Time management skills for working thoroughly and efficiently on multiple projects at once. How to overcome the fear of making mistakes. The importance of quality legal writing. Tips for achieving a healthy work-life balance.
These are just some of the valuable lessons that five LSU Law students learned while working at Taylor Porter as part of the firm’s summer law clerk program.
“The clerk program helped show us how what we have learned in the classroom applies in the courtroom and in the office,” says Eric Morvant. “It helped show us how academia balances with the practical side of the law.”
Along with Morvant, other LSU Law students who completed the six-week program were Anne Boudreaux, Elyce Ieyoub, Andrew Jarreau and Camille Schwaner.
Practicing Taylor Porter attorneys served as mentors to the students during the program, which is designed to give clerks hands-on experience that provides insight into what life is really like for lawyers. Their work ranged from research and legal writing to shadowing attorneys at depositions, hearings and oral arguments, as well as speaking with both Taylor Porter partners and associates one-on-one and learning about their personal experiences.
Along with learning how to work efficiently and thoroughly on multiple projects at once, and the importance of keeping client care at the forefront, Ieyoub says she “also learned important administrative skills that I wouldn’t have learned in the classroom such as billing time and entering documents into the firm system.”
Boudreaux says the experience gave her a new perspective on her career possibilities.
“Having a degree in accounting, I came into my clerkship with an inclination towards transactional work,” she says. “However, after working on such a wide variety of projects and being able to sit in on a trial, I am excited to learn more about all kinds of practice areas.”
Handling a wide variety of cases, some of which had very unique aspects, was one feature of the clerkship that Schwaner especially enjoyed.
“I was constantly given new challenges and encouraged to set the bar high for myself, in addition to learning time management and the importance of communication,” she says, adding she also learned “the importance of a work-life balance.”
Along with taking away important lessons that he doesn’t feel he could have learned through classroom coursework alone—such as the importance of careful legal writing—Jarreau says “my favorite part of the program was becoming friends with the other clerks as we learned and grew throughout our six weeks here.”
