Vivian Camplin has seen her fair share of justice being served, but learned a valuable lesson about law and order this summer.
Camplin, a senior at William Peace University, spent her summer interning at the Moore County Courthouse.
A double major in political science and pre-law, Camplin didn’t get to spend as much time as expected watching trials. However, she discovered one small fact that brought down criminals during her summer.
“The paperwork is important,” Camplin said. “It’s where the justice happens.”
Camplin admitted early on that she was bored sitting behind a desk organizing case files, but by the third week, she realized that was where the “grunt work” was.
“Being a lawyer is the end goal,” Camplin said. “And it’s cool to see the quote-end-quote fancy stuff. But unlike the TV shows, you don’t have cases that require trial. The attorney is given a stack of papers, goes to court, and reads off the document: what happened here? What law needs to be enforced?”
Camplin said all that is done by the legal assistants, who file the police reports and write notes on the top about what happened. Camplin quickly discovered that it’s all part of the process, and understanding and appreciating that process makes for a great lawyer.
“There are a lot of people who go to law school and then get jobs as lawyers and never have to take the first steps,” Camplin said. “That can lead to a lot of tension and arrogance when it comes to time constraints and details in the paperwork. They overlook things because they have no concept of it.”
Working with the District Court in Moore County, Camplin heard between 200 and 700 cases daily. On the days she went with the attorney to court, she was tasked with helping sort through the case log because they ultimately wanted to get through all the cases as quickly as possible.
After the experience, Camplin became more confident heading into a law school setting because she had seen the details.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Camplin isn’t sure what kind of law she wants to study.
She realized it’s one thing to see crimes on television; it’s an entirely different feeling to be around it daily. Camplin worked a lot of misdemeanor domestic violence cases, with detailed accounts, including photos, coming across her desk.
It was a lot.
She’s considering more paperwork-based law, such as estates and trust funds, helping people manage finances, wills, and more of the behind-the-scenes details. Sports management and sports law have also caught the eye of the former Peace volleyball player.
“Working with people dotting I’s and crossing T’s,” Camplin said. “Making sure people don’t can’t get screwed over because of loopholes and contracts. I’m very detail-oriented, so going into something like that is very appealing to me because it’s really about precision.”
