Monthly Archives: August 2014
Employers Give Summer Jobs Students Social Media Sendoff
Thornton Law Firm LLP said goodbye to their BBA Summer Jobs intern Romana Hussain on Friday. Romana is heading back to Boston Latin Academy for her junior year of high school.
We’re not the only ones who miss our BBA Summer Jobs students. Firms and law offices took to social media to express thanks and well-wishes to their departing students on Twitter. It’s easy to understand why – students were energetic, friendly, and eager to learn and help with a range of tasks in the office, including data entry, filing, and scanning.
Click below to see the employers’ social media shout outs:
Anderson & Kreiger LLP
Pierce Atwood LLP
Prince Lobel Tye LLP
Thornton Law Firm LLP
Leading Law Offices Help Shape Boston’s Future
Lucidey Pimental and Myntah Morris interned at Burns & Levinson LLP through the BBA Summer Jobs Program.
The BBA Summer Jobs students bid their law offices goodbye on the final day of their eight week internships. Beyond the Billable wanted to take this opportunity to thank the employers who demonstrated their commitment to the Boston community and its future by hiring a Boston high school student.
These employers not only provided the students with a means to earn a paycheck, but they offered the students opportunities to develop professional skills and exposed the students to the legal field. If you saw this Boston Globe article last week, you know the Mayor fell short of his goal of 12,000 jobs for Boston youth. The Boston legal community should be proud that we increased our support for Boston teens by funding 64 positions this summer—up from 58 positions last year. That said, it’s clear that more can be done to support our youth and we hope the Boston legal community will continue to step up next year and provide even more summer jobs.
Take a look below at the firms who provided Boston high school students with an incredible summer experience:
Anderson & Kreiger LLP
Bingham McCutchen LLP
Boston Bar Association*
Boston Bar Foundation++
Burns & Levinson LLP*
Choate Hall & Stewart
Chu, Ring & Hazel LLP
City of Boston, Office of the Corporation Counsel *
Collora LLP
Cooley LLP
DLA Piper
Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP***
Foley Hoag
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy, LLP
Goodwin Procter LLP*
Hemenway & Barnes LLP **
Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP
Holland & Knight LLP
Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP **
Iandoli Desai & Cronin P.C.
LPL Financial
Lynch, Brewer, Hoffman & Fink, LLP
Margolis & Bloom LLP
Meehan, Boyle, Black & Bogdanow, P.C.
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C.
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP
Nixon Peabody LLP
Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP
Peabody & Arnold LLP **
Pierce Atwood
Posternak Blankstein & Lund LLP
Prince Lobel Tye LLP
Proskauer Rose LLP
Ropes & Gray LLP*
Rosenfeld Rafik & Sullivan, P.C.
Rubin & Rudman LLP
Shaevel & Krems
Sherin & Lodgen LLP
Shilepsky Hartley Robb Casey Michon LLP
Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office
Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, P.C.
Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers LLP
Thornton & Naumes LLP
Todd & Weld LLP
Verrill Dana LLP
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
*Firm has committed to taking more than one student
**Firm has funded position for government or nonprofit legal office
***Firm has committed to taking four students
++This year the Boston Bar Foundation’s M. Ellen Carpenter Fund will be funding summer jobs for 14 Boston Public Highs School students at public agencies and nonprofits this summer. Learn more about the fund here.
Hear it from Haideri – Summer Jobs Veteran Shares Experience
Ben Haideri, a recent graduate of Boston Latin Academy and intern at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, spoke with the audience about his experience in the program.
Our loyal readers may remember Ben Haideri, who interned at the Suffolk DA’s Office through the BBA Summer Jobs Program during the past two summers and served on the Mayor’s Youth Council (see article here and here). With all his BBA experience and impressive resume, we selected Ben to speak to students, their families and employers at the BBA’s Summer Jobs Celebration. Ben’s remarks were great (no surprise there) so we felt compelled to share Ben’s takeaways from his two summers in the program. Read Ben’s speech in full, below:
“Thomas Hobbes once stated that “The law is the public conscience.” The law in general is an amazing enigma because it morphs to reflect society while at the same time being one of the few places to turn towards for an unwavering base in an ever-changing world. I personally have had the great pleasure of seeing law in live action while working with the District Attorney’s office at the Dorchester Court. Almost every day, I was able to watch all sorts of legal events from civil disputes to full trials during my time. I read through and summarized cases, ordered evidence, and much more. I also had the pleasure of seeing some of the brightest legal minds from both sides at work. Not only did I get to see the gears of the legal world turning, but I also faced the calming realization that those behind the gears at the District Attorney’s office are some of the kindest, hardest working, and most motivated people I have ever met. An example being Christina Miller, who has been a mentor of mine for the past two and a half years, since my time on the Mayor’s Youth Council. A woman whose job is about as far away from a 9-5 as possible, Ms. Miller is an Assistant District Attorney, but it does not end there. She is a leader in the Boston legal community, and dedicates much of her free time to giving back to the community as a whole in many different ways. She is a prime example of how the law doesn’t begin or end in a courtroom, rather, many times, is dictated by the temperature of a community. Because of this and through what I witnessed day in and day out at the court, I have been reminded both not to take for granted the laws that we have in place while also to keep my eyes open to the changes that are necessary for the betterment of society.
Building off of the words of Thomas Hobbes; the law is in fact dictated by the decisions that we make as a collective group, and we, in this room today, hold the future of the law in our hands and it will be our job to make sure it grows with the time while maintaining its base. We have taken our first steps thanks to the Boston Bar Association, and I know that we will maintain this upward trajectory in the years to come.”
Hat’s off to Ben for a great two years (and an excellent speech) and all the students who participated in this year’s program!
BBF Students Share Summer Experience, Part Two
The fourteen BBF funded Summer Jobs students have spent their summers working at legal service and government agencies.
As you learned from this article last week, the BBF funded Summer Jobs students have gained essential skills and also served as valuable assets to their organizations this summer. While the students wrap up their summer jobs tomorrow, we wanted to bring you another look at what three additional BBF funded students have been up to this summer.
Student: Sarah Vuong
Employer: Massachusetts IOLTA Committee
Job Responsibilities: Sarah has been working on a number of projects with the Massachusetts IOLTA Committee, including updating the organization’s manuals and handling incoming calls from the public. Her largest project has been to assemble a historical legal services timeline by scanning press articles and documenting all media coverage of the organization from 2000 to 2006.
Sarah says: “I’ve gained an abundant amount of skills in my internship. One that is the most important was updating information for attorneys, community representatives, and a lot other individuals using the website salesforce.”
Student: Marley Goncalves
Employer: Executive Office of Health & Human Services
Job Responsibilities: At the Executive Office of Health & Human Services Marley has handled key responsibilities including archiving tort litigation files, researching cases, preparing files for court, and handling the front desk. She has also been working on a project dealing with ‘ancient’ files in order to move forward old cases.
Marley says: “Overall I like working here because I am learning about issues that I never even thought about before. Every Friday we have someone who comes to talk about their experiences, what they do, and how they came to their profession. One Friday, our guest speaker was Angela McConney Scheepers, an Administrative Magistrate for the Division of Administrative Law Appeals and former General Counsel for the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission. She talked about the challenges of her position, yet she was also inspiring.”
Student: Noime Alves
Employer: Legal Advocacy and Resource Center (LARC)
Job Responsibilities: At LARC, Noime works with the intake team where she handles tasks such as inputting information into the organization’s database, preparing documents and forms, and making calls to senior citizen clients. Noime has also provided invaluable benefits to the intake team as a result of her impressive multi-lingual abilities, by translating English to Cape Verdean Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Noime says: “My favorite part of my work is translating English to Portuguese, English to Spanish, and English to Cape Verdean Creole. This summer, I also enjoyed the finance enrichment seminar we took that discussed financial aid and how to use your credit card”.
Summer Jobs Students Get Consequences Lesson from Behind the Bench
Judge Feeney showed the BBA Summer Jobs students how the court’s computer system worked during their fieldtrip to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
This summer, the BBA Summer Jobs students and the Nelson Fellows of the U.S. Federal District Court took yet another field trip to visit Chief Judge Bailey and Judge Feeney’s courtrooms at the Boston Bankruptcy Court. The trip to Bankruptcy Court was the final portion of the M. Ellen Carpenter Financial Literacy Program, which was folded in to the students’ weekly enrichment seminars. Through the Financial Literacy program, students were primed on how to budget, use credit wisely, and finance a car, and this final session gave them a glimpse of what happens if they make poor financial decisions from inside the courtroom.
This fieldtrip marked the end of the BBA Summer Jobs weekly enrichment seminar series, which included a mock City Council meeting in Boston City Council chambers, a “speed dating” session where they heard from lawyers of three different backgrounds, a trip to the John Adams Courthouse, and much more.
Take a look below for more images from the fieldtrips:
The Nelson Fellows participated in the Consequences session with Chief Judge Frank Bailey.
The BBA Summer Jobs students visited Judge Joan Feeney’s courtroom at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the final session of the M. Ellen Carpenter Financial Literacy Program.
BBA Summer Jobs Students Celebrate Their Success
To culminate the Summer Jobs Student’s program, the BBA hosted a ceremonial event to congratulate the 64 Boston high school students on their hard work this summer. While the students still have another week of work at their internship before they head back to school, the ceremony brought together the students, their families, and their employers to celebrate their achievements. Summer Job star Ben Haideri spoke about his experience interning at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office during the past two summer, and keynote speaker, Christina Miller, the Chief of District Courts and Community Prosecutions for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, gave the students advice on how to continue to build their professional careers after this internship ends.
