Personal Contributions- Nysa Stiell

I think it is fitting that I reflect on my personal contributions to NYLAG being that this is my 4th/5th week as an intern. Taking some time halfway through this experience is allowing me to quantify exactly what I’ve done, what I will continue to do as the internship continues, what I can work on to be a better intern, and what goals I may have to revisit with my supervisor to ensure that I receive the most rewarding experience. 

For the past few weeks, my main task has been the yearly audit. This project required me to separate a master spreadsheet of pro bono cases by the firm, I then reached out to pro bono partners at each firm to confirm whether or not these cases were still active, how many hours were billed on each case, and the value of these billed hours. This project, while seemingly easy when it was first handed to me, required hours of tedious work reviewing spreadsheets for duplicates, then going back to add case ID numbers, following this, I had to double-check in Legal Server for cases that may have been listed as active but were actually closed and for those that were closed before this fiscal year but were still on the master spreadsheet. This first part required a lot of time, but not a lot of creativity or brainpower. 

Once the initial emails were sent out to each firm, and a tracking spreadsheet created, I was given another project of reviewing and improving the pro bono clinic flyers for NYLAG. This project required more creativity in using Canva to create a design that would include all necessary information but in a concise and easy-to-read format. Coming to the end of my 5th week, I have successfully created this design and am waiting for feedback while also waiting for more responses for the audit project. 

I have reached out to my supervisor about gaining more client interaction and working on legal samples, which are goals I have for the remainder of my internship. I hope that these opportunities, once secured, will allow me to gain a better sense of the client-attorney relationship when working with a non-profit legal organization. This is a personal goal as I feel that I have been deprived of this experience when working with large corporate firms, but am looking forward to having with a smaller non-profit group.