by Leslie N. Muñoz, '02

This summer I was fortunate to receive the Rocky Mountain Harvard Club's Summer Community Service Fellowship. As a result, I spent my summer living in Denver, working at Denver's Metro Volunteer Lawyers, a non-profit pro-bono group that provides legal assistance to indigent clients.

The program, directed by attorney Barbara Chamberlain, works in two ways. First, it acts as a liaison between clients with civil cases who cannot afford legal assistance and attorney volunteers. Secondly, Metro Volunteer Lawyers runs a program called the Family Law Court Program which assists clients with filing their divorce or custody cases with the court, and then representing them at the permanent orders hearing.

Approximately half of my time at Metro Volunteer Lawyers was spent working with Tony Damon, program coordinator of the Family Law Court Program. Together with Tony, I helped to prepare case filings, helped clients to meet their appointments with us as well as with the court, and to arrange necessary court documents.

I enjoyed the direct client contact that my internship afforded me. I met a lot of interesting people, most of whom were extremely grateful for the help MVL offered them. The timing of my arrival at MVL was excellent. The week I began, Heather Richmond, the program's administrative assistant, began her maternity leave. Fortunately Heather remained long enough to train me to fill her position in her absence.

One of my major tasks was entering client intake data into the computer. The volume of data was great, and though it was at times tedious, entering it was a necessary step. Answering the phones and fielding clients' and attorneys' questions and concerns was also a major task. Perhaps my favorite project during my internship was the translation of several of the Family Law Court Program's documents into Spanish. The client base of MVL includes a large number of Spanish-speaking people. Many of them had difficulty in understanding the English documents we provided to them. I suggested that we should have these documents translated into Spanish. Quickly, understanding that I had studied Spanish at Harvard, the program director gave me the job. I am by no means fluent, but I applied what skills I had to the project. At the end of a long process of drafts and revisions, Metro Volunteer Lawyers had the translated documents on hand for future use. I was also fortunate this summer to get to practice my Spanish speaking skills. On several occasions during monthly meetings and on court dates I was asked to translate for our clients.

I was greatly helped in many ways by the mentoring I received from the program's executive director, Barbara Chamberlain. In addition, I met members of the Denver Bar Association and observed their weekly meetings. One of the final tasks of my internship was to read a newly published book, Law School Confidential -- a guide to gaining admission to and surviving law school. My review of it will be published in the October edition of the Denver Bar's monthly, The Docket.

The competition for summer law internships (even among law students) is intense; I feel very fortunate that the Rocky Mountain Harvard Club's generous fellowship afforded me such an opportunity. Through it I was able to help in the struggle to provide legal representation to all who need it as well as to gain an insider's perspective on the practice of family law. The RMHUC's generosity helped to make my summer successful in many ways. Many thanks for your encouragement and support!