TIP Spotlight: Scott Blumenthal A14

Throughout the summer, we will be featuring the stories of current Tufts students. You'll find internships like these (and many more!) in the Tufts Internship Profile (TIP) Book, coming this fall. The TIP Book is a collection of internship descriptions and advice provided by Tufts students for Tufts students. Watch your Career Center eNews for more information.

Name: Scott Blumenthal
Class Year: 2014
Majors: Psychology and Economics
Hometown: Simsbury, CT
Internship organization: Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Boston, MA

1. Describe your internship organization.

Scott Blumenthal

As is surely the case for any unpaid undergraduate legal internship, a portion of my work consists of maintaining lists and databases, filing, transcribing interviews, and performing other clerical support duties. While such tasks may appear trivial, I view these housekeeping responsibilities as providing me with insight into many of the activities the Assistant District Attorneys perform in enforcing the law and providing for a safe community. I have also been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit in on a number of forensic interviews with sexual abuse victims. The stories I hear are extremely upsetting, yet by being able to sit with the attorney and social worker assigned to the case, I become a part of their team and am able to give my input as well as help in piecing together the facts. It is thus rewarding to know that at least in some small way I too am helping these victims. A unique aspect of the District Attorney Internship Program is attending trials, visiting the police crime lab, and participating in the formal presentations offered by members of the office on substantive areas of law that the District Attorney's Office is called upon to enforce. Through my interactions with the office staff, I have been exposed to the often complex process by which precious legal resources are allocated to competing public demands. These many activities have allowed me to put my future education into context and also experience first-hand the intangible rewards that one derives from practicing law in the public sector.

 3. How did you become interested in this type of work? 
Lawyers usually get a bad rap; this combined with the fact that both my parents are lawyers seems to lead others to conclude, when talking about future careers, that I want no part of the profession. Ironically though, I’ve been fascinated by the law since childhood, in part due to a natural inclination to vigorously advocate for and negotiate topics important to me. At Tufts I have tested that interest through various courses, including two in political science which have provided valuable insight into intricate aspects of the U.S. and foreign governments and several landmark U.S. court cases. I have also taken a course in logic, which my advisor strongly recommended as preparation for the LSAT and to gain a sense of the work ahead in law school. Having always loved math, I was fascinated by the intersection of math and the logic of persuasion, and see this course as an important foundation for the study of law. Perhaps more significant, I have taken a Social Psychology course with Professor Sommers, during which I learned a great deal about his research in the legal arena. I was so intrigued that I pursued and became a research assistant for Professor Sommers (now my advisor) regarding the effects of racial biases on eye-witness testimony. Although any law office would have provided opportunities to learn more about a legal career, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office has stood out for specific reasons. Each lawyer with whom I’ve spoken has uniformly described practicing in the public sector as the most rewarding of their professional experiences. Building on this, the Suffolk DA’s Office is comprised of ten units focusing on different facets of law, and this variety has been extremely useful in guiding me toward specific areas of public sector practice that I find most intriguing. Indeed, and seemingly icing on the cake for me, I learned that in 2004, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley empanelled a blue-ribbon task force to address wrongful conviction based on racially biased eyewitness testimony, nearly the exact focus of my current research. It is thrilling to have this opportunity to observe the real-world implications of my psychology research.

4. Describe one highlight of your internship experience thus far?
Likely the best highlight of my internship experience thus far was the court case I watched in my first few weeks at the District Attorney’s Office – a murder trial that I followed from jury selection through to the judge’s final sentencing. Not only was the case itself fascinating, but it featured our office’s First Assistant District Attorney Pat Haggan along with one of the most successful defense attorneys in Massachusetts, Rosemary Scapicchio. To watch two highly skilled attorneys in action was such an eye-opening and memorable experience, as I was not only able to learn about general court procedures, but I also picked up on many of the attorneys’ highly effective strategies and habits. After this one trial alone, I went from having zero court experience prior to this internship to feeling like I had been observing court cases for months, totally comfortable with the environment and with the various goings-on.

5. Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about you or your internship experience?
A great aspect of my internship at the District Attorney’s Office that one might not receive in a different law environment is the weekly “Brown-bag lunches.” These lunches consists of the interns gathering in one of the office’s larger conference rooms and eating lunch while listening to one of the attorneys talk to us on a range of topics, such as how they got to where they are today or some life-changing court case that they tried while working at the DA’s Office. One attorney went into the minute details of his experience convicting the “Craigslist Killer,” while another told us all about his handling of the Clark Rockefeller case (a court case that has since been written about in books as well as featured in a movie on Showtime). While these top attorneys in the office surely do not have the time to speak with every intern individually over the course of the summer, the brown-bag lunches provide a seemingly very personal interaction with them, providing us tremendous insight into the profession.