Lawyer Interview Papers

I have a deep interest in going to law school and pursuing a career in law. I think I want to be a corporate lawyer, but am also considering other areas of law that may seem more fulfilling to my social justice advocacy wants. When trying to find someone to interview for this paper I was able to connect to Karmen Mcquitty. Karmen is an attorney for the University of Minnesota Student Legal Services and on the side does volunteer work by representing people who get arrested during protests. When hearing about her endeavors currently and in the past regarding her work in law, I knew she would be an interesting person to gain a new perspective on career areas in law. She is someone who is involved in a lot of the same advocacy issues and groups

When talking to her it was clear that in most field of law, the attorneys will have a specific area of focus. Some will be spending a majority of their time reviewing and creating contracts, some will be working specifically on criminal cases, some will be focused in employment law, and so on. However, Karmen’s career is unique in the way that she has a specific group of people she represents rather than working on a specific area of the law. She told me that she spends a lot of time dealing with renter complaints, looking over rent contracts, expunging records for minors, and a wide variety of other things that will be brought into her office by students. She was also really open about discussing the process and expense of law school. She said that in the future we could continue to talk about these different concerns of mine when applying for law school. Also, we brought up to me an opportunity to actually be able to work with her and her colleagues. She stated that there was an application for an internship with Student Legal Services that I should apply for. It is a paid internship during the summer and during this time I would be able to make connections with attorneys and judges, watch court cases, ask questions about law schools, they would help me build a financial plan for law school, and many other amazing opportunities that would help me pursue a career in law. I also asked her a lot about her volunteer work representing people we are arrested for protesting and how her advocacy work affects her career. She talked to me a lot about my rights as a protester, to not worry about that jeopardizing my career because many lawyers have arrests for protesting, and that she has a love/hate relationship with her volunteer work. She states that it is a great way to give back to the people who put so much work into the different areas she cares about and can help