Take a look below for more photos from the evening:
BBA President Paul Dacier, congratulated the students on their accomplishments this summer and then jokingly quizzed the students on their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.
Recent Boston Latin Grad Ben Haidieri eloquently spoke to attendees about this past two summers participating in the BBA’s Summer Jobs Program and how his experiences working for the Suffolk County DA’s Office has contributed to his career plans.
Summer Jobs Intern Jose Maria, from New Mission High School , posed with his family at the Summer Jobs Celebration following his successful internship with Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP.
Kylie Webster-Cazeau, from Boston Latin School, showed off her certificate with her family at the Summer Jobs Celebration. Kylie spent the summer interning at the Federal District Court, working in one of the BBF’s funded positions.
Katie D’Angelo, the BBA’s Public Service Program Coordinator who runs the BBA Summer Jobs Program, along with Sonia Shah, the BBA’s Public Service Manager, posed with Alejandra Bautista and Hermuna Taib, the BBA’S two interns, who have worked tremendously hard and helped almost every department at the BBA this summer.
Summer Jobs Students Get The Scoop on Student Loans
Daniel Forster, Student Financial Services at Simmons College, came to the BBA to talk to the Summer Jobs Students about the importance of understanding student loans.
As part of the weekly enrichment seminars of the Summer Jobs Program, Daniel Forster, the Assistant Vice President of Admission and Student Financial Services at Simmons College, met with the students to give them the run down on student loans, loan payments, financial aid, and scholarships. The students listened intently through the enrichment seminar and had no shortage of questions when it came to finding out the best ways to pay for college — and to repay their loans.
During the enrichment seminar, Daniel walked the students through how to read an award letter to introduce them to the oftentimes confusing financial information. In addition, Daniel passed out a sample student loans calculator and taught them the best way to calculate a monthly loan payment and the total interest paid.
Alejandra Bautista was one of the many students who asked thoughtful questions of the Speaker Daniel Forster.
We asked one of the BBA’s Summer Job’s Students, Alejandra, what she thought of the seminar and here’s what she had to say:
“He kept it interesting the whole time, was very funny, and I feel a lot more knowledgeable about student loans and the process behind them. I asked Daniel a lot of questions and he answered them directly and his answers turned into full conversations, which helped us learn about a lot more than just student loans. I asked him about questions relating to loan guarantors and how family member’s credit can impact your loans — he explained that special circumstances happen all the time and part of his role is working with these special cases. Daniel also pointed out that admissions and loans don’t just depend on academics but schools look for a diversity of talents, backgrounds, and many other factors.”
Next week, the Summer Jobs Students will be finishing up their Financial Literacy portion of the enrichment seminars by taking a trip to the US Bankruptcy court for a session on consequences, so stay tuned!
BBF Students Share Summer Experience
The Summer Jobs Students who are working in positions sponsored by the BBF at our Summer Jobs Orientation in June.
With the end of summer in sight, we are taking the opportunity to catch up with Summer Jobs students funded by the Boston Bar Foundation. You’ve already heard where the 14 BBF students are working this summer, but we wanted to offer our loyal readers a closer look at what they have been working on this summer. Take a look below to hear about three of the interns’ current projects and their takeaways from their internships so far.
Student: Alexandra Suazo
Employer: Massachusetts Department of Labor
Job Responsibilities: While working at the Department of Labor Alexandra has concentrated on several different projects. One of her first projects was to identify and sort records in accordance with the Statewide Record Retention Schedule. She has also been focused on improving the agency’s webpage by updating information and adding links to resources. Her most recent project included making the website more accessible to reading-impaired constituents. At her internship, Alexandra also got to witness Massachusetts history when she witnessed the Governor signing the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Alexandra says: “This has been a great experience, something that I won’t hesitate to do again if I was given the option. Seeing the Governor sign a bill was something that I never thought would have happened. I found it very interesting how he signed the bill with about 20 different pens then he handed them out!”
Student: Cesaltina Barros
Employer: Committee for Public Counsel Services – Palmer Street Roxbury
Job Responsibilities: Cesaltina’s experience at the Committee for Public Counsel Services has centered on criminal cases. She has been responsible for opening and closing criminal cases, handling database work, drafting subpoenas, scanning police reports, operating the switchboard, and much more. Tina has also had the opportunity to attend court sessions, and observe criminal justice in action.
Cesaltina says: “I like learning about the criminal cases. I like to talk to people and get to know new cases and new things that I never thought people would do. I also go to court and I love that. It’s exciting because of the way they speak to each other and the way they try to express things.”
