Week 4 was wild. It was my busiest week so far. On Monday, our Motion for the Writing Competition was due. One could feel the furious energy of the Summer Associates as we each worked to finish our motion by the end of the day. Nestled between Monday’s lunch hours was a seminar on Opening and Closing statements with Tampa partner Rob Blank. And you guessed it, we were tasked with performing a closing statement later in the week. On Monday evening, Rumberger’s first writing competition was a wrap. Hopefully we were good guinea pigs for this Frankenstein-ish experiment.

On Tuesday, we had time to catch our breath, especially Paris and me. President Trump came to Orlando to announce his reelection bid, and we were permitted to leave early to avoid traffic caused by his rally—a President’s (Half-) Day, if you will. From home, I conferenced into the Direct and Cross Examination seminar with Miami Partner Scott Sarason. I laughed, I cried—mainly because he spliced My Cousin Vinny scenes into his presentation.

On Wednesday, we had another Orlando Attorney’s Luncheon. The speaker was articulate, dynamic, and well-prepared; incidentally, the speaker was me! I presented three case summaries on recent District Court of Appeal opinions: issue, facts, holding kind of thing. No one is better prepared to brief a case than a law student. So, I was surprisingly at ease during my presentation. The cases I commented on were interesting enough to elicit questions, which I took as a good sign. It should be noted that we did not have Four Rivers BBQ for lunch (someone was trying to sabotage me), but I managed.

Pro Tip: If any one reading this ever has to do a case presentation, do not wait around for applause once you are finished. The attorney’s do not clap. Never mind that it resolves the “melody” of the presentation and signals its completion, you’ll hear more crickets then claps. The only way to make it not awkward is to sit down.

Out of the frying pan into the fire. On Thursday, Paris and I were shipped to Tampa to meet Grace and Phoenix for the Closing Statement workshop. Each of use gave a closing statement to a room full of partners and associates. I felt pretty confident in my closing. I had an interesting theme at least. I will say, though, the attorneys did not mince words. They spent about thirty minutes after each of our arguments reviewing what we could have done to be more effective. All in all, it was a nice experience, made even better by our lunch at Columbia Restaurant afterword.

Friday was comparatively tame. I worked to catch up on assignments from the week. Next week is my last in Orlando. So, be sure to tune in to see how it goes.