Inevitably, when the spring semester rolls around, rumblings on campus begin about internships and summer experiences. There are numerous potential positions and industries for students to explore, which can feel overwhelming before they even submit an application. However, all that hard work pays off when they return to campus full of new knowledge and practical experiences in their field of interest.
Hannah Reed, a junior concentrating in peace and conflict studies and political science, spent the summer interning at the Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington, Del., for Judge Meghan Adams. Despite living outside of Philadelphia, she made the hour-long commute multiple times a week for the experience. Her internship enabled her to dive into new legal jargon and proceedings she was previously unfamiliar with.
“We basically shadowed, observed and read all of the legal cases, or decisions that they came out with. We also went to court with her for big cases, from [complex corporate litigation cases], to violation of parole cases, sentencing, just regular preliminary hearings,” Reed said.
When she entered Colgate University, Reed was already considering law school as a post-graduation option, and this summer experience only gave her more clarity on not only that decision but also what sector of the legal industry she might be interested in.
“I think before, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but I wasn’t really sure what that would logistically look like, or what type of law I wanted to go into,” Reed said. “And this experience solidified my choice to go into more corporate law and also made me more confident in my decision to go to law school.”
Through these various experiences during her time with Judge Adams, Reed was able to develop important skills for her future path.
“I developed a lot of skills just in reading legal work, because it’s sort of complex and hard to read,” Reed said. “We also got to talk to all the law clerks and I learned a lot about things like how lawyers’ minds work and how these really complicated case files can actually be simplified into whether you broke the law or not.”
In such a fast-paced environment, each day brings new challenges and exposure to new legal doctrine. This reality of the job is something Reed found to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of her work.
“I would say the one thing that was really interesting was that every day was meaningful and interesting, because something new or important was going on,” Reed explained.
She recounted a particularly interesting day in her role.
“We got to attend a really big case on our last day, which was that Facebook was being sued for their privacy laws. We just got to sit in on all of these really big law firms talking about privacy laws, what they should be, what they are, how they should change, how they’re unfair to their customers. And I thought that was really interesting to see something that I use every day, as Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, in court. It made me think about what privacy laws I accept when I just check that box instead of reading it,” Reed said.
These impactful first-hand experiences altered the way Reed sees the world around her as she takes the practical experience and legal thinking she gained from over the summer into her everyday life.
