“Gain as much experience as you can, ask as many questions as you can.”
My name is Chabely Jorge, and I’m 18, and currently I’m a senior at Millennium High School, and in the fall I’ll be attending Columbia University.
My name is Ashley Brito, I’m 17 and I’m currently a senior at Millennium High school, and in the fall I’ll be attending Fordham University.
Q. What is a typical day like for you at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.?
CJ: I don’t necessarily work in one specific department or with one specific attorney. I work with Landlord and Tenant or in Supreme with Colin, so I do a lot of filing for them since, for example they go to trial they needs binder with exhibits that the some of the paralegals give me to put in binders or I scan things to be saved into ATO so in the future they can have it as a reference. I mail things, I go to the post office a lot in order to make sure that clients get letters, basically anything that they need. If they need me to go to bank, to take checks, I’ll do that, so basically anything the attorneys need or any or the paralegals.
AB: I work with transaction, so I do a lot of filing UCCS, filing paperwork, I go to the bank a lot, I go to the post office. Basically anything that Rosemary and Faye need, I scan a lot of closing disclosures, I copy a lot of closing disclosures.
Q. What skills have you learned during your experience?
CJ: Well I think communication skills definitely, I think that being in a work setting with people that aren’t necessarily your age. I think that a lot of the paralegals are fairly young, but even that, I still think that you need to communicate with them in a very respectful manner and I think that I was a very shy person, and the various internships that I’ve experienced that has definitely made me someone who is more confident, and I think that I’m very well prepared to work in a setting and also a lot of administrative skills. So like scanning, filing, writing professional emails, answering the phone and going to the banks, filling out the certificate of mailing, and the post office—a lot of things that I think are essential that you wouldn’t learn unless you had that experience, that exposure.
AB: I think that I’ve learned a lot of professionalism. I think that working with attorneys and paralegals is a lot about professionalism and even more than that, communication. So I think I’ve learned professionalism, communication and organization. When paralegals hand you a lot of different paperwork from a lot of different files, I think that I’ve definitely learned to keep track of all of these things to make sure I get all of the things done that I need to get done. I’ve also learned personal initiative, because I think that in school a lot of times, teachers are on you to do a lot of different things, versus in an office setting it’s more about you were told once and then you make sure you do what needs to be done, so I think that I’ve gained a lot of personal initiative.
Q. Were you able to work with Adam Leitman Bailey directly?
CJ: So, Adam, Kelly, Carly, an I, we all went out to lunch in January, so it was a very good opportunity to meet Adam. I’d seen him in the office and he’d ask me how my college process was going, and he said that if I needed any help to ask him or any of the paralegals, since they were fairly recent graduates from college. But he definitely have me a lot of advice in terms of gaining as much experience as you can, ask as many questions as you can, because everybody’s here to help you and don’t feel intimidated by the attorneys, they won’t say no to any questions that I have. He is very enthusiastic about the fact that we are all going to college and he’s been very supportive.
AB: Since, I mainly work in the other office, in Siberia, I don’t get to see Adam as much. But I was originally very intimidated by him, he’s a very physically intimidating person, but once he walked in and was like, “Hi, how are you? How is your college process going?”, Adam is a very friendly person, and similarly he always let me know that “If you have any questions, you can always let me know. If you need advice about anything, just come to me” and I think that he’s a very friendly and open person. So, even though I haven’t worked personally with him, even by him just coming in and asking how things are going or where I’m going to college, I think that helped me a lot.
Q. Has working at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. changed your future?
CJ: So last year I worked at, I’m not going to say the name of the firm, but I worked at a firm that was fairly large and I felt like I didn’t necessarily get to know the attorneys or the paralegals or everybody there as well as I‘ve gotten to know everyone at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.. Everybody knows my name, and I know everybody’s name and on a daily basis I will see everybody that’s a part of the firm because everybody’s here and it’s so small. So obviously there are negative effects to having a small firm, but the positives are so much bigger than the negatives. I think that has definitely shaped what I would like to study. I’ve always known that I wanted to be an attorney, I just didn’t know what field, and everyone keeps asking me, but I know I want to major in Political Science. When I was first told that this was a real estate firm, I thought there was going to be a lot of number, math, and I don’t like math, I’m not a mathematician. I’m someone who is very good in English, and humanities and I definitely don’t think that this firm is only about math, I’ve seen architectural blueprints, but other than that there’s things about landlords and tenants, and I was very intrigued by that and I’ve gained a lot of interest in this career path, and if you ask me now, I’d say I’m thinking about going into real estate.
AB: Similarly, I’ve always known that I wanted to be an attorney. I think that being at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. just kind of was more of a turn on to the field in general, even if I don’t know if I may want to practice real estate law. However just being in an office setting, because that was one of my worries, whether or not I would be able to sit in an office all day and be able to not have what people view as an “exciting career path”, where I’m doing something different everyday, but more of like me sitting in an office all day doing paperwork. Everybody always tells me that the part of law people never tell you is that you spend 99% of your time at a desk doing paperwork, and the other 1% in court, so I was worried about being in an office all day. But working at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. made me see that I generally like working in an office and just sitting here versus my friends who do jobs with kids and things like that, I like kids but I like sitting in an office. So I think that this job generally turned me on to a career in law.
Q. Final Takeaways:
AB: My final note is that Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is a very very friendly place. Initially when I walked into this office and saw so many lawyers I thought I was going to be intimidated, and that I couldn’t walk up to anyone, but I think that everyone here is very very friendly and since I’ve started working here everyone says hi to me, even if they don’t necessarily know me so I think that it’s a very friendly environment to work in.
CJ: I think some people feel burdened by having to go to work, and for me, I’m excited to go to work, I like where I’m at, and I think that everybody’s so friendly, it’s a very open and welcoming environment and I think I’d work to somewhere like that. You know everyone and feel comfortable around everyone, you wake up and feel excited about coming to work.