day of the actual argument, I was extremely nervous and anxious. I have typically struggled with anxiety issues before public performances in the past, so this was a big deal for me to be able to prepare. Despite knowing that this was an educational experience for the clerks and that it was a low stakes and supportive environment, I still had to work through a couple anxiety attacks in the morning as I tried to prepare. Once again Tiffany was there to help, and we scheduled a few calls Friday morning to chat and semi-rehearse our scripts. When it got to show time, I was extremely nervous to present the argument in front of the firm. I ended up referring to my script notes much more than I had hoped and did a lot of reading. My biggest blunder was that I did not put my case law citations on my script notes (as they were in a separate document I had created for cases) and was so nervous that I blanked on a few very important references and was unable to cite where I had drawn the authority from. Despite that huge mistake, I was able to work through the rest of my argument and answer a majority of the questions I was asked by the judge panel. Following the oral argument portion, we had a feedback panel which was so uplifting. After feeling like I got punched in the stomach (“In Feras’s words) the feedback panel was incredibly helpful. We received so much constructive feedback from Lema, Beth, Jeo, Feras, Ghallia, Marlene, Megan, Daisy, and Allie. Despite struggling a bit during the mock hearing, I was so appreciative of the supportive environment we had afterwards and cannot thank everyone enough. I messaged Lema after the event to thank her for all her guidance and feedback and told her how it helped me gain an even greater appreciation for what she does on the day to day. She is truly an inspiring figure in the firm and I am so excited to be working under her for the remainder of the clerkship. Despite not being particularly interested in litigation myself, I understand how crucial the skills developed in litigation are to other areas of practice.
Be prepared and okay with stepping outside your comfort zone. I know in actual practice it is something that lawyers have to do constantly, so it is great to have the opportunity to experience that in a low stakes environment designed to simulate those experiences for you. It’s crucial to practice, practice, practice and slowly but surely you will improve. Also, collaborate and get close to the other clerks!! This week was probably the most we have all communicated with one another throughout the week and it makes the work much less stressful knowing that you are not the only one struggling. Plus, collaborating is so helpful to hear ideas and perspectives from angles that you may not have been thinking about.
Due to the previous mock trial event, this was my first full week in the litigation rotation group. Although I currently do not have the intention to go into litigation, I wanted to keep my mind open for the summer and see first hand how the litigation looks in practice before closing my future options. Working under Lema is such a great opportunity. She is so organized, tenacious, and focused. Her confidence and knowledge is so impressive and I hope to one day be able to mirror that. I started out the week sitting in on the litigation team meeting with Lema and Marlene. They discussed each outstanding case and I was extremely appreciative of the time they took to pause during the case discussions to explain to me why the case had reached the point it was at and give insight on the firm’s next steps for each. Lema tasked me with researching a procedural issue in Justice of the Peace Courts in Texas and drafting interrogatories for another case. I later had my weekly mentorship meeting with Beth and as always she gave me great advice on how to approach drafting interrogatories and other things to key in on while in the litigation rotation.
Besides the work aspect of the week, I have come to realize how important it is to pour some emotion into these journal entries, so I wanted to cover a few things before diving into my weekly tasks. I had a little bit of an odd week outside of working. On Monday, following the litigation team meeting, I had to travel home to my family to go to a doctor’s appointment to address a knee issue I have been experiencing since falling prey to a ski accident in January. The doctor’s office was running behind so I had to wait an extended amount of time. Had I thought things through, I would’ve brought my laptop to be able to work while I was there, but unfortunately did not have the foresight to do so. By the time I was able to return to my apartment in San Francisco, I was exhausted and had lost 6 hours of my day to travel plus the appointment. I was frustrated by the result of the appointment and have to get an MRI this coming week. I was also frustrated by the clear inefficient use of time that forgetting to bring my computer caused me, since I had thought the total time would only be 2-3 hours at most.
