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Kimberly finished her first year of law school at the top of her legal writing class for crafting a memorandum on trade secrets among other projects. She especially enjoys learning about the intersection of technology and the law and she is planning on practicing in the intellectual property when she graduates. On a personal level, Kimberly is passionate about animal rescue and welfare.
The Law on Enforcing Arbitration: When Has a Party lost the Right to Arbitrate?
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Kimberly finished her first year of law school at the top of her legal writing class for crafting a memorandum on trade secrets among other projects. She especially enjoys learning about the intersection of technology and the law and she is planning on practicing in the intellectual property when she graduates. On a personal level, Kimberly is passionate about animal rescue and welfare.
The Law on Enforcing Arbitration: When Has a Party lost the Right to Arbitrate?
The most rewarding part about my first week clerking with Lloyd and Mousilli, besides getting to know the wonderful people working here, has been how each assignment is challenging me to develop my understanding of the law in new ways. Although I learned a bit about trade secrets during my first semester of law school, most of the tasks I was assigned are new to me. As a result, I have learned a great deal in just the first week. The feedback Lema, Megan, and Feras have given me on my assignments has been extremely helpful.
My first assignment was from Megan and it was to collaborate with my fellow law clerk, Ram, to research whether a particular company needs an export license to offer its services in Sudan. Megan referred to this as a stretch assignment and it certainly proved to be so since I was unfamiliar with the Bureau of Industry and Security and Export Administration Regulations. To get familiar with the topic, I read through the relevant documents several times. If I was not completely sure if a licensing exception applied to Sudan and the services to be sold, I made a note of it in a document for Megan to review.
My second assignment from Megan was to create a memo outlining the steps for the exporting company to obtain the proper license. This was a challenging process because there was some ambiguity at first about what documents the company would need to submit. Megan stressed the importance of breaking down the information into steps so that a client would not need to look at documentation outside the memo to know how to obtain the proper license. This advice was very helpful because thinking about it from the client’s viewpoint will help me to write in a more direct manner going forward.
My third assignment was from Lema and it was to research case law on trade secrets and to search for ethics opinions on non-compete agreements within law firms. My first step was to get familiar with the context of the case for which I would be conducting research by reading through a Motion to Dissolve a Temporary Injunction. While I read various types of motions in law school, I was excited to learn more about injunctions and how to dissolve them. Ethics opinions were new to me. My research did not produce a lot of results but it was a wonderful opportunity to refine my research skills within Westlaw and conduct research outside the typical means taught in law school. Lema also explained how the lack of research results was good because the law is pretty clear on the issue.
My advice for the first week is to recognize that receiving an assignment about a topic you are not familiar with is the golden opportunity to grow your understanding of the law. Don’t let unfamiliarity prevent you from diving into the project. But if a project seems overwhelming, break it down into smaller steps and always conduct thorough research. Also, make note of any feedback you receive and review it when you are working on the next project so that you continually produce better results.
Interning has a way of opening up the mind to areas of the law in a way that cannot be replicated in a classroom setting. I have no doubt that I will look back on this internship as the most rewarding training experience of my law school career.
My first assignment this week was from Megan and it was to write an article on the benefits of state trademark registration and the enforcement process. This was a challenging task since I was not familiar with trademarks and it required some research outside of Westlaw and LexisNexis. But it was a really good way to learn about an unfamiliar topic. It is a great honor for me to have the opportunity, as a rising 2L law student, to write an article for Lloyd & Mousilli’s website. This motivated me to check my work and research the topic thoroughly since I want to represent the firm well. I also found translating the law and writing it in a reader friendly manner to be valuable practice since it helped me think about the best ways to communicate a complex subject to a potential client.
My second assignment was from Lema and it was to research and write a memorandum on exclusive distribution agreements. For this task I spent a lot of time combing through the Federal Trade Commission's website to understand the law and regulations surrounding such agreements. I am beginning to realize just how important federal agencies are in the legal world. I also checked Texas law to verify there were no differences between what the federal and state governments require.
This assignment had a big impact on me. When I started law school, I had a very narrow focus on what area of law interested me. However, I realized as I researched this topic that I am interested in other areas of law such as business agreements and their legal implications.
My third assignment was from Lema and it was to write a memorandum on enforcing arbitration after engaging in discovery. Arbitration was also a new topic to me, but I found it to be fascinating. This type of memo was focused on case law, which is similar to the writing I did in law school. There were a lot of cases to sift through and organize so it ended up taking me longer than I thought it would. I am a very detail-oriented person and it is easy for me to focus on one project intensely to the exclusion of others. I ended up getting a bit behind in two of my other assignments from Megan. I communicated where I was at with those assignments and Megan kindly gave me some more time to work on them.
Recently Megan asked me what my goals were for the day. Writing them out in detail helped me get a better idea of how I needed to structure my schedule. It can be hard to know how much time an assignment may take. But I think planning out each day and week according to the assignments is a good way to practice time management. Also, communicating early with the person who gave you the assignment is critical if you start to fall behind.
