My name is Grace Slapak, and I am a sophomore from Austin studying economics and social policy. This summer, I will be an investigative intern for the Louisiana Center for Children’s rights (LCCR). LCCR is roughly the equivalent of a public defenders’ office for the juvenile court in New Orleans, with an additional effort given to advocacy and opportunity creation for youth in New Orleans and Louisiana.
They strive to provide a holistic defense for their clients and support for the entire family, as such, each client is provided with an attorney, investigator, social worker, and child advocate. As an investigative intern, I will contribute to evidence gathering in an effort to build a defense for the client. This could include things like interviewing witnesses, revisiting crime scenes or arrest sites, and analyzing security footage. If you want to learn more about LCCR and the great work they do, you can visit their website at https://www.laccr.org/.
I have long considered going to law school after I finish my undergraduate education, and this position offered an amazing opportunity to be introduced to the work of criminal law in a way that made my work feel valuable. During my internship, my five learning objectives are:
- To enhance problem-solving skills through hands-on defense preparation and evidence gathering.
- To work effectively on a strict timeline in a structured and professional environment.
- To acquire practical and actionable experience in a criminal law setting.
- To improve my communication skills, specifically related to information gathering and sensitive subjects.
- To gain insight into possible legal career paths and map out my interest in various areas of the field.
As reflected in these objectives, I think that this internship will help me find my path through a legal career, and will help me develop generalizable professional skills, no matter what career I ultimately choose.
NCI funded this internship because it contributes to their mission of educating undergraduates for women’s leadership in the 21st century. While LCCR is not a women’s organization or focused solely on women’s issues, my ability to complete this internship is powerful in a field that is still largely dominated by men, especially in the most prestigious roles.
An American Bar Association report from 2014 reveals that even though enrollment in law school and Juris Doctor degrees awarded are roughly equal between men and women, the proportion of women in legal professional positions is negatively correlated with the prestige of that position. Notably, only 20.6% of law school deans, 21% of Fortune 500 Companies’ general counsel, and 24.1% of U.S. Federal Court judges are women (ABA, 2014). This internship will give me the type of experience that sets people apart in law school and legal job applications, which is even more important when women are already disadvantaged in those arenas.
My training for this position begins in two weeks, and I could not be more excited to jump into this new world. I am most grateful that I feel my internship will allow me to make a positive difference in juveniles’ lives. I am looking forward to increasing my knowledge about the juvenile court system and hopefully gaining more insight into what I would like to do with a career in law.