Another important aspect that I wanted to share is that I have been struggling a lot with mental health issues recently. I think it is important to share these things because others do not have the ability to read your mind or assume anything about you. The stigma surrounding mental health issues continues to trend towards empathy and acceptance, which is crucial for those who struggle from issues such as anxiety and depression. I feel comfortable sharing that I unfortunately had a depressive episode this week that made it quite difficult to accomplish my work tasks as well as my daily routine. For example, on Tuesday, I could not get out of bed until 6pm and slept most of the day. In response, I shifted my work day to 8:30pm-4am to finish the tasks that I had been assigned. Every day brings something slightly different, so it is important to try and maintain a level of optimism, work through it to complete life and work tasks, and hope to receive empathy from others as you try to improve to become your best self.
Ending the week on a positive note, Tiffany and I discussed organizing a happy hour/game night for the clerks next weekend. Tiffany went ahead and organized everything so we will be able to have a little get together over Google Meets next weekend!
As I mentioned, my first task of the week was to address a procedural issue in the Justice of the Peace Court in Travis County. Living and going to school in San Francisco, CA I was unfamiliar with the Justice Courts and with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure in general. After spending a couple hours reading through the case and doing preliminary research on the TRCP and local rules. I found myself stuck trying to figure out what forms or letters needed to be submitted in order to issue a request for discovery. I reached out to a friend working in Houston for help since it was already so late. She did not know how to approach the issue, so she put me in contact with her friend at UT Austin. Her friend from UT did not know much about the Justice of the Peace Courts either, so I was back to the drawing board. I finally just sent Lema the information I had gathered to discuss at our check in meeting. Lema sent me in a different direction after our meeting, which I proceeded to try and work through on Friday. Finding myself stuck again in terms of what kind of motion/request to make after a few more hours of reading and research, I reached out to Beth for help. She gave me some great advice, so I will be working on shoring up my draft for the request over this weekend.
I had a lot more success with drafting the interrogatories for the other case I was tasked with. The facts of the case were fairly dense and I really enjoyed reading through all of the files on the Drive and getting a holistic view of the case. The issues at hand related to trademark infringement, trade secrets violations, and responding to the affirmative defenses raised by the opposing party. My meeting with Lema got cut short because she had a super busy week, so I will be getting feedback and most likely making revisions this coming week.
Sometimes it pays dividends to ask for help sooner if you get stuck on something. I spent so many hours trying to figure out a problem and after discussing with Beth, I realized that I had been approaching it wrong and that I had overcomplicated everything. Since I have had the least exposure to litigation previously, I need to remember that something that I might spend an hour trying to figure out is something Lema or Beth could advise me on in only a few minutes, which very much streamlines productivity. My second piece of advice is to keep pushing no matter how you’re feeling. The world doesn’t wait for you but you can receive empathy from those around you and they can appreciate the effort that you are trying to put in to find success anyway.
I settled into the litigation rotation this week. After attending the litigation team meeting Monday morning with Lema and Marlene, I was given further direction on completing the draft for the motion for written discovery and request for production for the Travis County Justice of the Peace court issue. I realized I had very much overcomplicated what I was tasked to do and that in actuality, the task was quite simple. I was frustrated that I had spent so many hours reading through Westlaw and the TRCP trying to figure out how to properly write the motion, when in reality, it should’ve taken me little time to complete. I was able to send in drafts for both tasks later that day. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to listen in on Beth’s hearing on Tuesday and we proceeded to have an hour long call following the hearing to discuss how and why things went the way they did, coupled with Beth’s typical amazing advice on how to approach standard practices in the field.
As I mentioned, the motion for discovery was actually an easy task after I had built it up in my head that I had to prepare this difficult piece of writing trying to compel the judge to find in our favor that discovery was necessary. I had spent hours trying to learn how to properly format and use correct language in preparing a motion for the Justice of the Peace Court. Lema had previously given me instructions, which I discovered later I had extremely overcomplicated. It turns out that all I had to write in the motion was a simple paragraph asking to move to discovery, followed by an attached exhibit of the Request for Production. It would then be up to the judge’s discretion whether they believed the RFP was “reasonable and necessary” based on the specific requests. I was disappointed that I had essentially "wasted" so much time trying to figure out this task that should have only taken me 20-30 minutes. However, it was a good learning experience and I ended up doing a lot of research which I hope will be useful in the future.