Student: Hannah Givertz
Employer: U.S. Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Job Responsibilities: At the U.S. District Court, Hannah has been observing court cases, cataloging and organizing files, and editing memos. Hannah is also the coordinator for the Ward Fellowship where she is in charge of projects, such as scheduling and confirming meetings with various public servants and organizing an annual trip to Washington D.C. In addition, she assists the Honorable Judge Mark L. Wolf by editing memos and working with law clerks.
Hannah says: “Getting to know how the courthouse runs has definitely been the highlight of my work this summer. Doing the behind-the-scenes work with the law clerks has helped me to better understand the work of a lawyer, while observing court sessions and watching the judge preside over cases has helped me to better understand the justice system.”
Stay tuned to meet the other BBF funded students.
Summer Jobs Students Speed Date with Attorneys
Adam Foss (Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office) told the students about his work as a prosecutor during the new Summer Jobs enrichment seminar on “Exploring Legal Careers.”
The BBA’s Summer Jobs Program enrichment seminars continued this week with an exciting take on “speed dating,” which rapidly introduced students to a variety of legal careers. At “Exploring Legal Careers,” the Summer Jobs’ students formed small groups for sessions with three different attorneys: Manisha Bhatt, a Senior Attorney working at the Family Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services, Adam Foss, Assistant District Attorney in the Juvenile Division of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, and Colin Van Dyke, an Associate at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
This enrichment seminar gave Summer Jobs students an opportunity to hear firsthand what it’s like working in a big law firm, at a legal services agency, and as a prosecutor. Armed with bios and sample questions, the students had 15 minutes to grill the attorneys about their careers and lives. Manisha Bhatt spoke to the students about how it is important to find a career you’re passionate about, such as her work in family law at Greater Boston Legal Services. Adam Foss captivated the students with his explanation of his work as a prosecutor and the importance of understanding why people commit crimes, and Colin Van Dyke explained what it is like to work for a large law firm in Boston, answered questions about his environmental law work, and also entertained the students with stories about his chickens.
We reached out to a few of the summer job’s students and asked them what they thought of today’s seminar, here’s what they had to say:
“I thought today’s enrichment seminar was really good. We got different perspectives from people who work in different fields of law. I thought the most interesting part of today’s seminar was when we talked about working with juveniles. Adam talked about how our mind works and how our brains aren’t really done developing and how that affects the minds of people who commit crimes. “– Kylie Webster-Cazeau, a rising junior at Boston Latin School , working at the Federal District Court this summer.
“I thought that today’s enrichment seminar was really informative and really interesting. We got a perspective of different types of law, which we haven’t gotten from our law firms. The most interesting thing I learned today is that actually there are two different types of prosecutors, and I found that really interesting because I always thought of a prosecutor as just someone that puts people in Jail.” Jerry Rodriguez, a rising junior at Boston Latin Academy, working at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP this summer.
Please see below for more images from the morning:
Manisha Bhatt (Greater Boston Legal Services) explained what it means to be a legal services attorney and encouraged the students to find work that they are passionate about.
Colin Van Dyke (Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.) had the students laughing with stories about his chickens after he told them about his environmental law work and careers at large law firm.
BBF Students Meet Firms Who Made Their Summer Possible
As you may remember from this article, the Boston Bar Foundation funded 14 Boston public high school students to work in legal service and government agencies through the BBA Summer Jobs Program with the help of Boston law firms. In addition to money allocated from the Foundation itself, local firms donated to the BBF to help support a summer job. This morning, the sponsoring firms had the opportunity to hear first-hand from the students at the BBF Summer Jobs Breakfast, where the students shared stories of their experiences going to court and helping with large office projects.
The BBF would like to thank the following firms for their generous contribution to the BBA Summer Jobs Program:
Arrowood Peters LLP
Dain, Torpy, Le Ray, Wiest & Garner, P.C.
Hemenway & Barnes LLP
Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP
Peabody & Arnold LLP
Take a look below for more highlights from the morning:
Students and supervisors from LARC, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court discussed their experiences in the BBA Summer Jobs Program.
Supervisors and students from the Department of Labor Standards, Massachusetts IOLTA, Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services told BBA Public Service Programs Coordinator Katie D’Angelo about their internship highlights.
Cesaltina Barros, who is interning at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Roxbury, told Michael McDermott (Dain, Torpy, Le Ray, Wiest & Garner, P.C.), who’s firm sponsored a student this summer, BBF Director of Marketing & Development Megan Leppert and her supervisor, Keisha Taylor (Committee for Public Counsel Services), about her experience.
The interns and supervisors at Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and Volunteer Lawyers Project discussed their job responsibilities with BBF Trustee and BBA President-Elect Julia Huston.
