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By: Stephanie Aubin ‘25
This summer, I interned at the Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office in Watertown, NY. Having grown up in the area, I wrongly assumed that my internship wouldn’t be very busy because it is not as though Watertown is the crime capital of the world. As someone who had just finished taking a criminal law class for 1L, my mind was full of thoughts of homicide, assault, manslaughter, and all of the other incredibly serious felonies we had spent all of class learning about. I had never heard about anything like this occurring in Watertown, so what crimes could Jefferson County really be dealing with?
In my time with the office, I went to over ten different town courts within the county. The County court where felonies are handled, Family court, and Watertown’s own city court. I observed cases regarding DWIs, aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, grand larceny, petit larceny, trespass, criminal possession of controlled substances, assault, harassment, and countless other felonies and misdemeanors. I did research for staff attorneys on various issues and types of hearings, including Wade and Darden hearings, and issues regarding various degrees of crimes and their definitions under the law.
It is crimes such as those I observed this summer that typically fly under the radar in the news and media. They’re not the crimes that go to trial; they aren’t the crimes that Netflix turns into documentaries. Yet these are the crimes that inundate the legal system. These are the crimes that most individuals get sentenced for, and these are the alleged charges the clients of the Public Defender’s Office need assistance in beating. These clients don’t have the financial capacity to hire private defense attorneys to fight their battles for them. That’s where the Public Defender comes in. A person’s legal freedom should not be contingent upon their own financial status.
During my time this summer, I learned that although your 1L year sets you up for what a career in the legal field is like, it in no way truly teaches you how to be an attorney. In court, there isn’t a script you get to follow when defending a client and there isn’t a “one size fits all” solution for every charge and case. During my time this summer, I was able to fully immerse myself in the legal field in a way that I had not experienced in 1L and was able to reaffirm that I hope to work in public interest upon graduation.
The close-knit legal community of the office itself, as well as the court system itself in Jefferson County, was one that I will forever treasure. Every single person, whether it be a clerk, court officer, the judges, or any attorney that I met in my day-to-day life shadowing the staff attorneys, are the reason my experience this summer was as amazing as it was. Everyone was always kind and ensured that I was getting the most experience out of whatever situation we were in. I would like to give my thanks to the Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office for allowing me to intern this summer. What I have learned this past summer, both about life and the legal system itself, will stay with me throughout my legal career. I am so grateful that I received the UB School of Law Public Interest Fellowship and am so thankful to Francis M. Letro and Cindy Abbott Letro for their generous donation that allowed me to work in this amazing internship.
Name: Stephanie Aubin ’25
Fellowship: UB School of Law Public Interest Fellowship
Placement: Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office
Location: Watertown, NY
One Important Lesson I Have Learned: “Everyone is deserving of a high quality of legal representation no matter what their financial situation is and regardless of what crime is being alleged that they committed.”
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