Operations and Development Internship, Philadelphia VIP
Philadelphia VIP is a non-profit legal services firm in Philadelphia that provides a connection for low income Philadelphian’s to a pro bono attorney. VIP is essentially the last line of defense for those with low income, as well as small business’s in the city for pro bono access to legal help.
From their website ” VIP promotes equal justice for the poor by providing civil legal services not otherwise available, collaborating with other legal services organizations and promoting a culture of volunteerism by educating and exposing attorneys and law students to issues of poverty”.
At VIP I learned to process cases and use their database, Legal Server, as well as perform multiple intern tasks like large scaled mailings and paper intakes. I was in charge of processing client and donor information into Legal Server, as well attorney profile creation and entry. On top of these daily tasks I did some excel analysis on event feedback. I was given several large projects as well as many smaller projects ranging from data analysis of Philadelphia’s list of “Super Lawyers” to preparation for the new website migration. Being able to work in and around Legal Server taught me many functions of databases in the real world, and honestly gave me direction on planning my future. I performed many multimedia tasks as well including Spanish voice-overs, and video consolidation (new website migration). This being my first internship I learned the basics of office etiquette, best practices working within an office, and working with balancing multiple deadlines.