OrleansLaw Clerk
Jun. 2020 - Aug. 2020New Orleans, Louisiana, United StatesAs an OPD Law clerk, I spent my first week training with different attorney supervisors and senior attorneys on Louisiana criminal law and criminal procedure. Areas of training include a discussion of the life of a case from arrest to sentencing, pretrial detention and bail, repeat offender sentencing law and practice, and common evidentiary problems. Additionally, I was trained to use OPD’s case management system, Defender Data, and the case management system for the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. A law clerk at OPD, I had the opportunity to observe everything a staff lawyer does for a client on a case short of speaking on the record in court. This role included legal research on a wide range of issues arising out of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th Amendments; writing memos, motions, and writ applications to Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal and the Louisiana Supreme Court; visiting clients in jail; meeting with clients’ family and/or defense witnesses both in and outside of the office; investigating with the attorney, i.e. going to the scene of the crime, canvassing neighborhoods, interviewing complaints; assisting the attorney at trial and substantive motions hearings; digesting discovery and pretrial hearing transcripts; and observing the attorney during client counseling sessions and plea negotiations.