Campbell Law Spotlight: Gladys Sanchez ’24
Campbell Law School student Gladys Sanchez ’24 is currently interning with North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls.
Last summer, she served as Martin Luther King Jr. intern with Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Farmworker Unit and as Equal Justice America fellow. In her last weeks at LANC, she was able to help prepare a second T-Visa application and finish collecting evidence for a different immigration case. She was also able to assist in preparing several opening memos developed through client intakes. These memos in turn help the attorneys to prepare a civil and/or an immigration case on behalf of our farmworker clients.
“I am very grateful to have interned with a great legal services organization. I was able to work on federal court cases while serving a too often overlooked population. I have further developed my legal research, writing and analytical skills as well. Interning at LANC has taught me that being a zealous advocate takes passion, patience and commitment. Wherever my legal career takes me down the road, I hope I can demonstrate not only good research and writing skills, but also passion, patience and commitment in serving all people.”
Q: Why did you choose your judicial externship?
A: Prior to my current externship, I had minimal understanding of what it meant to work in a judicial chamber, but I knew that working in chambers would allow me to improve my legal research and writing skills. It certainly has. Besides my hope to improve my research and writing skills, I wanted to learn about the work of a justice/judge and see firsthand how they form their decisions. I also wanted to take in how parties advocate at the appellate level. Specific to Justice Earls’ chambers, I wanted to work with Justice Earls given her extensive experience as a civil rights attorney and learn more about her trajectory to the highest court of this State.
Q: What does a typical day look like in your externship?
A: A typical day entails a lot of reading and writing. As an extern, you are required to read parties’ briefs, memorandums, records, lower court opinions, and case law. You are required to write objective bench memorandums, petition memorandums, and sometimes various sections of opinions. As I work through these various tasks, I lean on the clerks and other externs to talk through different legal principles and also listen to their take on certain issues.
Q: What is the most memorable project or assignment on which you have worked thus far in your current externship?
A: I worked on a case that is almost at the end of its life cycle. I first wrote a bench memo on the case and then presented the bench memo and my recommendation to Justice Earls. After oral arguments, Justice Earls’ chambers began writing an opinion on the case. During the opinion writing phase, I saw parts of my bench memo make their way into the opinion. Seeing bits and pieces of my writing in a N.C. Supreme Court opinion was incredibly rewarding, and, for this reason, this case has certainly been the most memorable assignment that I have worked on so far.