I spent my time this Summer as an intern at a law firm called Day Pitney LLP, a national law firm based in Hartford, Ct, with eleven offices in five states which include, Boston, New Jersey, Washington D.C, and Florida.

I was offered this opportunity through St Benedict’s Prep. At Convo one day, Didier Jean-Baptiste mentioned that he had a chance at a law firm for anyone who was interested in studying law.

Knowing that I would love to pursue this career path, I immediately jumped at the chance of becoming an intern and met up with him later that day. One of the requirements was to have above a 3.3 GPA CUM, which made me nervous at the time because that’s what I had. With the help of Mr. Jean-Baptiste, I was able to write a well-written essay.

Several weeks later, I received a call informing me to come in for an interview from Day Pitney’s office administrative manager. When I arrived for my meeting, I was met by the staff… I guess that my interview went well because I got an email on the same day saying that I got the internship.

 I had no clue how I was going to get to Parsippany in Morris County, 16.6 miles from SBP., but I said I’d get there somehow. My form of transportation to work was the bus.  

I met Alia, a senior at Parsippany High, who was my partner for the next six weeks. There were four interns in total — two at the office in Hartford office and two in Parsippany.

  Our first job at the firm was doing data entry for an attorney in New York. A typical morning of work would consist of me getting to work at 9, getting some breakfast, and seeing what assignments I had for the day. Every week my partner and I had conference calls with different attorneys in the Connecticut office, who educated us on what type of law they do. We had lunch with different attorneys who gave us insight into their area of law and also advice for colleges. We performed clerical jobs for departments with titles such as Trust And Estates, Marketing, Real Estate and Procurement, as well as branches in Litigation, and the Information And Resource Center.

One of the attorneys whose name is Patrick McCarthy is a Benedict Alum class of 65’. Mr. McCarthy was nice enough to take Alia and me out to lunch twice during my time at Day Pitney, and he also took time out of his day to help me make a college list. The office’s administrative manager Mary Beth and Annette Anello who is the practice operations manager threw a party for us on the last day and gave us gifts. Overall my experience at this large firm is something that I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life. The reason being is because not many high schoolers get the chance to say that they got the opportunity to intern at a law firm and I’m very grateful because I learned a lot of things that will help me in the future.