I encountered my first challenge at work this week. It, unfortunately, was not one that could be resolved by logging onto Westlaw (legal research database). As I described in an earlier post, I was told during my orientation that I would get involved in three different aspects of the organization – direct service, impact litigation, and community outreach. ERA is well know for its impact litigation and designates over 90% of its resources doing just that so I was expecting that to be a large component of my internship. However, I realized yesterday that it was my third week working and I have yet to see what impact litigation or community outreach is like. In fact, I have been working at the hotline eight hours a day for the past two weeks. Don’t get me wrong – it’s incredibly satisfying to be able to inform and empower those who could not otherwise access the legal system and exercise their rights under the law through the hotline. But I also want to see inside the world of impact litigation and get involved with community organizing and outreach. I want to get the most out of the internship as I can. So come Monday afternoon, I was at a cross road – should I say something?

Perhaps for many people out there, especially those that are older and wiser or just more determined, this decision would have taken them three milliseconds. For me, however, it took me a bit longer. Telling my supervising attorney that I want to work on other projects when the hotline messages have been backlogged for a while may seem like I’m complaining and am getting ahead of myself. This is particularly a difficult conversation to have because everyone has been so welcoming and helpful at work. You see, nothing in law school or any other school that I’ve attended have taught me how to handle this situation.

So I thought about it, and then thought about it some more until I finally decided that the difficult conversations are precisely the ones that we must have and are worth having. Yes, it’s somewhat unnerving to bring up a “concern� with my supervisor, but what would really haunt me is if I kept quiet and ended up not getting the most I could out of these eleven weeks. How would my supervisor even know I am capable and willing to work on other projects if I just kept my mouth shut and worked away? If I always avoided these difficult conversations, I would never get anywhere! Arriving at that conclusion was the most difficult part of this challenge because my supervising attorney was totally receptive and happy that I gave her the feedback. Because ERA has not had a Northeastern law student for a while, they are not used to having interns around fulltime 40 hours a week. Anyway, I’m happy I did not keep my mouth shut because I will be getting a variety of projects after the holiday break.

That’s the latest from work. I also uploaded some pictures of my SF favorites so far.

I'm in love with these triple decker victorians.

The world's most photographed bridge.

I wonder if those cookies are named after this town

This is a part of the infamous Alcatraz prison or what's left of it. I thought it was going to be all depressing going to what used to be the supermax federal jail but the island of Alcatraz offers stunning views of the city and surrounding areas. This picture almost looks Mediterranean to me!

Posted by Wen at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My second week at ERA is off to a strong start with a favorable ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday. I was reading background material on Title IX in preparation for a case that I will be working on when I heard cheers and applause from the other side of the office. I rushed over there to find out that ERA has been litigating a sex discrimination class action against Wal-Mart since 2001. We had a huge victory back in February when the Ninth Circuit certified the lawsuit as class-action, making it the biggest sex discrimination case in the history of United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/business/12bias.html?ref=business Wal-Mart’s appeal of the class certification was denied yesterday by a three-judge panel. This decision is instrumental in paving the way for this landmark billion-dollar, million-plaintiff case to go forward.

Cases like the Wal-Mart case are what we call impact litigation. Many non-profit organizations like ERA use impact litigation to create social change. Perhaps one of the most famous impact litigation cases is Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court struck down segregated schools. Lawyers often seek out the perfect test case to bring a lawsuit that would have broad effect well beyond the single plaintiff in the dispute and shape the law for generations to come. Impact litigation is a particularly powerful tool on controversial social issues where legislative consensus is impossible.

Needless to say I can’t wait to get started on my first impact litigation case. It is a Title IX case brought by varsity female student wrestlers at a state university. More on the case later.

Posted by Wen at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is day 5, and my fabulous adventure in SF is underway. Even though it’s only my third day at work, I already feel integrated into the team. This is partly due to the get-down-to-work attitude of the law firm but also because since my arrival, my co-op employer has welcomed me non-stop with lunch and potluck. How did they know yummy food is the fastest way to my heart? Allow me to recap –

Monday and Tuesday, I spent 2 full days training with the law fellow at the firm. I must say this was a pleasant surprise to me because in my experience, many non-profits often can’t spare the manpower to adequately train their new hires, which often causes issues down the road. After a thorough orientation, I was told that my duties at ERA (my co-op) will be threefold – responding to the sex discrimination hotline, legal research for summary judgment on a pending Title IX (discrimination in school settings), and community outreach and education. This week, I will be working exclusively on the hotline because we received many calls over the holiday break.

