After much effort in finally acquiring Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 in China, I set to making a website for the law firm I am currently interning at. Yesterday, without much avail, I was messing around with the program the entire day, and grew rather frustrated with my lack of progress (even though all I was doing was creating mock ups of bits and pieces of what I could be doing for the official website). However, last night, I downloaded a few free templates provided by the oh-so-kind Adobe, and got to messing around with its components.
Today, I literally hacked up the website template, and made it to my liking. Although there were things that I couldn't do as shown in the tutorial, I made it work in the end. Right now, I have a fully functional (on my desktop), bilingual website. All it is missing is text and photos, of which I hope to work on tomorrow. Here's hoping my photoshop and photo-taking skills will come of use. I have to say I am fairly satisfied with the product, after hours of boring over it, though I hope it is to "professional par." I'll let my coworkers be the judge of that tomorrow. I am very nervous about this website ordeal. A part of me realizes that I am simply being 自作多情, no one asked me to create a website. But after much research, I finally found the haphazardly put-together website, whose domain made me ignore it in the first place, suspicious that it wasn't he real website. The website itself is 2 years out of date, and none of the data is actually there (much of it lost probably to the host server not caring anymore). I know it seems like such a "high" standard, but for a law firm that has earned the title of "Distinguished Law Firm" for consecutive years in Nanjing, I honestly feel they deserve a better website. Maybe my boss will like the idea if I present it to him as free! I am trying my best to utilize what resources I can, but it is killing me. I feel so useless at the law firm, though today, I must say that there has been considerable improvement.
Of all the lawyers present, I of course feel closest to the 24-year old 祁姐姐, who is simply the easiest to talk to. I discovered though that while she has already passed her examinations, since she has not be in the practice for a full year yet, she (by law I think) cannot go to court by independently, and must be accompanied by an experienced lawyer (like a 2-person representation). She informed me that she right now is considered an "intern" as well, and has little to nothing to do most of the time. She gains her experience by attending court with the other attorneys. I suppose this is how they teach in China. I never would have expected this as the intern's "job," but it is more a matter of learning from the environment than it is actually doing something. In this way, I suppose I'm not being placed in an American's definition of what an intern is like, but am truly being integrated directly into the "intern culture" in China. I am sure I will learn a lot this way.
It is somewhat sad how excited I get at the slightest opportunity to do something at the law firm, but I guess it is a matter of perspective. I suppose now I appreciate all the little things, instead of taking them for granted. For example, I may possibly get my first minor assignment tomorrow to translate a short document into English for a coworker. My boss, Head Attorney Yu, asked for my assistance with a client, and my coworker was kind enough to give me the heads up for what that meant (get the hot water and a cup for the client: he wants tea). After serving him a hot cup of tea in a paper cup, I went back to my seat, my "assignments" literally done for the day. Fortunately, Head Attorney Yu was kind enough to ask one of my co-workers to show me the case he is currently working on. It was actually one of the most enlightening parts of my day.
From my understanding of the documents, the case began as a suit of one individual who was displeased with an organization's implementation of eminent domain. Basically, they were going to tear down the area, and all the tenants had to vacate for a small compensation of 40,000+ RMB. However, this tenant refused to sign the contract for compensation. What got interesting though is that this case grew into a class action, as 18 other households likewise refused to sign the contracts/agreements for compensation, though now it is down to 11 as I believe 7 of those homes are now torn down. I was curious how difficult it would be to defend this case, considering that it was a completely legal action on the organization's part, and I asked my coworker if it was difficult. He said no. To my surprise, he revealed that the case is rather straightforward in that all he has to do is look to the Law and codes to find ways of defending his client's standpoint. It is therefore simple and fairly easy to win. I was surprised. For the first time, I finally got to see Law playing a much larger role in the court system. This case literally hinged on the wording of the written Law itself, the minor clauses, and the codes of conduct in cases such as these.
I found it interesting though how this system went. It was really like a series of e-mails being debated back and forth. The representative lawyer would send a letter to the opposite's firm, listing what their claims were and what they needed to prepare within the allotted time frame of XX days. The opposite firm would then reply in suit and then state their response/defense, and then supply their alternatives and time frames. It would go back and forth, much like a debate on paper, that is, until they get into court. I think much of it is figured out outside the court hall itself, so everything is basically settled by the time they head into court. It is ultimately up to the judge on who wins on the matter (as my coworker had so kindly explained). I think I learned a lot more today, simply from this single case alone, and I would love reading some more cases along those lines. It feels like they have to handle everything, from assault disputes to the most common, spousal disputes and financial compensation. Half the time, it sounds like they're conducting a marriage consultation on the phone with these troubled marriages, but alas, it is definitely not easy being a lawyer in China. They definitely have a difficult job, considering they are so few and far between.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment