For the first time this summer I decided to take on a project with another Summer Associate, David De La Flor. This corporate assignment was originally created for one Summer Associate and was projected to take 100 hours to complete.   Because of the interesting nature and the desirable work experience accompanying the assignment, the supervising attorney allowed David and I to split the work.

In the first part of our assignment, David and I were directed to create merger documents including certificates of merger, agreements of merger, and written consents. Having never prepared such documents, David and I were unsure as to how this assignment would turn out. The assigning attorney was understanding, and taught us how to use merger documents previously created for other entities to draft our documents.

The legal document drafting process was much more enjoyable with another Summer Associate to turn to whenever uncertainties arose. David and I finished six merger documents and prepared redline-comparisons for the six documents in one afternoon. The documents will be filed, and the merger process will begin tomorrow.

On the very first day of the summer, managing partner John Sumberg met with the summer associates to talk about the firm, its history, and its vision. One of the very first things he told us about was the importance of Bilzin Sumberg’s deep commitment to the community. 

Through Bilzin Sumberg Cares, the firm is involved with the Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, 100 Black Men of America, and numerous other non-profit organizations.

This past Friday, the summer associates, joined by over 30 other summer associates from across Miami, volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to help build a home in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. Many of us were tired, waking up just hours after the Miami Heat became World Champions, but once we arrived at the site we became energized, realizing that we would be instrumental in providing a home for a family in need.

Under the supervision of Habitat’s full-time builders, our goal was to build the frame for the walls of the home. David De La Flor volunteered to cut the wood while the rest of us got to hammering.

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The volunteer opportunity with Habitat for Humanity was continuing not only a summer associate tradition at Bilzin Sumberg, but a firm-wide tradition. Bilzin Sumberg provides financial support, commits volunteers to construction, and each year donates over $150,000 in legal services to Habitat for Humanity. I know I speak for the other summer associates when I blog that this was a gratifying way to end the week.

Yesterday kicked off a six-week mock real estate program for the summer associates. Because a real estate deal often extends longer than our nine week summer, Bilzin Sumberg has created a program where the summer associates engage in a mock transaction. Each week, Adam Lustig will lead a seminar about the different phases of a real estate transaction, including creating the letter of intent, preparing a contract, forming an entity, negotiating an operating agreement, and performing due diligence. In addition, the “buyer” and the “seller”, along with their respective “attorneys”, will be given a corresponding assignment due the following week. This may seem well planned but we’ve been told to watch out for unexpected twists and turns!

This summer, Michael Levine and I are representing Pitbowl (played by David de la Flor), in the sale of an empty lot to Kim Card Ashian (played by Veronica Gordon), represented by “counsel” Kyle Morabito and Shalia Sakona. Mr. Levine and I have a big meeting scheduled for Monday with Mr. Pitbowl to discuss our letter of intent. We would have scheduled the meeting for tomorrow, but we’ll be busy volunteering with other law firms at Habitat for Humanity.  That’s okay, it will give us more time to prepare. If we get Mr. Pitbowl a good deal, he just might reward us with backstage concert passes.

This past week I selected an assignment from the Environmental department that required me to analyze the Code of Miami-Dade County and formulate an argument that our client complied with the criteria needed to obtain a specific type of permit. Finding no case law or secondary sources that interpreted the code section I was researching, this complex assignment required me to “think outside the box” in terms of legal research. I turned to Google, where I found memoranda by the County that explained why a proposal was permitted, and under what criteria. I then had to think critically and creatively to analogize our client’s proposal to prior approved proposals.

What was great about this assignment was that I got the opportunity to work closely with two of the most talented and experienced land use attorneys around, Cristina Lumpkin and Howard Nelson. With their guidance, I was able to narrow down my research and focus on what was pertinent to our client’s proposal. I was also able to sit in and participate in one of their many brainstorming sessions, helping jumpstart my legal analysis. More than anything, however, I was touched by how accommodating they were and how they fielded all my questions. I’m looking forward to my next Environmental assignment!

Last night, the Restructuring & Bankruptcy group hosted their summer associate event at Two Chefs.  We were able to cook together (supervised by professionals, of course) and get to know each other a little better.  We stayed on task because Chef Jose told us if we didn’t cook, we weren’t eating!

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We wrapped up with enough time to enjoy our meal – topped off with an excellently prepared (by Jay Sakalo & Shalia Sakona) souffle – and to watch the Heat victory!  I would have to say, there weren’t too many cooks in the kitchen last night.

It is still a little surreal every time I look out the tall windows of my spacious office on the 24th floor.  Light blue ocean?  Palm trees?  As a Pennsylvania native and a current Boston resident, the view still makes every day at the office feel a little like vacation.  I can’t think of a better place to spend long work days (except maybe Scott Baena‘s corner office down the hall :-) ). I was even secretly delighted when I was almost struck by a falling coconut while walking down the sidewalk the other day (#Miamiproblems…). 

To be working in such a beautiful and vibrant city is truly a privilege—which brings me to my next topic: privilege.  Well, privilege logs, that is.  This week, I finally completed my first selected assignment, an objective memo on proper privilege logging format for email chains being withheld under the work product doctrine. 

The assignment selection process works like this:

  • As Bilzin Sumberg summer associates, we get to choose our assignments from an online assignment pool. 
  • When an attorney comes up with a project, he or she lists that project along with a short description and an estimated duration (anywhere from four hours to 100 hours) in the pool. 
  • We then go in and select the projects we want to work on, and they are removed from the pool and added to our personal agendas.

