It was 10 A.M. Monday morning when a confident young professional swaggered through the doors of 1450 Brickell Avenue ready to tackle every obstacle within his path . . . I then scurried through the doors closely behind him to avoid the doors slamming in my face on my first day. Excited, but admittedly a little nervous, the anticipation heightened as the elevator climbed to “23.” With irrational confidence, I emerged from the elevator prepared to begin my journey as a Summer Associate at Bilzin Sumberg.

I was immediately greeted by the smiling faces of my fellow summer associates. Although we had been assembled from law schools across the country, it felt as though we had known each other for months thanks to our e-mail correspondence. (Our immediate familiarity may have also had something to do with our casual get-together over cocktails at Batch Gastropub the night before.) After some quick icebreakers courtesy of our summer guru, Jessica Buchsbaum, Elise, Geoff, Hannah, Jenny, Claudia, Lauren, and I were thrust into orientation

Although many of the matters discussed throughout the next three days were brand new to me, our legal “dream team” of Jay Sakalo, Alicia Ortiz, David Trench, and Eric Singer provided us with crash courses in everything we needed to know. (Update: The training has paid off and the building is still standing as we near the close of our first week.) After hours of training, we felt like kids on Christmas morning as we were ushered into our summer offices with picturesque views of downtown Miami.

The meet-and-greet portion of orientation shifted into overdrive at the wine and cheese reception that the Firm organized in our honor. It was here that our impressive mentors were given the opportunity to introduce their respective mentees to the ENTIRE firm. Soon after, we introduced ourselves more intimately to a batch of attorneys with resumes more impressive than Jared Spector’s Bar Exam score. Conversations flowed naturally as and I quickly realized that this summer was going to be special. Now, it’s time to get back to work.