Internship Follow-up

I am interning at The Florida Bar this semester with the Communications and Public Information Department. Recently at the Bar I finished up the post Reporters' Workshop duties that included typing up the responses to the evaluations, helping to implement a guide that details the steps and instructions on how to plan the workshop. I am also writing a few articles for The Florida Bar News. The Pro Bono Awards is coming up soon so I have been following a specific timeline of what needs to be done throughout the rest of October. Each week I average about 13 hours in the office and I sometimes have to spend time at home finishing up work that I was not able to complete in the office. When I do have to check in I usually contact Karen Kirksey. I am currently working on Tuesday for 3 hours, Thursdays for 3 hours, and Fridays I work 8 hours.

Overall I am really enjoying this internship. It has been the best internship I have had thus far. I like the fact that I am actually learning so many tools that will help me in the future. I wish that I had more time to come to the office but my school schedule won't allow that. I am enjoying the people I work with and the many networking events and opportunities that The Bar has introduced me to. I am learning a lot about the planning process for events, getting the chance to be at the forefront during the events and also how to look and act professional at all times. One of the things that I don't like about this internship is answering the phones. This department gets so many random phone calls that our department can't even answer. Its just a waste of time having to stop what I'm doing to answer the phone. If I could change anything about this internship it would probably be to have a better phone system that would direct callers to the correct department before they are transferred to the wrong department.

After going back and looking at the goal I wanted to accomplish for myself I feel that it is probably not something that I will realistically be able to change. After having the chance to plan the 2010 Reporters' Workshop I have made it my goal to make a very detailed guideline booklet with step by step directions on how to put together this event. This event was very challenging and was an experience of a lifetime. Although I am thankful for it and I learned a lot but there has to be a better way to do this event with a little more order. My supervisor along with my co-workers also agree with this idea, so before I leave in January this is my project that I want to leave behind for my co-workers to remember me by.

2010 Reporters' Workshop

The 2010 Reporters' Workshop is an initiative organized by The Florida Bar Media and Communications Law Committee and aims to help reporters gain a better understanding of First Amendment issues for attorneys, judges and journalist. The conference consisted of various break-out sessions that allowed the panelist and attendees to engage in question-and-answer segments. This years workshop was held at the Florida Supreme Court on Sept. 20-21. The workshop is a two day conference for reporters around the state of Florida.

One aspect of the workshop that I found to be interesting was the in-depth information that was being given. I enjoyed the tips that were given to help inform reporters on how to report on the media and the law. Many of the examples that were used were cases that I studied in my Media Law class and currently in my campaigns class. For example, the Duke Lacrosse case, which I just did a case study on a few weeks ago. I can understand these cases better now that they were explained to me in a situation when reporting on high profile cases and how ethics and morals come into play as well.

I will be able to apply what I have learned from this workshop in the future if I choose to be a journalist or have a profession in the legal field. Most of what I have learned can help me when I may have to deal with journalist trying to cover a case on one of my clients. Also as a future journalist this will help me to know how to go about covering certain cases and the correct ways to go about things when trying to seek information for a story.