Sarah Sheffield '26

This summer, I interned at the Erie County Attorney's Office, in the Special Victims and Domestic Violence division. I aided the bureau chief and assistant district attorneys in the division. At the start of the summer, I was nervous about the gravity of the material I would be working with. However, once I was in the office, I found the work rewarding. The District Attorney's office has a very supportive culture and knowing that I was helping each victim find justice in my own small way was fulfilling. My workload consisted of jail calls and research assignments. Jail calls were very interesting and helped me hone my investigative skills as I pieced together small bits of information that the defendant gave over the phone. I also enjoyed my research assignments on motion work; answering specific questions on nuanced points of law for the supervising attorney. It felt great to finally be able to put all the skills I'd learned in the past year to work, and the attorneys gave great feedback.

Between my assignments, I would join my fellow interns or supervising attorneys in observing court proceedings. I watched a large array of court proceedings in both county court and city court, including arraignments, bail motions, pretrial conferences, sentencings, extraditions, as well as multiple jury trials. It was fascinating to watch how each ADA and defense attorney employed their unique styles and tactics. Additionally, we took part in a speaker series with the US Attorney's office and DA's office, which I learned a lot from. Throughout the series, attorneys and law enforcement officials spoke to us about the work that they do and their career paths. It was informative to hear some first-hand perspectives on practicing public interest law and get a comprehensive view of the opportunities available to me in this sphere.

Before this summer, I didn't really have a solid idea of what a career in public interest law looked like. However, this internship showed me firsthand the wealth of opportunity that exists in public interest law, which is where I am most interested. I was fortunate to make connections with many attorneys who are passionate about the work that they do. That was inspiring and had the biggest impact on me this summer.

Thank you to Fran and Cindy Letro! This fellowship allowed me to pursue the field of law that I am interested in while affording me financial stability. I deepened my passion for public interest law this summer, and without the donors, I would not have been able to fully enjoy the experience.  Without the fellowship, I would have had to work another job.