The next task was to prepare the actual Request for Production that would be submitted as an exhibit of the motion for written discovery. I had never prepared nor seen what an actual RFP looked like, so I pulled up a few templates on Westlaw and looked through the L&M Google Drive to find examples in which to base it off of. It was slightly more difficult than I had expected and required preparing a few different sections, containing “instructions,” “definitions,” and then the “requests”. The templates were very useful in figuring out the formatting, but it still took a significant amount of time as I compared multiple templates in discerning the exact language and paragraph structure that I wanted to use. Once I arrived at preparing the actual requests, I had difficulty preparing them with specificity. The folder about the case on Drive did not contain a lot of details about the case facts, so I prepared more general requests, in hopes of editing them later. Once I submitted the draft, Lema explained that I needed to make the requests more specific to comply with TRCP 196.1, which states that “requests must specify the items to be produced… and describe with particularity each item and category.” I will be following up with Lema this coming week about what specifics should be included in the requests, so that I can improve the draft to comply with the TRCP.
My third task of the week was to prepare a case index for Megan and to canvas the Google Drive case folder to put all important events and documents into chronological order. Although not an extremely difficult task by methodology, it was quite time consuming to read through countless documents carefully enough not to miss important details. Additionally, when preparing an index like this, you have to sift through a lot of duplicate information as many events and documents have slight variations in reference to the same event. I was glad to be able to take something off Megan’s plate, since she has her hands in every single bucket possible at the firm. She has much bigger fish to fry than trying to sift through documents to create a comprehensive picture of the timeline of a case.
Every week you are learning new things… every day really. Megan asked us during our Summer Clerks Weekly Check-in on Monday what we had taken away and learned so far. I could begin to list and specify everything I have learned so far. From how to form an entity in different states or creating operating agreements to participating in the mock trial and preparing motions and requests for the court, I have learned something every single day of this Clerkship. I am even more appreciative of the patient environment at L&M, as I know I have often struggled to complete work products efficiently as I try to learn simply how to do things in the legal world. I could not have been more happy with my experience here and seeing so many different perspectives in how the actual practice of law works, having had little to no exposure prior to this Summer. My biggest advice from this week is to appreciate the learning process. I know that I have learned skills and been exposed to things in this clerkship that I most definitely would not have had the opportunity to experience elsewhere. So, even when things seem hard, stressful, or overwhelming, remember to trust the process. Everyone around you wants to see you succeed and will help you get there
It almost doesn't feel real that there is only one more week left of the summer. Last Sunday, Tiffany organized a virtual happy hour and game night for the clerks plus Ghallia and Allie. We had been talking about doing an event like this for a few weeks and it finally came together. Of course, as luck would have it, I popped a tire on my car driving home and had to spend the rest of the day at Costco getting it fixed and missed the event. I am hoping that we can plan another event so that Tyler and I can attend this time around. Our weekly clerkship meeting was great per usual. I always enjoy hearing the insights on how the other clerks have been doing in general and with work as well as listening to Megan’s updates on all aspects of the firm. Sometimes as a clerk you forget that there is so much more going on outside of our little bubbles. So, getting that reminder every once in a while is humbling and reinforces my respect for everyone in the firm that much more.
Over the weekend the clerks returned to finalizing our 60 Second Legal videos. After spending almost three hours trying to record a semi-decent take the first time around, I had much more success this time. I was able to simplify my script to get my video under 60 seconds and was able to record a video I was very happy with within a reasonable amount of time. The videos were submitted to Allie and hopefully we get to see them published on the website or LinkedIn in the near future!
Lema had me quickly pivot to a different task. The TRO for a different client was set to expire before the injunction hearing, so I called the Court’s clerk to find out how to extend the TRO until the matter could be heard. Marlene prepared a skeleton for me to work off of and I prepared the motion to extend. Drafting motions still feels a bit foreign to me based on the style of language and how each request should be formulated. It was very helpful to have Marlene’s skeleton template to work off of so that I did not have to worry about the formatting of the motion. After completing my draft, I got some useful feedback from Marlene and made a few minor adjustments. On Wednesday, Lema asked if I could prepare the proposed order, but unfortunately I was working at the Hastings Clinic and wasn't available to work on it until the evening, so Lema took care of it herself. The hardest part of my summer has been the split time and brain between the two positions and often being asked to do things when I am on the clock for the other position and unable to get to it for a while. As happy as I am that I got such a breadth of exposure and experience this Summer, I often found myself wishing throughout the Summer that I had only stuck with one full time position rather than splitting my week.
