Civil Litigation

Weekly Report 10/17/2017 to 10/23/2017

Civil litigation is not for me. This week, I met with Ms. Stephanie Barnes from Siebman L.L.P., a patent civil litigator. She was immensely helpful in sharing information about the law in general while also specifying what exactly patent civil litigation consists of. After learning more about the difference between criminal and civil law from the point of view of a civil lawyer, I am further convinced that it is not the right path for myself.

When speaking with the three criminal defense attorneys that I met with in the previous week, all three of them seemed to come to the same conclusion that civil law is all about money. Ms. Barnes seemed to agree with this; she explained that most of her clients are multi-million dollar corporations that will often join together with multiple other defendants and litigators in order to fight charges or press them. However, Ms. Barnes helped me to understand that although civil law consists of disputes between people that do not involve the allegation of a criminal statute being violated, patent civil litigation is the protection of intellectual property, so there is a different type of theft crime being disputed.

Even though there is still a protection of justice in this system, civil law tends to consist mainly of forming entities, drafting by-laws, completing tax/IRS work, creating real estate contracts, and administering business sales, mergers, and acquisitions, which are not the most associated with helping others. I want to find a profession that will give back to the community and serve others through my work, and although civil law does fulfill this to some degree, the criminal lawyers that I met with were exceptionally passionate about their careers, which really inspired me to follow their paths.