I had feared that assignment selection would be a sort of free-for-all, with all of the summer associates (or “summers”, as we are colloquially known) competing for a limited number of “good” projects.  I have been pleasantly surprised to find, however, that there is never a shortage of “good” projects in the pool. 

Bilzin Sumberg is constantly engaged in stimulating, cutting-edge legal issues.  My first project was no exception.  Case law has been slow to catch up with the realities of E-Discovery (the discovery of electronically stored information), and preserving privilege in the technological era is a sparse, yet contentious area of the law.

Given the obvious importance of first impressions, I was a little  daunted by my first assignment.  Fortunately, attorneys all around me were eager to help me sift through a complex legal web.  Everyone at Bilzin Sumberg has gone out of his or her way to make the summers feel at home. My hospitality award of the week goes to Eric Singer (Land Use) and David Massey (Litigation) for ever-so-patiently teaching us the basics of proper wine tasting at the Land Use event, Wines of Portugal, this week. 

The event was well-timed, for I had just finished my memo that afternoon!  Wine tasting did mean missing Bilzin’s weekly yoga class, but there is always next week.  Namaste :-)

Wednesday evening, Bilzin Sumberg hosted a wine and cheese event for all of the firms’ employees to enjoy.  This is not an event that is hosted solely for the summer associates; instead, this is a gathering that is hosted every few months for casual mingling, eating and drinking amongst the attorneys and staff.  We are only in the second week of our Summer Associate Program and it’s great to see how the summer associates have already integrated themselves into the firm culture.

Summer Associates at the Happy Hour

At the cocktail reception, the summer associate expressed their excitement and anticipation for the upcoming events over cocktails and cupcakes from Misha’s.

Misha’s Cupcakes!

Some reminisced about how amazing the experience was at the Corporate Two Chefs event last year and can’t wait for the upcoming Insolvency Two Chefs event to do it all over again. Veronica Gordon is ready to lend a helping hand at the South Florida Association for Law Placement Habitat for Humanity event next Friday.  Tomorrow, we are all participating in the 2012 Federal Court Observer Program at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Building.

It’s nice having a midweek break from our hard work.

Tuesday morning, Kyle Morabito and I had our first “tag-along” of the summer. The tag-along is an integral part of Bilzin Sumberg’s Summer Associate Program and provides each summer associate with an intimate view of the practice of law, whether it’s a court proceeding with the litigation practice, or closing a deal with the corporate practice.

Kyle and I had the pleasure of observing Stanley B. Price, a named partner of the firm in the land use practice, argue a case at the Third District Court of Appeal regarding the expansion of a private school.

Here’s how my work on the matter transitioned from the office to the tag along: 

  • Prior to the oral argument, I helped Stanley, Eileen Ball Mehta and Eric Singer, prepare for the argument by reviewing the pleadings and relevant case law, helping to conceptualize themes to be used at the argument.
  • A few days before the argument I participated in a fascinating strategy meeting with Stanley, Eileen, Eric, and Judge Gersten, former Chief Judge of the Third District Court of Appeal, who now chairs Bilzin Sumberg’s Appellate practice.

The hands-on experience of assisting the attorneys with their preparations for an appellate argument before the Third DCA and then being able to see the work come to fruition at the argument itself, has certainly been the highlight of Week 2. I’m certainly looking forward to more tag-along opportunities with other practice groups during the weeks to come.

During the summer, each practice group hosts a social event for the summer associates.  The goal is to allow the summer associates to get to know each practice area’s attorneys in non-work settings.  We also like to showcase Miami – adding a charitable component is icing on the cake!

Yesterday evening, our Land Use attorneys hosted the first practice group summer event at The Wines of Portugal Grand Tasting.  The wine tasting was held at the Rubell Family Collection in Mid-town Miami.  It is an art gallery (that used to be the home of the Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated goods warehouse) that has a lot of personality and is now one of the world’s largest, privately owned contemporary arts collections.

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We had some great wine, some great company and best of all: the proceeds benefited the Emeril Lagasse Foundation.  Cheers!

The Cruz Building

After a wonderful beginning to the first week of work, the Summer Associates attended the firm’s annual dinner party on Saturday. The party was at The Cruz Building in Coconut Grove, a unique venue inspired by New Orleans architecture (some of the fixtures were even salvaged from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina). 

Upon entering the space, I was struck by the beautiful stained-glass windows, marble staircases, and antique chandeliers. As noted by John Sumberg in his opening remarks, Jessica Buchsbaum did an incredible job choosing the venue.

Although it had only been a week at the office, it was nice to find so many familiar and welcoming faces during cocktail hour. Soon after, everyone dispersed to their respective assigned tables for dinner.

I was lucky enough to be placed at Table 8 with a delightful and entertaining group that included Albert Dotson, Ed Kalish, Mildred Gomez, their respective spouses, and Bryan Hawks and Shalia Sakona. We discussed a range of topics, from that night’s Miami Heat game to Justin Bieber, and also received inspiring advice about how to have a fulfilling legal career from Mr. Dotson.  Towards the end of dinner, we discovered it was Mr. Dotson’s birthday as well, joking about the surprise birthday party awaiting him downstairs. To our surprise and Mr. Dotson’s, when we proceeded downstairs for dessert, he was greeted with a large, red velvet cake with his name on it, wishing him a Happy Birthday.

With filled bellies and happy hearts, the Summer Associates headed over to the nearby Coral Reef Yacht Club to watch the game 7 of Heat vs. Celtics Playoffs. Suzanne Amaducci-Adams was kind enough to secure a room to watch the final match-up for anyone from Bilzin Sumberg who was interested in attending. We had a great time chatting and watching the Heat beat the Celtics back to Boston. It was the perfect way to top off an already memorable evening!