Weil’d about Hands-On Training

NEW YORK – My summer at Weil has been an incredible experience with wonderful people. From the Beyoncé concert to the summer department events, socially there is never a dull moment. But even more remarkable at the firm are the training opportunities available to summers. In particular, I enjoyed participating in a deposition skills workshop.

At first, I was worried about the workshop. We were given materials to read beforehand to prepare for the deposition and facilitate the learning experience. It seemed like a daunting task for me, a first year student who had never even witnessed a deposition during my legal research and writing class.

I walked into the conference room, tense with anxiety, afraid I was going to embarrass myself in front of my peers and the attorneys serving as our faculty advisers. I nervously munched on the snacks in the room, trying to keep myself occupied so I would not focus on what was about to befall me.

But quite the opposite happened. As I deposed the witness, asking questions I prepared, I felt a sense of accomplishment. The attorneys mostly let us work through our own problems in the deposition, learning through practice. At the end, they gave great, substantive critiques and words of wisdom for improvement, but also highlighted our strengths. There was no “gotcha” moment of intense embarrassment, just a feeling that I had been given the tools to succeed and I had achieved something.

I left the room having deposed my first witness and defended against my first deposition. It was an incredibly exhilarating experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to be ahead of the curve relative to my classmates when I return to law school.