Hometown: Marquette, MI
Major and class standing: English, Senior
Social media Handle: Maija Itenberg LinkedIn
Where you interned: Ionia County Public Defender Office
What was your internship title and role/responsibilities?
As an Office Intern, I worked closely with the paralegal staff in the office to ensure that legal proceedings ran smoothly. I conducted a lot of phone-based client communication, such as scheduling attorney-client appointments, answering any questions they may have, and listening to the occasional monologue. I also drafted letters to communicate information pertaining to legal proceedings, any enclosed documents for their cases, and I utilized the defenderData software to ensure that case records were accurately maintained. Ultimately, anything the office needed me to do, I did. I played quite a bit of phone tag, ran documents down to the courthouse, and I took upon myself the role of refilling the humidifier… trust me, that thing needed to be refilled during the winter months.
How did you obtain your internship? What resources did you utilize to secure your internship?
I got a notification on Handshake over the summer — while I was working another internship at a local law firm in Marquette, actually — from Walter Downes, the Chief Public Defender. Honestly, I was kind of used to getting mass-sent messages in my inbox all the time, but he said that I seemed like I’d be a good fit for the internship position, and it seemed like it could be a genuinely good, meaningful experience, so I messaged back asking if the position would be open in the spring semester. We were able to set up a Zoom meeting to discuss the office and the position and, eventually, I was able to get off the waitlist for the spring.
What did your daily routine include?
I would get to the office around 8:30 usually and start the day by doing any leftover work from the day before. Coming in that early, I could usually wake up a bit and eat some breakfast, but things get pretty busy pretty fast. Tuesdays were typically arraignment days, so there was a lot of calls to take and letters to draft. I tried to eat around 12 (and I usually just worked through the allotted hour for lunch, reading through police reports and watching bodycam footage if the cases striked my interest), and a little after 2, I would go on a mail run to the courthouse across the street. I tried to leave at 4:30 — unless someone called right as I was about to leave — and that’s pretty much what my routine consisted of, give or take a few random things that might pop up throughout the day.
Your favorite experience from the internship?
I loved getting to wander around the Ionia County Courthouse. It’s an incredibly beautiful building, and getting to walk across the street in the sunshine when winter started thawing into spring, even if only for mail runs — though I did get to watch a jury trial! — was usually a favorite part of my day. Also, I felt super official and professional getting to enter the courthouse with my intern lanyard and all that.
What was your least favorite part of the internship?
Having to get used to making mistakes was truthfully the hardest part of this internship. I’ve always been very much so a perfectionist — an anxious one at that — and having to get comfortable with making mistakes and acknowledging that I made them before moving on to fix them is difficult for me. I am a frequent over-thinker and every time I mess up, I worry it’s the end of the world. But being perfect and flawless all the time is, unfortunately, unrealistic. Especially when adjusting to a new work environment. And mistakes can always be fixed, after all.
What skills did you learn and/or build upon during your internship?
I did learn how to use the defenderData software and develop a better sense of phone etiquette, but I think this internship really emphasized the importance of clear communication. If an attorney didn’t let us know what time they’d be leaving the office and a client wanted to speak with them, the paralegals and I would have to play the occasional round of phone tag with them to figure out what was going on. If instructions in an email weren’t thorough, I’d have to send a few more to fully understand what exactly I’m being asked to do. Being able to handle frustration is also important, as clients can be incredibly frustrating. From not having their proper, complete contact information, to not being able to hear them over the phone, to just having to deal with difficult personalities in a people-based field, being able to keep a level head is crucial.
What did you learn about the industry or your career path as a result of the internship? What are your future plans?
I think the biggest thing that I learned is how essential paralegals are for the functioning of the legal system. I don’t think a lot of people realize just how much paralegals do — or even that they exist, honestly — and getting to work alongside the office’s paralegal team really opened my eyes to that. Attorneys are what people think of, and they’re often the “face” of a case, but at least in the Ionia Public Defender Office, it’s the paralegals who often conduct a lot of direct client communication while the attorneys handle their caseloads. They really streamline a lot of how the case actually proceeds. I also do think that a lot of legal fields, particularly criminal defense, require empathy and compassion; but it’s important to not let that empathy take over. I had a few clients’ family members almost cry to me over the phone over how their relatives’ lives have gone, how they want to help them, and how they wish they’d get their lives back on track, but there’s nothing I can really do. And it can be dangerous, even, to get too emotionally invested to the cases you’re working on. Initially, I found it very difficult to cut people off and move the conversation away from their venting.
In the future, I’m still not entirely sure what field of law I want to pursue, but I do think I want to do something where I work more directly with people. I want to do something both interesting and meaningful. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to hone in on what field of law interests me in law school, but for now, I’d like to be able to explore as many different fields of the legal system as I can.
What advice do you have for other students seeking out internship opportunities?
Don’t be afraid to look a little silly, honestly. My first internship was at a local law firm, Bensinger, Cotant & Menkes, in Marquette, and I got it because I’d actually applied for a legal secretary opening. I had a feeling I probably wasn’t fully qualified, but they saw my MSU Mock Trial experience, my placement in the Honors College, and my GPA, and they offered me a position as an intern for the summer.
