Alumni James Griffin '09 and Venicia Considine '08 Join Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada

At the Legal Aid Center, Venicia Considine spends most of her time in the Consumer Rights Project, a unit within the Legal Aid Center, working on loan modifications and foreclosure mediation. She did her externship with the Legal Aid Center, and was so pleased with her externship experience she only applied to the Legal Aid Center after passing the bar.

"I don’t know if I would have the opportunity to work here as an attorney if I didn’t get the chance to learn how the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada worked, show them my passion for this work and get the chance to 'practice' before becoming a licensed attorney," Considine said.

Considine enjoys working for the Legal Aid Center because she gets to serve the community through her work.

"We don't charge for services," she said. "I like the pace, the community interaction and the opportunity to practice law immediately. And knowing that what I do makes a difference to clients and to Southern Nevada makes me proud to work here."

James Griffin works with short-term, high interest loans and garnishments at the Legal Aid Center.

"I hope to be more involved with the class action litigation against predatory lenders that is being headed by my wise and talented supervisor, Mr. Dan L. Wulz, Esq.," Griffin said. "I also hope to take a few child advocacy cases pro bono in my spare time."

Griffin's externship also played a huge role in developing his future. Griffin believes that his best experience at the Boyd School of Law was his externship.

"The externship program at Boyd allowed me to take what I had learned my first year in law school and put it to practical purposes," Griffin said. "In fact, by the end of my first year of law school I was convinced that law was not for me.  If I had not had such a positive externship experience, I am fairly certain I would have chosen another career path."