The field of law is not for the faint of heart. I noticed throughout my first year of law school how a fair amount of students would stop showing up to class. Eventually, my friends and I concluded that the missing students dropped out. The cold calling, heavy reading load, and notorious law school essay exams are challenging. Similarly, clerking and experiencing what work at a law firm is like can be very challenging. And I absolutely love every minute of it!
During my third week at Lloyd & Mousilli, I worked on refining the trade secrets article that I wrote last week in addition to several new assignments.
My first new assignment was from Megan and it was to write an article on copyright infringement concerns for tech startups but with a focus on source code. I think this was one of the hardest assignments I have received so far. Although I have a background working in information technology, I am not very familiar with coding. I started off by researching the specific issue, but I did not come up with many resources. I talked with Megan and she was very helpful to explain the best way to approach this article. My job was to explain copyright infringement and use source code as the example. There were nuances specific to source code that I needed to research and include, but this framework helped me understand how to structure the article.
My second assignment was from Lema and it was to review a settlement agreement for fairness issues. I had a similar project in my legal research and writing course and I was glad to get to practice these skills again. As a very detailed person, I like to read through documents at least twice. With contracts, maybe even more. This is because some contracts can be written in a wordy manner that is hard to understand. This document had been written by an opposing counsel and since I was reviewing it for fairness issues, I wanted to be sure I understood everything. I tried to think of any possible ways the wording could be construed against our client. This project was excellent practice in thinking outside the box.
My advice for this week is don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you don’t understand the best way to approach an assignment, ask the person giving it to you. And since it is easy to forget instructions when you are learning a lot of new things, don’t rely on your memory. Instead, take good notes.
Have four weeks really gone by? Time flies when you are having fun. During my fourth week, I received four assignments from Lema. My favorites were attending court and researching case law that led me to the Texas Constitution.
My first assignment this week was to research possible causes of action that can be brought against a fraudulent charity. I started the research process by combing through the Texas Business and Commerce Code as well as the Texas Business Organization Code. I found a few things that may be relevant but nothing that seemed to directly address the issue at hand. I broadened my search by checking secondary sources on Westlaw for possible leads and also searched through federal resources. After spending two mornings on this issue with little to show for it, I asked James about how to handle this kind of situation where a lot of time is put into a research project that isn’t turning up much information. James’s advice helped me change the way I was viewing this project. His advice was that as long as there is not a hard deadline to meet, I should keep researching because I am developing skills from the research process itself. From there, I formed a plan to track my research in a document, writing down the different legal resources I checked and what they had to offer on the issue, if anything at all. I am still working on this assignment, but even if my research does not turn up anything life-changing, the assignment itself will be an excellent exercise in staying organized and tracking my research so that when I work on the next assignment I will be more efficient.
My second assignment was to attend a court hearing with Lema. This was exciting because I got to see how a research assignment I worked on contributed to advocating for Lema’s client. Our case was late in the docket and I was able to observe quite a few cases while we waited. I found the psychology in the courtroom to be absolutely fascinating. Something I love about Lloyd & Mousilli is that the attorneys at this firm are true advocates, meaning they care about their clients and always work to further the client’s interest. Lema is a role model in so many ways and I am excited I got to observe her expert litigation skills in the courtroom. After the hearing, we talked about the case and next steps since a follow up hearing had been scheduled.
My third assignment was to summarize a case dealing with an exception to arbitration enforceability. This was an opportunity to learn more about arbitration and some peculiarities with Texas law, specifically from the Texas Constitution.
One of my favorite classes from my first year of law school was Constitutional Law. My professor did not shy away from difficult topics and she challenged the class to think hard about the many different sides of an argument. She is one of those gifted scholars who has a way of calling students to a higher standard of thought. As a result, I thrived in my Constitutional Law class and I recently learned that I will serve as my professor’s teaching assistant for her next 1L Constitutional Law class. During my Constitutional Law class, I became very interested in other types of constitutions as well. So when this assignment led me to the Texas Constitution, I was thrilled.
It is easy as a student to question your abilities. Thoughts like “am I really qualified to do this?” may pop into your mind. Don’t let that stop you from trying new things and stretching your mind. This internship is so valuable because expert attorneys are taking time from their busy schedules to provide you with feedback and mentor you. Don’t take that for granted.
Also, if you happen to have a complex research assignment, take that as an opportunity to practice organization skills by tracking your research steps.
Heading into my fifth week interning, I started off by incorporating edits on an article that had been reviewed by Megan and James. After that, I needed to prioritize certain assignments since my internship only had three weeks remaining. The research on what claims can be brought against a fraudulent charity from last week had the least pressing deadline, so I started working on other assignments. Lema reviewed the interrogatories I had written and gave me some pointers on edits that needed to be made. I also got a few new assignments as well.
My first assignment for this week was to convert two memos I had written a few weeks ago into articles. This sounds like a simple project, but in order to meet the word count requirements for the website articles, I needed to conduct more research. Also, a memo is written very differently than articles. I reworded every sentence to make it more reader friendly and easier to understand. As with every article assignment, it was good practice to explain the law in simple terms.
