By Brian Smith

 I currently have a paid internship at the Doyle Golde Grossman Family Law Group in Downtown Danville.  I have already made arrangements to continue working throughout the summer.  The Firm is located on Hartz Ave, across the street from Rakestraw Bookstore and three buildings down from Basil Leaf café.

 The firm primarily deals with matters of Family Law and Trusts and Estates Law.  Family Law:  Divorce  Spousal Support  Child Support  Child Custody  Trusts and Estates Law:  Wills  Trusts (A trust agreement is a document that spells out the rules that you want followed for property held in trust for your beneficiaries.)

 Terry Doyle  David Golde  Richard Grossman  Virginia Ekelund  Dan Quane  Colby Freeman

Legal Assistant’s:  Karen Honaker  Julie Pulsipher Support Staff:  Celia Beard  Danny Quintero Other:  Peggy  Stephanie  Me

 At the Law office, my day to day duties basically consist of:  Depositing checks (in Pleasanton)  Dropping off/Picking up documents from court (in Martinez)  Actually filing papers with the court (If I am able to go to work in the morning)  Scanning, Filing &Organizing case folders  Help manage and organize financial paperwork  Getting supplies from Costco  Any other odd/undesirable/tedious jobs  Changing light bulbs, crawling up in the attic to store holiday decorations, cleaning out storage space, taking hazardous waste materials to the proper facility, cleaning windows, etc.

 Link:  Here I’ve chronicled many of the different tasks that I’ve done while working.  Over time, I began to develop a work routine and fewer new assignments were given to me. (This is why the number of blogs began to decline as the year went on)  Overall I thought blogging was an excellent way for the teacher to keep in touch with what their students were doing throughout their internship.

Overall I found the book to be dull and a huge waste of my time. As I mentioned in my blog, the book only skims the surface of the significance of the court cases and instead focuses more on the overarching system. While informative, this book did relatively little for me to peak my interest in the field of Law and I would not suggest reading unless your goal is to understand the overarching system.

 I will be attending the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington this fall.  I plan to major in International Political Economy (IPE)  I might also minor in something else but I’m not quite sure what that will be

 While Law School is the current target that I’m shooting for, if something I come across in college strikes my fancy I won’t hesitate to jump on it and try it.  Undoubtedly, this internship has increased my resolve to be a lawyer but I still don’t feel like I’m ready to fully commit to the idea.

WHERE I WILL BE IN 5 YEARS…WHERE I WILL BE IN 10 YEARS…  I see myself graduating from Puget Sound and pursuing some field in graduate school.  It may or may not be law school, it depends on what comes my way.  I see myself working in a steady job somewhere on the west coast and starting a family.  Preferably in a nice house like this: