Externship Spotlight - Savell & Williams LLP
Class Year: 2010
Hometown: Loganville, GA
Major: English and Sociology
Campus Activities: RA, Student Assistant in Bucknell Human Resources Dept.
Goals: To go to law school
Hobbies: Singing
Other Interests: Traveling, working with people
Externship: Savell & Williams LLP, Atlanta, GA
My Experience
Due to time restraints I actually had a one-day externship experience with Savell and Williams. I was shadowing Chris Pecone, attorney at law. On Tuesday we met in the office around 8:30am where we made some rounds in the office and he introduced me to some of his colleagues. Originally he had a court case of his own that we were supposed to go to but it got rescheduled. So we ended up going to the state board instead and sat in on a few cases there. From this experience I was able to see how the schedule of an attorney can fluctuate and often be subject to change. Afterward, around noon we went back to the office where we discussed law school and potential careers in the field. Around 2pm, we met up with Stephanie Anderson, attorney at law, one of the younger lawyers in the firm as she had just came out of law school. At lunch we engaged in a lot more discussion about law school and law careers.
How did this experience help you make decisions about your future career?
It was a positive experience because I had just recently started to consider law as a possible career opportunity and the externship provided just enough insight for me to decide whether or not I would like to continue looking into it. It did help me to decide to pursue a career in this industry through the court cases I was able to observe. Watching what took place in the courtroom definitely helped me to make a decision. The conversations I had with a few lawyers in the firm also helped. The firm does not specialize in the field of law that I am interested in, but I was still able to obtain industry insight by shadowing Chris to get an idea of what the schedule of a lawyer can be like.
What questions shoudl I ask my sponsor?
The most important things to ask are:
– What are the skills and qualities necessary in your field?
– How can I prepare for this type of career?
What other comments or opinions that you would like to share?
It is important to communicate your expectations and what you would like to get out of your experience. I communicated those things to my sponsor and I got exactly what I was looking for. The externship program is definitely helpful in making career choices!