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NEWARK LAW DEPARTMENT WELCOMES LAW INTERNS

Monday, 07 July 2008

NEWARK LAW DEPARTMENT WELCOMES LAW INTERNS TO PROGRAM FOR HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND LAW SCHOOL STUDENTS 42 students to spend summer learning about law, government, and the workplace Newark, NJ - July 7, 2008 - Mayor Cory A. Booker, Corporation Counsel Julien X. Neals, and Police Chief Anthony S. Campos welcomed 42 high school, college, and law school students into their six-week summer internships with the Law Department in City Hall, to gain on-the-job education about law, public policy, municipal government, and the workplace, at a Municipal Council Chambers ceremony today. Students participating in the Second Annual Comprehensive Summer Internship Program will perform paralegal functions in the department assisting attorneys, including municipal prosecutors, with their duties, pre-trial conferences and actual trials. Interns will also attend a law school class and lectures on courtroom procedure, Newark history, resume writing and job interview skills. The interns consist of 11 law school students, six college students, and 25 high school students. “This year we will continue to provide another class of young scholars and future lawyers with an opportunity to learn about their future profession and to experience the realities of the professional and legal workplace. They will also gain an understanding for and appreciation of public service and the challenges Newark faces as our state’s largest municipality. I hope the experience will encourage them towards careers in public service,” Mayor Booker said. “Last year our legal team provided 30 Newark youngsters with an intense and rewarding education in the realities of the law and government,” said Corporation Counsel Neals. “I have no doubt that this Summer internship program will continue to lay the foundations for future generations of legal scholars.” Mayor Booker gave the youngsters a pep talk, urging them never to give up in their quest to achieve excellence, and his words resonated with intern Tyrone Daye, who graduated in May from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania with honors. “He inspired me. He showed how a person can come from the neighborhood, beat the odds and help the community. He urged us to better the City, and I agree with that,” Mr. Daye said. A double major in Philosophy and Political Science, Mr. Daye plans to attend law school in 2009, and enter entertainment and corporate law. “I am grateful to the Law Department for giving me this chance to be able to have this learning experience and an opportunity see what the law is all about.” Another intern, 22-year-old Arnya Battle, a West Ward resident attending DePaul Law School in Illinois, has already started working, with the Department’s Civil Litigation team. “I go to court, help attorneys with documents, filing briefs and motions, going to see oral arguments. The theory only takes you so far, and this program has helped me. You don’t learn in class how to file a motion, you learn it through an internship. City has made that happen for me…really excited to be part and hope to help the high school students here and be a mentor.” Those students include Samada Grimes, 17, who is starting her senior year at University High School this fall. She has been assigned to the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office, where she is “working on the computer systems and in court with the attorneys, handling records of people’s cases,” she said. “I used to think that lawyers and prosecutors had it easy, but it’s not as easy as I thought.” She plans to become a criminal lawyer.

 

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