This job primarily entailed a significant amount of legal research for partners and other members of the practice, such that they could respond quickly and efficiently to their clients' needs. I performed legal research on narrow topics in specific states, such as a party’s ability to amend a complaint, the legality of secret recordings, the difference between operations coverage and completed operations coverage under insurance law, and when a vendor for a hospital qualifies as a subcontractor. I spent the entire summer summarizing the differences in how courts across the country treat discrimination based on gender vs. race and based on ethnicity vs. national origin, and how that treatment has developed and changed over time. In conjunction with that project and turning to the state legislatures' methods of handling discrimination, I updated a pre-existing state-by-state guide to include additional and amended discrimination laws since 2012. Finally, a significant portion of my work was centered on the contract front; for example, I created term sheets and status reports to reflect currently agreed upon terms of employment in a contract negotiation for a client.

As a legal extern for Hon. Judge Erik P. Christian, I created and updated case summaries in preparation for the judge’s daily hearings and trials on criminal and family law matters. Using the court's database, I gathered all relevant information regarding the current case and the original complaint filed, all documents and motions that had been filed by the parties throughout the course of the litigation, the details of what the parties said and what the judge decided at previous hearings, and any information on the parties' involvement in previous cases that might shed light on their ability to properly care for a child. Watching and listening to these proceedings throughout the fall semester provided me with the opportunity to learn more about litigation and the legal process in general, and specifically about how our judicial system handles divorce and child custody.

As a legal intern for Hon. Judge James A. Kenney, III, I drafted opinions based on briefs and trial records for cases involving sexual assault and seizure of property. As the intermediate appellate court for the state of Maryland, the opinions that we published responded to appeals from cases that had already been decided by the lower trial courts. For each case, I provided a succinct summary of the relevant facts based on documents that had been submitted or created at the trial court level, highlighted the relevant legal questions that were raised on appeal, found the relevant standard of review for addressing each of these questions, and answered each question by analyzing other similar state cases and applying their conclusions to the facts.Additionally, I wrote a preparatory memo for the judge to hear oral arguments and had the opportunity to watch the arguments take place in the courtroom.

Much of my work at the ASPCA was research-oriented: I researched the history and status of state and federal laws regarding cockfighting, horse slaughter and dog tethering in a comprehensive effort to reflect the current status of those issues and how the country has progressed in dealing with them. I also spent an extraordinary amount of time in lobbying: in an effort to pass important legislation such as the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, the Pets and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, and the Help Extract Animals from Red Tape (HEART) Act, I drafted letters to the editor for publication in key districts to target important legislators and kept track of all such published letters. I frequently attended events to lobby legislators for this purpose: I staffed the Congressional Annual Protection Caucus Reception in Buffalo, New York, and I spent a week in New Jersey recruiting more grassroots advocates in the district of the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee and collecting signatures to defund horse slaughter plants in that year's federal Appropriations Bill. I also staffed events to promote adoption of shelter animals, such as Paws for Love and Paws for Celebration, which were both held on Capitol Hill and attended by prominent congressmen. In addition, I formulated expectations on congressmen’s likelihood to support various bills and communicated them to superiors, and I compiled lists of organizations dedicated to animals in certain states that could help us in our legislative efforts. Some of my recurring work was aimed at keeping the Government Relations department fully aware of all relevant current events. For example, I monitored regulations.gov to keep track of the responses to the president's new organics rule that were submitted during the comment period. I also compiled daily news reports on any news relating to our priority bills and weekly organizations reports relating to releases from fellow animal-oriented organizations.

In addition to developing social content and compiling daily clips reports for clients, I also helped meet specific client needs. I researched violations of Geographic Indication laws for the Champagne region of France, helping to find US-based wineries that were improperly labelling their sparkling wines as 'champagne' and helping to spread public awareness that real champagne comes only from France; this was part of a lobbying effort to get Champagne covered by such Geographic Indication laws in the US. As part of that project, I also helped recruit restaurants and champagne bars nationwide and monitored media coverage for Champagne Day 2016. Additionally, I performed research into the benefits of ticket brokers conducting fair resales and transfers, as well as the downside of ticket resale platform exclusivity and anticompetitive behavior from popular ticket platforms. I looked into sports teams with unfair and restrictive ticketing practices and gathered additional data to support lobbying efforts for legislation against ticket-buying software or 'bots.' I provided worked on several other accounts, including research in support of legislation for Medicare and Medicaid to cover a helpful insulin delivery system that had already received FDA approval 10 years prior and was already covered by most private insurance companies. I also performed research on public opinion regarding retirement issues, such as the support for and opposition against specific retirement plans, in an effort to help educate the public on retirement funds and any threats to them.

This start-up organization created online tutorials to provide students with essential information that they might not learn in school, including college planning, job searching, managing money, and investing. In furtherance of this goal, I planned and coordinated the launch of the product for Georgetown University; this also served as a first test run that would serve as a model for launches on other campuses going forward. My preparation included designing "Money Boxes" specifically tailored to Georgetown; inside each Money Box were useful tips and information for incoming freshmen about what to do in the local Georgetown area and how to manage their money as they faced their newly acquired independence. In addition to designing the contents of the Money Boxes, I spearheaded their sale to the new freshman class during the new student orientation period. Additionally, I served as Vice President of the Georgetown chapter of NextGenVest throughout my senior year in order to continue to spread the word about the product. Throughout that year, we partnered with businesses such as Chipotle and Uber to offer student discounts to those who signed up for the service and attended our on-campus meetings.

I worked in Credit Operations and collaborated with management and bank contacts to update the authorized signatories on thousands of bank accounts. This effort was inspired by the departure of an important signatory from the company, in addition to the discovery that different accounts had varying combinations of the remaining signatories and therefore were not consistent. I tracked down contacts at each of the domestic and foreign banks where Fortress had credit accounts and worked with each of them to secure the necessary paperwork to begin the process. Different paperwork was required for each bank, and oftentimes for each of the different accounts within a single bank. This required a great amount of organization and time management, as I collaborated with all of the different entities at the same time in order to update as many of the accounts as possible by the end of the summer. I also had to coordinate with the remaining signatories' assistants to ensure that I would get all of the signatures I needed on the paperwork that I filled out in a timely and efficient manner.

I researched thousands of plots of land with cell towers for information such as acreage, ownership, and tower dimensions. I entered all such information into the company's database for tracking purposes. Our salespeople then followed up on the properties that were of interest to them, using the contact information that I provided, in an attempt to purchase the tower or buy out the tower lease. I additionally had the opportunity to do a site visit with the team to check on one of Diamond's own towers.

As a backwaiter, I cleared and reset tables, filled water glasses, helped serve food, and cleaned the restaurant and kitchen at the end of each shift. Through these duties, I helped the waiters to do their jobs more efficiently and thus contributed to customer satisfaction. Working in a restaurant for my first job taught me the value of hard work and efficiency, and it was an incredible introduction to multitasking when faced with many competing responsibilities.