So basically, by the end of my training on Tuesday, they were ready to throw me into the deep end of the pool and have me contact the clients who left messages for us on the hotline. Although I have had intake and client management experience in the past, I felt a bit nervous and frazzled during my first call. But by the third call, I was hooked. I had just taken employment discrimination and labor law classes last quarter so it was incredibly meaningful for me to apply what I learned to the situations the callers were describing – the paradigmatic example of the applied learning of the co-op program at work. Today, I set up shop at the hotline desk and spent the entire day responding to the calls to our hotline. It is a lot more difficult than I realized – translating these personal narratives into legal elements and prima facie cases of discrimination or harassment, but I suppose that’s why the legal profession exists and we all (hope to) have a job. It is also emotionally difficult at times to hear tale after tale of potential claims of discrimination even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed more than 40 years ago. The most difficult and frustrating aspect of the job for me is that due to limited resources, the hotline is only able to provide information and basic advice to people who may have experienced discrimination. We can’t represent any of the callers or go into great depth into their cases. I have to keep reminding myself that the hotline’s mission is to empower our callers so they know their rights under the law.

By 6pm pacific time, I’m exhausted from talking on the phone non-stop but also feel surprisingly content. I get on a bus to go home but decide to make a stop at the yoga studio so I can get my yoga pass. The studio is in the haight-ashbury neighborhood, which is about 15 minutes walk to my apartment. After walking along the main street for a couple of minutes, I think I understand why San Francisco is such a darling in the eyes of so many seasoned travelers. Take this neighborhood for example – it is completely beyond description. The best I can do is say that it is like an explosion of all things green, hippie, alternative, goth, flower power, which is completely weird, wonderful, and above all unique all in about 10 city blocks. No Starbucks, no CVS, and no Baby Gap. Now that’s a sight worth seeing!

Posted by Wen at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s a new quarter, and I will be bringing you my updates from San Francisco where I will be co-oping for the next three months! I arrived in everyone’s favorite city last night around 8 PM after seven long hours on the plane (thanks to “strong headwind�- side story: I also extended my journey west by another good five hours because I volunteered to give up my seat and took a later flight in exchange for 500 bucks. When you’re on law student budget, you learn to be flexible). I couldn’t see much when I got to SF because it gets dark so early these days. So first thing this morning, I put on my best walking shoes and got ready for my first look at San Francisco.

First stop – Powell Street for the San Francisco Visitor Information Center, a logical place to start my adventure. Heeding to sound advice, I purchased my December “fast pass� ($45) – SF’s version of a T pass that’s good on practically all public transit within the city. That means buses, trains, street cars, and even the world-famous cable cars. For those of you who do not know me, I can be a bit over the top sometimes. So naturally, I spent the next 45 minutes browsing through every brochure in the info center (there were about 150), afraid I might miss the time of my life contained in the next brochure.

Finally, after taking way too many maps and brochures, I left for Fisherman’s Wharf via cable car. These ancient things travel at exactly 9.5 MPH on some of the steepest hills in the city. A lover of all things historic, I enjoyed the ride as well as my walk around the wharf.

Third stop – work! I wanted to check out the place before I show up on Monday so I know exactly where it is and have a plan of attack ready. I took the F line street car to Market and Van Ness, which is about a 5 minute walk from my work. Now these street cars are my favorite means of transportation so far. They are each named after a city honoring the old trolley system there (I rode the “Kansas City� but saw “Boston� going the opposite direction).

By the time I checked out the office building where I will be working, it was already 3 PM Pacific Time, which is about dinner time in Boston. Before this narrative goes any further, you should all know that when I left Boston for SF, the biggest concern on the minds of those who know and love me is that I will starve to death out there. While I consider myself pretty self-sufficient otherwise, my housing arrangement in Boston did not exactly allow my culinary skills shine. Okay, here’s the shameful truth – in Boston, I come home to hot meals on the table every evening and usually have lunch packed for me by the time I leave for school in the morning. And people wonder why I live at home with my parents. So basically, I’m living on my own for the first time since college but this time – no dinning halls or meal plans. Well, I am happy to report that I have survived dinner tonight. I went to a nearby supermarket called “Lucky� and purchased almost 50 dollars worth of food. What’s for dinner, you ask – spicy chicken wings with baby carrots and apple juice on the side. I even got my breakfast planned – honey bunches of oats, yogurt, and a pear. Please, people – I survived first year law school. I can do dinners.

Posted by Wen at 4:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)