Justin’s Alaska Public Defender Journal- Introduction

Who Am I?

My name is Justin Tapp, and I’m a 2L at Baylor Law School in Waco, TX. I want to be a criminal defense lawyer when I finish law school in Summer 2010.

Where Am I?

I am serving a 12 week internship with the Alaska Public Defender Agency in Kenai, Alaska. Kenai is a small city of about 9,000 people located in the south central portion of Alaska, approximately 60 miles from Anchorage (though it takes over 2 hours to drive there). 

Why Alaska?

Well first of all, have you ever seen this place? It’s incredible. Where else in the country can you see whales, sea lions, moose, caribou, bears, and bald eagles on a regular basis? The mountains are amazing, the weather is great, and the sun practically never goes down. There is ample opportunity for camping, hiking, backpacking, sightseeing, and Kenai has some of the best salmon fishing in the world. It’s an amazing place to spend a summer, and a great change of pace from the bustle of Waco and the Texas heat (the highs here average in the mid-60s during the summer). Also, Alaska offers a unique opportunity for internships. Because of the lack of law schools in this state, interns from other law schools serve a valuable function in the legal community here. Law students who have completed at least half of their law school coursework can be authorized to practice under the supervision of an attorney, whereas in many states one must have completed 2/3 of the coursework in order to be provisionally licensed. So while I wouldn’t be able to practice in Texas, I meet the requirements for Alaska, which gives me practice experience that I wouldn’t otherwise have gotten this summer.

What Do I Do?

I’ve been working here for 2 weeks now, and so far I’ve mostly been working with the misdemeanor attorneys on motions to suppress evidence. I’ve written a few motions for them, and am waiting to hear whether the State will choose to pursue the matters or dismiss them. Since the two other interns and I are still in the “training” mode, we observe a lot of court hearings, from bail reviews, sentencings, arraignments, changes of plea, pretrial docket calls (“trial call”), evidentiary hearings, and motion hearings. We’ve gotten to do some court appearances as well, stepping in for the attorneys on minor matters like trial calls and bail reviews. As the summer progresses, we’ll be allowed to second chair trials at the felony level and even take the lead on misdemeanor cases. The experience offered by the public defender internship here is practically unmatched, and I look forward to experiencing and writing about everything it has to offer us throughout the summer.

What Do I Hope To Gain?

The primary goal behind taking this internship was to gain some substantial criminal defense experience prior to graduating. Although Baylor offers significant experience in trial advocacy to all of its graduates, the daily in-and-out of law practice, particularly criminal defense, is something that can really only be gained by getting in there and actually doing it. From the hectic schedule of going back and forth to court, to meeting with clients who operate on entirely different wavelengths than I do, to dealing with victims, prosecutors, clerks, judges, jailers, and other attorneys on a personal level, there are some things that no amount of schooling can adequately prepare you for. Hopefully when I complete this internship, I’ll have a good understanding and some decent experience doing the day-to-day work of a first-year criminal defense attorney, which is exactly what potential employers are going to be looking for when I graduate. So far the experience has been interesting, invigorating, and enlightening, and I look forward to chronicling the rest of the internship as it unfolds.

You can learn more about the internship position at: http://www.state.ak.us/local/akpages/ADMIN/pd/emp_interns.shtml

Justin can be contacted at justintapp@gmail.com