“Intense. There Is a Lot of Work [and] a Lot of Activity Around Here.”
My name is Oliver Jones, I am a third year law student at NYLS, I am 35 years old. Before law school I was a real estate broker with the Corcoran Group.
Q: What was your role here at ALB PC?
A: My role was really to do anything that I was asked to do by the attorneys. I mostly wanted to and came in to do transactional work which I sought out. But I was asked to do other things from litigation point of view. Basically, started walking around and ask “what can I do and how can I help you”, build relationships with certain lawyers and they just continue to give you work. The very beginning was “what can I do to help?” The role was just to be there for the attorneys who need your assistance.
Q: What was it like working at ALB PC?
A: It was intense, there’s a lot of work, there’s a lot of activity around here. It was the first time I ever worked for a law firm. I’ve worked for a judge before, I’ve worked for a general counsel, so it’s different in that regard. Like I said, it was intense, there was a lot to do, but it was also very informative because you started doing things that you’ve never done before. Which at first can be very scary but then you realize: “hey, now I know how to copy out of a deposition, I know how to write a complaint”. I would have never thought I would have done that before. So I would say it was instructive, educational, hard in a sense that you are expected to work pretty hard.
Q: Did you get to work with Mr. Bailey directly?
A: Yes, I did. He asked me to write an article, a broker article, which was pretty interesting. I sort of dealt with that. But also on regular basis you are running into him in the hallway and you are going into his office and ask him questions. If nothing else, he is signing off on your weekly timesheets, you have a lot of interaction with him. For some tasks more and for some tasks less, but you are definitely interacting with Adam.
Q: What type of tasks did you perform?
A: A lot of research, especially for the litigation department. They would say: “ are there cases on the file that support what we are doing?” I was mainly in transactional, I was working with Rosemary and Natasha doing bank closings, UCC filings, that sort of stuff. I actually went off site a few times, actually put me in a car service, sent me down to Bay Ridge to do a closing, which was cool. And then when we were doing an article, we really get into depth on research aspect, but sort of anything they need but a lot of research and a lot of closings.
Q: What have you learned from working here?
A: A lot. Expectations from working in a law firm are much different than when you are working for one person. Adam is the boss and when he asks you to do something, that’s what you should do but there is also lots of other bosses and sort of underbosses. And to be able to juggle things as an intern you just feel you are supposed to do anything anyone asks of you. But then you realize someone else comes to you and asks “can you do this?” and you say “I have these other three things to do but I can do it next week.” You sort of learn to juggle a lot of the different things that go on in a law firm. I would say this is the biggest thing that I learned here.
Q: What is the one thing or experience that would stand out in your mind that you gained from working here?
A: The feeling that even if you are just an intern or a law school intern as supposed to a high school intern, that what you are doing is important, that you are contributing to a major case that would be argued by Adam at the Appellate Division. Or that you are helping out with a research that may end up being a published article. I think that when you are a young attorney, you don’t really think that what you are doing is as important. But I think you are given the feeling that you are a part of what you are doing. That big in terms of confidence building.
Q: What was the best aspect about working at ALB PC?
A: I really enjoyed the people. I really enjoyed meeting the different people. Everyone seems to be a hard worker, yes, but also they seem to enjoy themselves, it’s sort of a bit of a community feeling here and that’s really enjoyable. Specifically during the hurricane it seemed like this whole office had to move to uptown and you can just see the amount of corroboration. I personally was not able to get from Brooklyn to where the office would be located but I said to Adam “all I can do is to work from home”. And you felt like you are a part of what was going on and that was pretty huge.
Q: Do you have any other comments or suggestions you’d like to make?
A: No suggestions I could think of. Comments: it’s a great place to work if you really, really want to work. Its not such a great place to be if you want to sit back and collect all your hours. But what they do here in terms of real estate law is pretty fantastic. So I would say you would probably learn a lot and be well rewarded if you wanted to be an intern here.
Q: Do we have your permission to post this on our website?
A: Yes, you do.