I have the pleasure of writing the final blog post of the summer! It has a been a wonderful nine weeks full of fun, interesting work, tag alongs, community involvement, and lots of food. We appreciate
See you soon!
The Final Few Days of a Great Summer
This summer, I’ve had the honor of writing both the first blog post and the final blog post. In my first post, I talked about the welcome wine and cheese event, the training sessions, and being back at Bilzin Sumberg. It is hard to believe that when I was writing that post nine weeks ago I barely knew Forrest, Luis, Alex, and Eric (Lauren I knew from last year!), and I had no idea that they would become such great friends and supportive colleagues.
Before we get to the end of summer fun, we have to get through the last of our assignments and our end of summer reviews. While I’m always a little bit nervous before the reviews, the attorneys always seem to provide helpful and encouraging feedback. Plus – my great mentor Lindsey Parker is always there with me! I’ve also tried to make an effort this year to reach out to individual assigning attorneys for feedback before my review — a suggestion from Jay Sakalo and Jessica Buchsbaum that I think has been helpful in improving my work and to building stronger relationships with the attorneys at the firm. Continue Reading The Final Few Days of a Great Summer
You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone
As the summer program is coming to a close, I can’t help but smile as I think back to all the wonderful experiences I’ve had in just nine weeks at Bilzin Sumberg. Though all my other blog posts have been (hopefully) funny and lighthearted, with the readers’ permission, I’d like to indulge in some
Summer 2017 Closing Thoughts
The final week of our summer associate program has suddenly approached us! Throughout the summer, my fellow summer associates and I have taken on a diverse array of assignments from all practice groups, attended multiple social events, and built invaluable relationships.
As a 1L summer associate, I am particularly grateful for the unique opportunity
(Almost) Getting to Closing
Over the summer, we have had the chance to experience every stage of a typical real estate transaction through the Mock Real Estate Transaction program. From the initial contract negotiation to contract amendment, Adam Lustig and Phil Sosnow led the summer associates through each step to closing. This week, after preparing a special warranty deed, a general assignment, a no lien affidavit, and a closing statement, we were finally ready! The teams showed up prepared (or so we thought).
Continue Reading (Almost) Getting to Closing
South Beach Escape
On Wednesday, we went to South Beach Room Escape with Bilzin Sumberg’s Real Estate department. For the uninitiated, the purpose of an escape room is to work together with others to solve puzzles, manipulate objects, and use reasoning to – you guessed it – escape a room within one hour.
There were three different rooms: Panic, Black Ops, and Diamond Heist. Each room had a different theme. In the Panic room, you are trapped in an operating room. The Panic team was Alex, Luis, Jessica Buchsbaum, Marjie Nealon, Adam Lustig, Steve Simon, Alexis Kanarek, and Craig Thompson. Lauren and Hannah were in the Black Ops room, in which they had to retrieve a secret chemical weapon. Audrey Ellis, Jim Shindell, Kent Koch, Ali Lehson, Manny Gonzalez, and Brendan Studley filled out the Black Ops team. I was in the Diamond Heist room with Eric, Suzanne Amaducci-Adams, Marty Schwartz, Alan Kazan, Phil Sosnow, Katy Yankowski, and Jared Spector. Our objective, unsurprisingly, was to steal a diamond.
After a brief tutorial, we were herded into our rooms. The moment the door closed, the countdown clock began ticking. We scanned our surroundings to find a room filled with everything from footlockers and mailboxes to stationary bikes and barricades. Behind barred doors and inside a locked container was our prize: a glittering diamond (made of the finest plastic).Continue Reading South Beach Escape
So You Think You Can Bowl?
No, this blog post is not about a proposed T.V. show spin-off; this blog post is about competition; this blog post is about camaraderie; this blog post is about bowling with the Bilzin Sumberg litigation department.
We all trickled in to
Flora and Fun
At the end of the last week, Bilzin Sumberg’s Women’s Initiative organized a Floral Design event for the women attorneys and summer associates. After work, we all headed down to a conference room and were greeted by tons of gorgeous flowers, Mediterranean food, and some wine to get the creativity flowing. At my table, we chatted about travel, tennis lessons, and how quickly the summer has blown past us, as we got ready to make flower crowns and carnation bouquets.
Continue Reading Flora and Fun
Miami: The City of Opportunity
One important decision (among many) that an aspiring attorney must consider is what legal market to practice in. Many factors go into this decision-making matrix, including—but not limited to—the demand for specific practice areas, paths to partnership, market trends, family, weather, food, and proximity to the beach. Of course, the order of importance of
The Wrench in the Plan
I think it was Posh Spice who once said, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Sure enough, we ran into the proverbial wrench in the plan during a mock real estate transaction meeting last week. Due to a (thankfully fictional) emergency, an amendment to our carefully negotiated contract was suddenly necessary. Luckily for us, there is protocol for these types of situations. We sat down once again at the negotiating table; when the dust settled, the buyer’s team had more time, and the seller’s team had more money.
As you can tell, our deal is moving right along! To refresh the reader’s memory, Lauren and I serve as counsel for the buyer, David Beckham (aka Eric Reissi). Hannah and Luis serve as counsel for the seller, Scary Spice (aka Alex Barshel). At stake for the buyer is the last piece of property needed for the construction of a MLS stadium; at stake for the seller is a pile of cold, hard cash. Since our first negotiation for the letter of intent (which Eric so eloquently explained) we have actually had several meetings and cut numerous deals.Continue Reading The Wrench in the Plan