I am a bit past the half-way point in my internship at this point and have moved from the research stage to writing. It’s exciting to see all my work come together into a cohesive, readable paper. I met with Judge Doherty a couple weeks ago to discuss my twenty-five page outline. At that point I thought I’d be able to start writing, but the judge sent me some notes which required a little more than a week of additional research. Although I was disappointed to delay my writing time, I think ultimately I found some information that will be really useful in my paper.
I’m learning a lot about being an independent worker at my job. I set my own deadlines, so it’s really important that I give myself enough time to complete everything. I am my own proof-reader and the sole researcher on this topic. This has given me a lot of room to us my own judgment when deciding the direction to take my research. I’ve decided to given myself a week’s buffer, which think may be the smartest thing I’ve done so far. Although I’m doing my best to set strict goals and a timeline, I can’t plan for all the little things I may encounter– such as particularly tricky citations. All in all, I think this internship at the juvenile court has taught me a lot about what it means to do legal research, but has also taught me how to motivate myself to do the best work I can in a timely manner.