Hello everyone,

I hope this week has been good to you with the celebration of our very own Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. I spent the holiday in New York City with some Teach For America friends and it was awesome! It's amazing how much Harlem has changed... I think 20 people asked to braid my hair as soon as I got off the train - that was different. But, I saw the lovely Apollo and all the other great things Harlem has to offer like the food and eclectic people. I took the bus that is frequently called the "Chinatown bus" to get there from Boston and it was awesome! Nothing better than a $20 ride to get you to the Big Apple for a small law school getaway...

Anyway, I wanted to write this week and update you all on my coop process and how it's been going. As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I was very torn between doing another coop at a District Attorney's office and doing a public defense coop. As I told you, I decided to apply to juvenile prosecution & defense and some civil litigation firms.

Given I am creating my own coop, I started by sending out my resume to some organizations that I researched on Westlaw. (Just as an aside, if you plan on completing a coop with a firm that NUSL has a connection with, you cannot, I repeat, you CANNOT contact them on your own!!! These are the rules!)

Given all of the places I am interested in are in Georgia and not on the list, I threw my name in the hat for the Georgia Department of Education and other small firms that do defense work. None of those panned out for various reasons, however, I did call up my first coop employer (a Georgia state judge) and she was very instrumental in helping me figure out a strategy. NUSL does have relationships with several Georgia employers that conduct general defense work. The judge told me that completing a defense coop would be great for my future hopes of attaining a clerkship and that having experience on both sides of criminal matters would ultimately make me more marketable. Nothing like a great network of experienced lawyers and judges to remind you of the bigger picture.

So, tomorrow morning, I am participating in our formal coop process (for the first time) and trying my hand at public interest criminal defense work. Wish me luck! Hopefully in the next two weeks, I can officially tell you where I will complete my last coop.

Have a great rest of your week and weekend!!!