Into Perspective...

THE WEST COVINA COURTHOUSE! <- that's where I do my mentorship. Being there allowed me to see and hear things I would not in my normal day to day routine. I saw many kids my age and a little older go through hard times in life and get themselves into bad situations. Although I'm not a juvenile "delinquent", I got to witness firsthand what the reprecussions would be for some of the things that people my age would do. For example, one of the cases I got to sit in on was a Human Trafficking/Prostitution case and the victim was 16 years old. Although it is not a common thing to hear about with my peers, hearing her testify just gave me a wake up call on how lucky I am and just got me more focused on my actions. My point is, being at my mentorship awakened my thoughts of my own actions while I witnessed others being punished for theirs.

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

Content:

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?
      I plan on interviewing my mentor (Joseph Kang), I want to interview my mentor first because he is the DIC of the office and has the most experience. He will be able to give me ideas of what to research and where to look.


2.  You have to ask 5 questions.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?  
      Aside from the listed 5,  I will ask: 

-What made you decide to become a public defender?
-What do you find most interesting about criminal law?
-As a public defender, how do you go about interpreting the law?
-In your day to day routine, what aspects of criminal do you most use?
-What are some common misconceptions of "criminal law" in your line of work?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

1. TOPIC CHOICE:  Criminal Law

2. FOCUS QUESTION FOR THIS MONTH: What are the difference aspects of criminal law and which should I focus on?

Summer Mentorship Component

1. Mentorship Log of Hours: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U_OnaYKV1C6vbmrtCa3HbKSmOO4ivYhlLfK9tLICoSo/edit#gid=0 

2. What is the contact name & number of where you volunteered?       

    -Joseph Kang; (626) 813-3460

3.  What questions were raised because of the 10 hours of experience?  List them.     

      -Do I want to be a Public Defender?

      -Why do the Public Defenders have to be appointed to a case before they help?

      -Is it actually helpful to go over a case with a client only moments before they go to court?

      - Is criminal law more interesting to me than business law? What are the differences?

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

     -From my experience working at the Public Defender's office, the most important thing I learned is the time management of working from Monday through Thursday with a stable set of hours and tasks to accomplish. It also gave me a sense of how “adult life” is because I got to watch the lawyers and clerks throughout their days. I think that time management is the most important thing I learned because in the future I would like to be a lawyer, and I did not really know how the working lifestyle would be for them. In the process of volunteering I got to see the workload and how fast they go through cases and how to prioritize.

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did what you did help you choose a topic?  Please explain.

      -My senior project topic is going to be Criminal Law because I volunteered at the West Covina Courthouse and all of the cases there involve Criminal Law and it's boundaries and uses. I decided to focus on the law itself as opposed to the public defender because in the future I do not want to become a Public Defender but Criminal Law is still intriguing.