Taft Law Firm hires two current SFDS students for a summer internship

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Taft Law Firm hires two current SFDS students for a summer internship

1 law firm plus

4 summer interns plus

1,000 documents scanned plus

22 dumpsters of old materials plus

9,000 gallon of shredding plus

400 banker boxes plus

Outings, mentorships and opportunity equals 

ONE amazing experience for two SFDS rising seniors! 

Roseann Scorpio, Director of Operations for Taft Law firm, had a big project. The growing law firm, which recently joined the AM Law 100, is renovating over 105,000 square feet of current and new office space. In preparation, the firm had a big project to clean out spaces, digitize materials, store confidential information and shred unneeded information. Rather than using current staff, Ms. Scorpio saw this as an opportunity to bring in some summer interns to learn about the legal world, earn summer money and help prepare the firm for their February 2023 completion of their building out/renovation. 

Partner James Oakley having heard about St. Francis de Sales Work Study program asked Ms. Scorpio if she would be interested in hiring some SFDS students for her summer internship. She was and she did! Two rising seniors at St. Francis de Sales, were hired along with two other interns, one a rising senior at Whitney Young and another a rising college senior at Loyola, to help the firm on their expansion project. 

The project involved a lot hard work, dust and some sweat as they shredded documents, boxed up confidential information for storage and cleaned out litigation war rooms. Ms. Scorpio believes that no matter ones role in a project, “people are more excited about their work, if they understand their role and the project as a whole” so she worked with the interns to explain how their work fit into the business of the law firm, how they were helping to keep client information confidential and also make attorneys more efficient providing them with digitized information.

What did the interns accomplish? A lot! The four interns:

  • Scanned over 1,000 documents to their document management system

  • Shredded approximately 100 ninety gallon bins

  • Filled and indexed approximately 400 bankers boxes of files that were sent to storage

  • Filled 22 dumpsters of old books, boxes, furniture, etc.

  • Boxed 400 storage boxes of client information to send to the secure site, Iron Mountain 

  • Cleaned up litigation war rooms 

  • Created an electronic appellate library of information for attorneys 

Of course, it was not all about filing, shredding and storing. The firm wanted the interns to understand all aspects of the firm, not just legal work but also IT, marketing and HR. The interns met with partners who gave them overviews of cases and mentored them on college applications and the financial aid process. During their internship, they met with staff and many partners including:

  • Graham C. Grady Partner  took the interns to lunch, discussed college and the financial aid process, shared his experience and mentored both students. 

  • Chair Cid Froelich held numerous meetings with the interns and spent time with them to discuss careers aspirations.

  • John Kennedy took time to meet with the interns to share facts about cases and legal profession to give more detail to the work of Taft Law.

The interns enjoyed their experience and learned a lot.

“My experience at Taft has been amazing, I was so grateful for this opportunity  because this is my first job . Working at a Law Firm is so much more than just attorneys and secretary’s , there are so many other departments in a law firm to learn about .  Everyone here has such good energy and are really nice and helpful. It was truly a great experience and I would love to come back and work here again.” 

“My experience at Taft has been very fun and interesting dealing with so many different people in this law firm has gave me an idea on what I want to do in my life as I get older.  Also I got to learn details on how to run company and to be lawyer I would wish to come back and visit all the great people here because it has been very good experience I enjoy my time here.”  Gregory, a rising senior shared.

Ms. Scorpio also made sure the interns had fun with outings around Chicago, including lunch, ice cream, taco lunches, and more! There is a lot to see downtown. One favorite was touring the farmers market at the Daley Center.

Ms. Scorpio was impressed with both students. They interviewed for this job and worked hard at the internship. She never had to follow up on a given assignment. The four interns became a team, learning from each other’s experience too. They were “absolutely outstanding” said Ms. Scorpio “I would hire them again!” 

Job well done! And thank you to Roseann Scorpio and the Taft Law firm!