Name: Angela

Year: Junior

Major: Political Science, Legal Studies

CFS Program: Legal Field Studies

I am lucky to be interning at the Chicago Bar Foundation this quarter. My internship has been incredibly rewarding, and I am barely half way done with the quarter. At the CBF office, I assist various staff members with tasks and research projects to help them do anything from preparing for speeches at conferences to developing an official platform on political issues. The staff at the CBF has been nothing but welcoming, supportive, and fun to be around, and it is a great low pressure yet highly rewarding work atmosphere. They also never miss a chance to invite me to important meetings at firms throughout the city, or lunches that the CBF sponsors or is invited to. I cannot stress what a great balance that is – I’ve not only delved into the advocacy work that CBF does, but have been introduced to the legal field in Chicago in general, and have had a chance to sit at the same table with many prominent attorneys and other legal actors.

As an intern with the CBF, I also have the privilege of working at the Daley Center three mornings a week. I work at the Resource Center two of those mornings, and the Kent Help Desk one morning, but the goal is the same – assisting low- to moderate-income individuals get the legal help and advice they need. This entails everything from listening to people’s legal issues and connecting them to the appropriate help desk to get free legal advice from attorneys to guiding people in filling out motions, appearances, orders, fee waivers, and a myriad of other legal forms. Throughout this experience, I’ve not only gained a much more wholesome idea of how the legal system is structured, but have done a small part in tackling some of the largest access to justice issues that plague our legal system today by connecting those in need of legal advice to legal resources at no expense to them. It is not only educational, but incredibly rewarding.

To top it off, I look forward to the Legal Field Studies course every Monday. The class is always interesting, whether it is just a lecture and discussion or an actual fieldtrip. I have learned a lot from Professor Llorente and from my peers, and the discussions we have are equally engaging as they are educational. It is the perfect complement to a legal internship, and I find myself bringing up the lessons we learned in class to my co-workers at the CBF and others that I run into throughout my day, and it has sparked many engaging conversations and connections. CFS has so far been everything I expected it to be and more, and I am so glad I enrolled!