My name is Rishi and my career aspiration is to be an attorney. To fulfill this dream, the AnnieRuth foundation graciously placed me at the Walker Law Office. The Walker Law Office is run by Willie Walker, an attorney who embodies everything I want to be when I grow up. And I’m not just referring to his legal accolades. Though that’s something I hope to achieve too, I want to be as loving, caring, thoughtful, and brilliant as is Atty. Walker. The Walker Law firm works mostly with personal injury and negligence but sprinkled in with some criminal law as well.
The project that I’m most proud of completing was creating a Daubert motion. The purpose of a Daubert motion is to exclude an expert’s testimony if it’s based on faulty science. Easy enough, right? Boy, was I wrong. I had to prove the illegitimacy of cellphone tower technology, which was not an easy task. I read over 20 peer-reviewed studies that all promoted my side of the argument. Reading these documents was exceedingly difficult. They used so much technical jargon that just reading a mere paragraph got me overwhelmed. Nonetheless, I learned what each word means; I learned how to interpret the data that was provided by the study; I even spent time learning how cellphone tower technologically operates. But that was only the beginning. Next up was writing the Daubert motion. Before I even began this mountain of a task, I read three different Daubert motions that Mr. Walker previously wrote. I took notes and tried to internalize the vocabulary and rhetoric of a Daubert motion. Then, I read chapters of two different legal textbooks that explain the purpose of a Daubert motion, what a Daubert ought to contain, and other legal precedents that added more nuance to the motion, and basic guidelines for writing the motion. I read the Daubert vs. Merrell case guide, which is a skill in and of itself that I learned. Then, I converted the abstruse writing from the peer-reviewed documents into something comprehensible enough for a judge to understand with ease. I also read through the resume of the expert witness and wrote several pages proving his lack of credibility to testify in this case. This required me to read several case documents and precedents to corroborate the fact that he fails to meet the threshold to be an expert witness. Beyond that, Mr. Walker had me listen to two of his depositions (these are interviews that seek to extract valuable information from the opposing counsel, which can be used in court). I took notes of the depositions, and afterward, he would fill me in on the different components of the deposition and what value he sought to fish out with his questions. Afterward, I wrote the deposition questions that Mr. Walker asked the expert witness on cellphone towers. In addition, Mr. Walker had me do a lot of work with medical records. There was one case where our client was given the wrong medication by a pharmacist. I analyzed the medical records and calculated the half-life of the wrong drug he took to see whether the incorrect medicine had any long-term impacts on his health. Additionally, I also calculated the half-life of the medicine he should have taken to prove that not having the correct medicine caused a full 120 hours of suffering. Additionally, I also took another client’s medical records, and I organized them into SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) to allow Mr. Walker to see all the medical details in a clear format. For another client, I used his medical records to calculate his blood alcohol content during the event of a crime to prove that he was drunk during the incident. Moreover, I was taught how to write a demand letter using real cases. Something that shouldn’t be overlooked is creating and moving boxes. I learned how to make a box, place the documentation in the appropriate files, arrange the files, and label the box, which are all valuable skills to keep handy when I hopefully become a lawyer.
The AnnieRuth Foundation’s training was fantastic for preparing me for future success. I’d like to begin by discussing the etiquette training, a session often overshadowed by the rest of the business seminars. I foolishly thought that the etiquette training would serve little utility, but I was incredibly wrong. I had dinner with several parents of my friends, and this taught me how to properly behave at the dinner table. From the finance seminar, I learned the importance of saving money, especially at a young age. Now, I save 20% of any money I earn and place it into a savings account to get interest on that money. I also used the exact wording used by the expert in the finance seminar during my DECA competition, and the judge was beyond impressed. I also found the interview to be incredibly valuable. That was the first time that I had done an interview, and I had felt that I had grown very much since before I was part of the program. I also really appreciate the seminar dedicated to attire. Previously, I would attend competitions and events without dressing appropriately. After the seminar, I bought myself a suit that I really liked, and that did indeed bolster the public perception of me. These are just a few snippets of how I implemented the knowledge I attained from the program, and I know that there is much more future success to be had. I am forever grateful for my entire experience with the AnnieRuth Foundation.