My next task was really exciting because I attended a new client informational meeting. The new client was a tech startup in the education industry. As someone who has worked with technology in an educational environment, I was excited to learn more about this company. It was a really good experience to hear the business jargon since it made me realize how I need to beef up my studying on business terminology. Megan was super helpful by recommending a good business law resource for further studying.
My third assignment was from Lema and it was to create a chart comparing the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure on the topic of discovery. I started off by making a traditional outline, so that I could get more familiar with the rules. Then I broke them down into smaller sections and put them on slides so that they were easier to compare to each other. While I took Civil Procedure in my first year of law school, I realized quickly how little I knew about the rules. A major take away from this internship is just how important civil procedure is for litigation. These rules can have a significant impact on an attorney’s litigation strategy!
My advice for this week is that if you want to be a litigator, memorize as much of the federal and state civil procedure rules as you can. A great deal of a litigator’s time is spent in pretrial activities that are governed by the rules. You can’t go wrong by dedicating more study time to learning those. Also, when you think you could benefit from learning more about a topic, ask for resource recommendations.
During my sixth week interning, I primarily worked on projects that carried over from last week in addition to a new one. Lloyd & Mousilli also held their All Hands meeting which was exciting to attend. I was able to observe the caring environment this firm has fostered and the sincere appreciation everyone has for each other. Many people shared about how many exciting projects the firm has been working on and what is to come in the future.
My first new assignment that I worked on this week was from Feras and it was to develop a marketing plan for Lloyd & Mousilli’s trademark services. While this assignment focused more on marketing, it also required an understanding of trademark law. I was grateful that I had already written an article on trademarks because having that knowledge helped me tackle this assignment. I spent most of my time researching the best way to market legal services by reviewing a mini course on marketing methods. From there I gathered all the information I learned and distilled it into an example of what a webpage could look like featuring L&M’s trademark services. Charlotte and Megan helped me a great deal when I had detailed questions about L&M’s trademark services. I have heard that marketing is an important part of law firm life and I was grateful to get to dig into this project.
I also continued working on the charts comparing the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for discovery to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. This project has proven much more time consuming than I expected. Specifically, organizing the information into a logical manner has proven challenging. But this is a good skill to practice since every law school course requires it and being a good attorney requires a solid understanding of the law. Lema and I talked through this assignment when we met earlier this week and it was reassuring to know that what I had done so far was good.
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson would tell a story about three stonemasons in the medieval era. Each of them would lay one stone upon another with mortar in between, over and over again. Someone walking by asked each one what they were doing. The first mason said he was earning a living. The second mason said he was putting the stones down in a pattern he was told to follow. The third stonemason stopped, looked up to the sky and said “I am building a cathedral.” My advice for this week is to remember this story when you are working on a tedious and time consuming project.
As my clerkship with Lloyd & Mousilli is coming to an end, I have found myself extremely grateful for the past seven weeks. The assignments have taught me a great deal about the law and about myself. For example, although I really enjoyed the litigation assignments I worked on, I realized how much I like transactional work as well. My understanding of the field of law has changed a great deal in the past seven weeks since I have been getting real world experience. Some projects were difficult and required me to stay up late researching while others only required observation. But all of the assignments were extremely informative.
My first task this week was from Megan and it was to research and write a memo on Merchant Cash Advances. This was a new topic to me so I was excited to start researching it. The memo was supposed to gather general information. I began with what Merchant Cash Advances are and how they operate. I then researched some potential legal issues that are associated with this type of lending. When I came across conflicting sources, I noted it in my memo. Since I am interested in the law regarding business and finances, I found this project very interesting.
My second task this week was also from Megan and it was to review a privacy policy for any potential updates that could be made. I struggled a bit with how to start the research process for this project, but Megan was very helpful by suggesting I start by researching each individual section of the policy. Breaking it down this way made it a manageable task. I started by searching each section for any potential updates that need to be made. I also looked through several forms and checklists on Westlaw to see if there were any additional sections that should be added. In the end, I was able to make several suggestions for potential updates.
A movie called “Stand and Deliver” tells the true story of a Bolivian teacher, Jaime Escalante, who worked in Los Angeles. Jaime’s students had been conditioned to believe they could not master difficult subjects. The hardest part of his job was to instill in his students “ganas”, the will to succeed. As someone raised in a family of Bolivian immigrants, I was taught this lesson from a young age: as long as you have “ganas'' there is nothing in the world that will stop you.
The field of law is challenging and demanding. It requires a great amount of discipline. But you are capable of succeeding as long as you have the will to. I recently had the honor of meeting Justice Goodwin Liu of the Supreme Court of California. His challenge to me was to recognize that as a law student and future attorney, I am preparing to meet the high calling of being an Officer of the Court. My advice for you at the end of your clerkship is to look back at all of the projects you received and reflect on what you learned from them. Reflect on your hard work and on the valuable mentorship Lema and Feras have given you. With your will to succeed and the mentorship of Lloyd & Mousilli’s excellent attorneys, you have taken a huge step in preparation for being an Officer of the Court.