By Kevin Mosier

My summer interning for the Honorable David H. Hennessey in the Federal District Court for Massachusetts was the most eye-opening work experience I have ever had. The legal nerd in me loved it.

After my first year of law school, I joined Suffolk Law’s First Year Summer Internship Program and was assigned to Judge Hennessey’s chambers in Worcester, Mass. I commuted to Worcester four days per week, with every Friday spent in Judge Hennessey’s Boston chambers. Judge Hennessey’s main chambers are in Worcester. It’s a small courthouse with a great community feeling. Everyone knows each other by name and everyone respects each other’s time, work product, and opinion on matters of importance. Judge Hennessey frequently sought the advice of myself and my co-intern prior to rendering any judgment. It was a collegial environment unlike any I’ve ever been in.

Each day in federal court was something new. I did plenty of research and writing, but also sat in on arraignment hearings for criminal offenses, motion sessions in civil cases, mediation sessions between parties hoping to settle their case before trial, and various oral arguments encompassing a wide spectrum of civil and criminal matters. In one particularly memorable motion hearing, I watched litigators from two of the most prestigious intellectual property firms in the country argue a summary judgment motion before Judge Hennessey. It was akin to watching Tom Brady go head-to-head with Peyton Manning.

My most important assignment was to draft Judge Hennessey’s opinion in a social security appeal. An administrative law judge decided in favor of the Social Security Administration, and the petitioner appealed to the federal district court. I poured through the record, did painstaking research with careful attention to detail, outlined the argument, and presented my findings and proposed order to Judge Hennessey before writing drafting the full opinion. It was hard work, but the insight into the judicial process and the experience researching and writing this opinion was beyond measure. The final product was roughly 40 pages of the most careful research I have ever done. It is certainly accurate to say that the hard work paid off.

My experience during the First Year Summer Internship Program taught me skills that enabled me to land my dream job in law and built the confidence I will need to in order to be a successful litigator.

Kevin Mosier, JD’18, is a litigation associate at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks P.C. in Boston. During his time at Suffolk Law he was was a legal intern in Federal District Court for Massachusetts, Note Editor for the Suffolk University Law Review, a teaching assistant for first year contracts classes, and Vice President of the Ski and Snowboard Club.