I sit and watch as updates go by
This week I reach the halfway mark, and things are still going well. I think the firm has figured out how I fit into the scheme of things a little better now, and I’m starting to get some more difficult tasks.
I’ve worked on more court documents, this time preparing an initial report of the debtor’s situation from an envelope full of paperwork we received from the debtor. The contents of said envelope also had to be photocopied so the originals could go back to the debtor; true intern work that naturally fell on me, the intern. Still, I made it almost a month without a photocopying project like this, so I can’t complain. I should mention, all of these documents I’m preparing get reviewed by my German colleagues, of course, but they are grateful for my first drafts. More follow-up on correspondence I sent out a few weeks ago regarding assets that need to be sent to an insolvency trust account. As part of a different report to the court I helped organize photographic evidence of a client’s assets into a Word document. Finally, the letter of intent I gave a German summary of last week needed a full translation this week in order to arrange things for the employees that will be remaining in the company after takeover, so I got to prepare that, as well. Any translator will tell you that working into a language other than your native one is work you just don’t want to have to do, but what I produced seems to have been suitable for their purposes. Only a few questions about particulars, and my Business Basics course came into play as I had to explain a little bit about our general corporations system in comparison to Germany’s (thanks to Prof. Monroe, I know the difference between public and closely-held).
Not everything has been a success, unfortunately. One project I attempted was really just over my head based on my knowledge of German law and my ability to research while here. Let me say, I will never underestimate the value of Westlaw again. Also, with no common law structure, case law isn’t as frequently cited as it is under the Anglo-American system, so it’s not as well organized for easy searching quite the same way our court opinions are. All that said, I wasn’t able to get very far looking for information about the insolvency trustee’s avoidance of a transaction made by a third party to satisfy a single creditor to the detriment of the creditors as a whole. I imagine this would be a tough question under American law, too, and the clerk that I got the job from didn’t seem too surprised or disappointed that I couldn’t figure it out; she’d been working on it for a while already herself.
A quieter weekend, since the weather Saturday wasn't so good. I did get to Berlin to hang out with Greg and his roommate Borja (Spanish guy, still in undergrad). Went to an electronica club in East Berlin, eventually. The music was good, but Germans dance funny. Rather than clustering in groups, they were all lined up facing the DJ. Greg was just waiting for them to break out in the Electric Slide.
Sunday I was back in the New Garden to take some photos I missed last week (my camera battery ran out) and to tour Cecilienhof Palace. It was the last palace built by the Prussian monarchy, actually built during World War I in 1914. It's mostly famous now as being the site of the Potsdam Conference at the end of World War II, where the Big Three got together and divided up Germany (and where, due to mutual mistrust, the Cold War more or less began). Interesting palace for Germany, since it looks like an old English manor house. The artifacts inside are mostly intact, too, probably because it escaped bombing (obviously, since it could be used for the conference) and because it was the site of the founding of East Germany, so there was some incentive for the Soviets to preserve it, too. Nowadays, 3/4 of it is a hotel while the rest is a museum.
So, like I said, a quieter week. I've been keeping myself so busy I guess I needed a break. That's all for now, then.
I’ve worked on more court documents, this time preparing an initial report of the debtor’s situation from an envelope full of paperwork we received from the debtor. The contents of said envelope also had to be photocopied so the originals could go back to the debtor; true intern work that naturally fell on me, the intern. Still, I made it almost a month without a photocopying project like this, so I can’t complain. I should mention, all of these documents I’m preparing get reviewed by my German colleagues, of course, but they are grateful for my first drafts. More follow-up on correspondence I sent out a few weeks ago regarding assets that need to be sent to an insolvency trust account. As part of a different report to the court I helped organize photographic evidence of a client’s assets into a Word document. Finally, the letter of intent I gave a German summary of last week needed a full translation this week in order to arrange things for the employees that will be remaining in the company after takeover, so I got to prepare that, as well. Any translator will tell you that working into a language other than your native one is work you just don’t want to have to do, but what I produced seems to have been suitable for their purposes. Only a few questions about particulars, and my Business Basics course came into play as I had to explain a little bit about our general corporations system in comparison to Germany’s (thanks to Prof. Monroe, I know the difference between public and closely-held).
Not everything has been a success, unfortunately. One project I attempted was really just over my head based on my knowledge of German law and my ability to research while here. Let me say, I will never underestimate the value of Westlaw again. Also, with no common law structure, case law isn’t as frequently cited as it is under the Anglo-American system, so it’s not as well organized for easy searching quite the same way our court opinions are. All that said, I wasn’t able to get very far looking for information about the insolvency trustee’s avoidance of a transaction made by a third party to satisfy a single creditor to the detriment of the creditors as a whole. I imagine this would be a tough question under American law, too, and the clerk that I got the job from didn’t seem too surprised or disappointed that I couldn’t figure it out; she’d been working on it for a while already herself.
A quieter weekend, since the weather Saturday wasn't so good. I did get to Berlin to hang out with Greg and his roommate Borja (Spanish guy, still in undergrad). Went to an electronica club in East Berlin, eventually. The music was good, but Germans dance funny. Rather than clustering in groups, they were all lined up facing the DJ. Greg was just waiting for them to break out in the Electric Slide.
Sunday I was back in the New Garden to take some photos I missed last week (my camera battery ran out) and to tour Cecilienhof Palace. It was the last palace built by the Prussian monarchy, actually built during World War I in 1914. It's mostly famous now as being the site of the Potsdam Conference at the end of World War II, where the Big Three got together and divided up Germany (and where, due to mutual mistrust, the Cold War more or less began). Interesting palace for Germany, since it looks like an old English manor house. The artifacts inside are mostly intact, too, probably because it escaped bombing (obviously, since it could be used for the conference) and because it was the site of the founding of East Germany, so there was some incentive for the Soviets to preserve it, too. Nowadays, 3/4 of it is a hotel while the rest is a museum.
So, like I said, a quieter week. I've been keeping myself so busy I guess I needed a break. That's all for now, then.