Hello readers, and welcome to my WilmerHale summer associate blog! My name is Kim Crowley, and I am a rising 3L at Boston University School of Law. I wanted to start this post by giving you a bit of my background. As a former pilgrim reenactor at Plimoth Plantation turned union organizer when the museum decided to unionize, my path to law school and to WilmerHale has been a bit unconventional. However, I am so excited to be here, and I am even more excited to share my experiences working as a summer associate with all of you.

Additionally, I would like to start this post by stating that I am, in fact, not crazy. I know the actual answer to the question I posed in the title of this post. This week marked the end of week two for me and my summer class at WilmerHale. On the one hand, two weeks sounds about right for all I have experienced. Days of orientation, meeting my coworkers, getting assignments, attending lunches. I can count them all up in my head and know that about two weeks sounds right (or, you know, I can just look at the calendar).

Yet, in another sense, I might also believe you if you tell me I have only been working here two days. It feels like yesterday that I arrived for my first day of orientation, awestruck by the views of the city outside not just the fancy conference rooms used for orientation, but also my own office. Me, Kim Crowley, the pilgrim reenactor who has only once before been paid over $12/hour, has an office with my name on the door and a window view of the old State House. I scroll through my pictures and cannot believe my first city adventure with my coworkers happened over a week ago, when a group of us wandered the Greenway looking for food trucks. I blinked and the first two weeks were over, left behind in a blur of orientation sessions, happy hours, and conversations with my new colleagues.

I have to say though, my favorite thing so far about being a summer associate at WilmerHale is that I might also believe you if you told me I started working here two years I go. I cannot believe how much I have experienced in these first two weeks, both within the law and around the city of Boston. The firm has done everything it can to provide all us curious summer associates with two years of experiences on an accelerated timeline. Don’t believe me? In the past two weeks, I:

• Tested out my skills as a government affairs lawyer, attending regulatory hearings for the Department of Family and Medical Leave and helping to advise clients on changes to Massachusetts leave laws.

• Helped a litigation team prepare a brief for an appellate court.
• Was assigned to my first patent case and attended trainings on trade secrets.
• Attended a training for Greater Boston Legal Service and accepted my first Unemployment Insurance case pro bono.
• Accepted a real estate assignment.
• Ate lunch at the Boston Public Market, as well as three trending downtown restaurants in three days.
• Learned how to cook pork from the former executive chef of Lucca in Boston’s North End.
• Cut pork incorrectly, despite the supervision of the executive chef of Lucca.
• Successfully figured out how to walk on bricks in heels.

Based on what my calendar tells me, I have made it through 1/5 of my summer experience at WilmerHale. Each day has been an adventure I did not expect, and I have learned more already than I anticipated learning all summer. I am excited to see what these next few weeks have in store. Tune in for more updates!