The second informational interview I conducted was with Katherine Devlin, one out of the two female attorneys working at Barbieri Law Firm. I was definitely very excited going into this, because it was my first interview with an attorney that actually practices in my specific field of study, which is criminal law. I was also looking forward to it, since any field of law is very much male dominated; and as a female myself it would be interesting to hear what Ms. Devlin had to say about the dynamics of this.
I started out asking her about her typical day in which she told me that there really wasn’t one. This gave me even more reassurance that I had picked the right focus for my study! Continuing throughout the interview, which was around roughly twenty minute, that same theme would occur. I felt very like-minded with Ms. Devlin, and that made the interview very interesting. She had just been hired to the law firm about a year ago, right after law school and doing an internship there. That being said, she didn’t have as much knowledge from experience yet, which she was really candid about, but it was still very informational.
Furthermore, she made certain to remind me to expect the unexpected. This strongly speaks to me, because as my junior year goes on, I am starting to get more acquainted with this concept by enrolled in ISM and band as one of the drum majors. Being under pressure and not always knowing an exact plan or idea of what to expect; that is where I thrive. Another interesting thing that Ms. Devlin mentioned was that she actually feels like she’s in a TV show during trial (whenever there manages one). I was fond of this concept because that’s part of how I decided on which field of law I wanted to research. Criminal is the one with the excitement, the trial, the challenges with evidence and hard moral constructions , the leaving them in shambles. She mentioned how she always knew she wanted to be an attorney which blew my mind because I can’t imagine growing up always knowing that I wanted to practice law. It gives me an upper edge knowing about it now and taking a class such as ISM which will be most helpful after college, along with any reading or writing based courses.
I did, however, receive an unexpected reply when I asked Ms. Devlin about her favorite type of case. She told me that some cases, such as assault, even sexual, is one of her top-ranked cases to defend. This is such an intriguing perspective because she not only feels like everyone has the right to be defended, but she can also separate herself and think about the cases very objectively. She must do what is best for her client. I already know this is something that I need to work on. I can get very passionate about one subject and then almost forget to mention the facts to support the principle of the matter.
Overall, I had a very enjoyable second interview. Although she was relatively young, she still had great advice to give and stories to tell in several areas if not all of them. I’m definitely going to work on those concepts going further in my ISM journey.