My last litigation task for the week was to research how an entity could file for trade dress infringement for commercial fixtures when the entity no longer has brick and mortar stores. I thoroughly enjoyed diving into this research question because I have a specific interest in the case itself. I discovered that it did not matter whether the entity had physical stores in order to file for trade dress infringement, but it might affect the strength of its claims. The four elements typically examined in trade dress infringement cases are definition; functionality; distinctiveness; and likelihood of confusion. Since the entity has not had any physical stores for a few years, it will weaken their claim since the distinctiveness and likelihood of confusion diminishes over time as consumers are no longer exposed to those fixtures. One way the entity can strengthen their claim of infringement is through consumer surveys, so Lema had me follow up with some research on how to counter consumer surveys. Additionally, I will be visiting a pop-up location of the entity this coming week to examine whether the use of the fixtures at issue in the case has since been resumed.
Enjoy your summer as a clerk! At first it feels overwhelming because you have to figure out simply how to do things… but then you look up and the summer is over. It sounds cliche, but you have to appreciate the little things. Appreciate the feeling you get when you finally figure something out that you’ve been stuck on for far too long. Know that that satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment only comes by putting in a lot of effort. At many points of the summer I felt lost or inadequate in my work, but over time I really felt myself improve and that is the important takeaway from this experience. Talking to other friends with various positions, we are extremely lucky to have the exposure to real world experience and practice at L&M. The people in the firm are so kind and want to help you to succeed in your goals. Appreciate those around you, they will always be a part of your journey and development both as a person and in the field of law. I can’t thank Megan and Beth enough for all of their support and mentorship. For Feras and Lema to give clerks personalized feedback amongst their insanely busy schedules is nothing short of amazing. I am so grateful for this experience and for the people I have met along the way that made it all possible.
As luck would have it, after 2.5 years I finally got Covid during the last week of the program. I tested positive on Monday and had the energy to do some work for the first couple days of the week, and then the fatigue hit me hard. I was bed bound for the next three days with extreme fatigue and brain fog, but luckily my cold and flu symptoms were relatively mild. I mostly laid in bed and slept this week, so I was disappointed to miss out on my last week of work for both L&M and the UC Hastings Clinic. Additionally, my birthday was also on Sunday, so I ended up being stuck in quarantine and unable to fully celebrate. I did travel home to see my family with masks on and had a nice socially-distanced birthday dinner. I am finally feeling much better and hope to test out of quarantine in the next couple of days.
I continued my research on trade dress infringement for commercial fixtures. My goal now is to determine if the entity in question is now using the fixtures and elements they claim to maintain trade dress over in their new pop up stores. If they do, my next step is to determine what the extent of that claim is. Since I was stuck in isolation all week, I was unable to go visit the pop-up store myself, but I sent a message to the firm asking if anyone located near a pop-up store could check it out. Once I test negative, I will be going to check out the store near me and finishing up my research for Lema.
The experience at L&M teaches you even more than you think it does. After completing your work for the summer you obviously have a grasp of the concepts and processes that you have learned about and experienced. But, the knowledge gained goes far beyond that. I attended the UC Hastings Startup Legal Garage Zoom introduction meeting over the weekend and I realized that I had already experienced just about everything that was covered in the intro PowerPoint. From confidentiality to learning how to collaborate with the other clerks on projects to understanding client interaction, I experienced it all during the clerkship program. I feel extremely prepared for the work that lies ahead of me during this upcoming academic year. I cannot thank Feras, Lema, Megan, and Beth enough for their mentorship and guidance this summer. This program truly does give you amazing real world practice and exposure to skills that you will not get elsewhere. So, just appreciate the experience and relish it knowing how much you will get out of it.