Etta Lockey, SBLC Intern, Fall 2009 & Spring 2010

Like most students, I came to the SBLC for the allure of meeting with clients. After three terms of sitting in a classroom, I felt ready to be a “real” lawyer, and real lawyers meet with clients and solve their problems. I sat through two weeks of training, anxious for our first week of office hours and what I knew would be my first client meeting. The first meeting was a dream; the client was patient, articulate, and best of all, knew exactly what legal services she wanted. Working with her (and my other client) over the next ten weeks, I was being a real lawyer, but not for the reasons I first thought. Being a lawyer is not just about meeting with clients, mining them for information, and then disappearing into Lexis or Westlaw to discover the answer to their issue. At the SBLC I learned that it’s also about learning to manage a file, to track time in six-minute intervals, to manage limited office time effectively, and to work with and learn from your peers. This fall I am returning to the SBLC as the Student Director and I want to help students recognize that, while meeting with clients is exciting and rewarding, there are many other valuable learning experiences at the SBLC.

Etta Lockey, Associate, McDowell Rackner & Gibson PC