Every summer Bilzin Sumberg brings in a writing consultant, Susan McCloskey, to help the summer associates make the jump from an academic to a professional writing style.  We had two group sessions with Susan that were extremely informative with the opportunity to discuss writing tactics and edit each other’s work as a group.  We also had an individual session to discuss our personal strengths and weaknesses and how to write more efficiently.  I found the sessions to be an extremely productive experience and have already implemented many of the strategies that we discussed.    

Later in the week, it was time to put the law and writing to the side and gear up for some competition.  The Bilzin Sumberg Hit Squad took the field at Douglas Park for a friendly softball game.  The co-ed team consists of people from various departments and was headed up by our fearless leaders Juan Torres and Marcelo Araque.  The most important team members of all, Bruno and Zoe, led the charge. We will look to them for help as we get ready for the playoffs next week.    

Bilzin Sumberg Softball Team Mascots – Bruno (wearing Bilzin Sumberg gear) and Zoe
By Sea! L to R: Brian Bilzin, Carly Grimm, Eryca Schiffman, Naomi Alzate, Adam Fischer, Veronica Gordon, Om Pandya and John Sumberg

Looking back on this week, yesterday definitely gets my vote for BEST.DAY.EVER. at Bilzin Sumberg! (Note: this will probably change by next week when I have a new best day ever, ever). The morning started with my tagging-along to a Motion to Dismiss hearing with Stanley Price, Eileen Mehta, and Eric Singer.  I had the opportunity to update case law earlier last week in preparation for the hearing, so witnessing all the arguments in action was awesome! Riding on my first “court appearance” high (shadowing counts right?!), I got back to the office and turned in my first research memorandum. Obviously, I was feeling pretty great about the day. Little did I know, the Real Estate department had two more awesome events in store for us. One by land, and one by sea:

“A Tale of Two Royal Families:” One of the main goals Bilzin Sumberg has for us this summer is to gain real world experience. Yesterday, the Summer Associates participated in a Mock Real Estate Transaction led by Adam Lustig and Bryan Hawks.  A line divided the British Royal Family (the Seller) and The American Royal Family (the Buyer) as our coaches Kent Koch and Ali Lehson guided us through negotiating a Letter of Intent from The Duck King to Her Majesty for a prime piece of Miami real estate. We all played fair, even Adam, and quickly came to terms for our clients. Watch out Miami, the Duck Dynasty is moving to the neighborhood!

Real Estate & Land Use Yacht Tour: The two practice groups had the awesome idea to take the Summer Associates on a (water) tour of the Miami skyline. The MVP award definitely goes to Carter McDowell for the night! With cocktails and hors d’ ouevres in hand, we enjoyed the Miami evening as he pointed out the houses of the rich and famous and highlighted the real estate projects Bilzin Sumberg has been involved with along our city’s skyline. The night ended with a pretty cool coincidence — watching the Presidential motorcade go by right from the roof deck of the yacht, The Venetian Lady!

This post will not be quite as savory as the last (I dream about that Nutella cake), but I promise to deliver a topic just as deliciously exciting: regional transportation! I’m looking at you, fellow land use law enthusiasts (yes, they exist).

Last Thursday I accompanied my mentor Eric Singer on a tag-along to the 2013 Transportation Summit for the Miami-Dade region. The event brought together community stakeholders including elected officials, citizen groups, national experts and residents of the Miami-Dade area to engage in an important dialogue about the future of the region’s transportation networks. Eric and I arrived to the summit in style via the Metromover, of course.

Bilzin Sumberg is involved in many local development and transportation projects and it was great to see the firm keeping a finger on the pulse of the community by sponsoring and attending this type of conference. I also appreciated Bilzin Sumberg’s attention to my own goals. I’ve been interested in these types of growth issues for years and was pleasantly surprised to have the firm so quickly provide this opportunity to dive into the action here in Miami.

Continuing the day’s theme of community involvement, that same evening the summer associates were invited to attend the Miami Dade College Alumni Hall of Fame awards ceremony on behalf of Bilzin Sumberg, a sponsor of the event.  A live jazz band, dinner, and a promise to release the audience before the Heat game began made for an enjoyable evening.

In the five short days of my first week at Bilzin Sumberg I witnessed first-hand the firm’s strong commitment to the citizens of the Miami-Dade area and I look forward to playing a role in Bilzin’s presence in the community. Stay tuned for our Community Service Project Day at the end of the month!

 

The award winning bake-off entry

It is that time of year again! The Bilzin Sumberg Summer Associates are back to inform and entertain you with our blog posts. Members of the original cast (Amy, David, Kyle, Michael, and Shalia) are preparing for the Florida Bar Exam and we wish them the best of luck. I am back for my second summer with a new set of spectacular summer associates: Carly, Eryca, Naomi, Adam, and Om.  We are all excited to spend the summer at the firm.

As a returning summer associate, I am so happy to reconnect with the attorneys I met last year and get started on new projects. This week, I was reintroduced to the firm’s protocols during orientation. Aside from the classic trainings with our IT department and librarians, the annual bakeoff between Jessica Buchsbaum and Paul VanderMeer happened this week. 

Last year, to Jessica’s dismay, Paul’s fruit tart won the grand prize (read: bragging rights). This year, Jessica captured the voters’ hearts and bellies by incorporating the one ingredient no one could resist: Nutella. Although Paul’s vanilla crème brulee and chocolate tarts were delicious, Jessica won the bakeoff with her strawberry Nutella cake.

