Even with the changes COVID-19 brought to our world and office, we were still be able to welcome four criminal division interns and a civil division intern to our office for the summer.
Criminal division interns spend over 50% of their time in court – in this case virtual court – and represent Ada County at magistrate arraignments, motion arguments, misdemeanor and infraction court trials and misdemeanor jury trials. Civil division interns are assigned projects independently and in conjunction with civil deputies. These interns have at least two years of law school under their belts and must have a limited license from the Idaho State Bar.
As these internships come to a close, we’re very proud to see what each intern accomplished. Here’s what a couple of the interns thought about their experience.
Erin Hansen, who was a criminal division intern, enjoyed getting the opportunity to present argument via video court.
“While I’m sure my experience this summer has been different than that of previous interns due to the coronavirus,” Hansen said. “It’s been interesting getting to see firsthand how our criminal justice system responds to external forces, like the current pandemic.”
Nathan Macomb, who was also a criminal division intern, had this to say about the internship experience:
“I would say the main thing I’ve learned is communication skills in different contexts. In this internship, we are tasked with communicating with the court and arguing our position, communicating with attorneys in the office to make sure we are researching and writing exactly what they are looking for, and communicating with members of the public and trying to both explain the process of settlement conferences and trying to get cases resolved.”
Macomb said those responsibilities were different from law school, where he read about many cases and prepared for class and tests.
“The best thing about this internship has been the chance to do the work of a real attorney,” Macomb said. “We are appearing in court and working on cases that matter and affect real world situations. We have to use our discretion on certain issues, and we just have a lot of responsibility for only being interns.”
Thank you to our five interns! We can’t wait to see what you do next.