During orientation, we were also given an overview of what this summer has in store for us. The summer calendar is filled with opportunities to get to know attorneys and their practice groups. Some new additions to the calendar include bowling at Lucky Strike with the Corporate & Tax group and the women attorney’s Nordstrom event. Next week, we are taking a tour of Miami on a yacht with the Land Use and Real Estate groups. Overall, the summer is off to a great start.

First Day! L to R – Om Pandya, Eryca Schiffman, Veronica Gordon, Naomi Alzate, Carly Grimm and Adam Fischer

Today we officially welcomed the 2013 Summer Associates!

Most of the day was spent in orientation, but they’ll be picking up assignments tomorrow and blogging by the end of the week.  This year, I am most excited about the changes to our real estate mock transaction – maybe you’ll even see a blog post or two about the revamped program. 

Right now, the focus is on getting them integrated, acquainted with their mentor, and settled.  And there are plenty of assignments awaiting them. . .

In preparation for our 2013 Summer Associate program, we’ve been working on a project that will be a useful tool for our incoming summer classes.  This project quotes anonymous evaluations of previous summer associates by Bilzin attorneys over the last few years and is broken down by topic.  These topics include attitude, time management, preparation & organization, attention to detail, communication, writing and oral presentation.  This chart of “The Do’s & Don’ts of a Successful Summer” will provide a glimpse of what the attorneys like and don’t like in terms of the topics listed above.  However, it does not include “off the record” type tips like the ones listed below.

  1. Stay current with firm news – read the posts on the firm website, firm blogs and any news on the firm intranet.  It’s always good to know what’s going on around you and this helps with conversation topics as well!  It also helps to read the local newspaper to see if any attorneys are quoted or to have a few cocktail reception talking points of interest.
  2. Get Involved – Get to know all levels of attorneys and staff  where you spent your summer, participate in all offered events as well as events with your mentors and fellow summer associates.
  3. Be Well-Rounded – Try to not be too much of anything and be open-minded about practice areas and assignment types, don’t shy away from something because you don’t know how to do it.
  4. Immerse yourself in the Magic City – Don’t just learn about the firm’s or organization’s culture; learn about the Miami culture too.  Go to different neighborhoods and try doing fun things outside of work that aren’t already part of your awesome summer event lineup!
  5. And last but not least, genuinely care about your summer – If you care about your job, it will show in your work product and people will notice.

We are so excited to welcome our new summer class within a month! Our team has prepared what will undoubtedly be a memorable 9 weeks of summer at Bilzin and we are looking forward to a very successful summer.

The Dodge Squad

Last night, the Bilzin Sumberg Dodge Squad squared off against three other South Florida law firms in a dodgeball tournament to raise funds and awareness for United Way of Miami Dade. 

We risked life and limb (both as players and spectators), but our awesome coaches Al Dotson & Bryan Hawks made sure everyone brought their A game and team spirit.  We also had some very special guests (including Zo!!) on our team – Kyle Morabito from last summer and Adam Fischer, an incoming 2013 summer associate. 

While we weren’t able to bring home the championship, the evening benefited a great charity and we all came together with the common goal of pounding other law firms with foam balls.  The proceeds from the event were significant, so our community was the real winner.  Besides, we always have next year!

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We are excited to have concluded our recruiting for the 2013 Summer Associates and are looking forward to another great summer.  The future bloggers (aka, our incoming summer associates) are:

We’ve settled on the date for the start of the summer program in June and have encouraged the summer class to get in touch with each other; hopefully, they’ll have the opportunity to get to know each other before the summer starts.

Now that we’ve concluded our summer recruiting, we can focus on building the summer programming and thinking about mentors.

Adam Lustig, Eryca Schiffman (2013 Summer Associate), Michael Levine and Adam Fischer (2013 Summer Associate)

We are  pleased to share that we concluded our 2L recruiting a couple of months ago, and will have five 2L law students in the 2013 Summer Associate Program. 

A full blog entry will be posted when our summer class is complete – we began our 1L interviewing this month.

Last week, we had an opportunity to introduce the first year associates and some of the 2012 Summer Associates (our first bloggers!) to a few of the the incoming summer associates (future bloggers!) at the firm’s year-end party. 

I think everyone enjoyed the company, the venue and the food!  It was a nice opportunity to appreciate how lucky we are and to wish everyone a happy, healthy and bright 2013!

Here are some additional photos from the party:

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First Year Associate, John Atkinson, reads to preschool students as part of the Read for the Record program.

. . .and practice makes perfect.  So, last week 12 attorneys and managers read – to preschoolers – the book Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad by David Soman as part of Read for the Record, an international event aimed at raising awareness about the importance of reading to young children. 

We’ve written about the value of community involvement and pro bono during the summer associate program here and here, but it was nice to see some of our first year associates taking that to heart as they start their legal careers. 

It was also really fun to see John Atkinson interacting with preschool children.  I can assure you that was the first time these junior associates read about ladybugs during the workday!

Each of the twelve volunteers read to a class of children at Catholic Charities Sagrada Familia Childcare Center, a center serving low income families in Miami, and United Way Impact Partner.  Our participation was part of our involvement with the United Way of Miami-Dade.

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