Kimm  0:01  

Hi, this is Conversations with Kimm and today we're going to discuss some lawyerly questions, you know, some advice to give things of that nature.

Sarah  0:14  

What are some good skills for a lawyer to have?

Kimm  0:18  

A lot of times I get questions about what skills a person would have that would make them a good lawyer or something like that. I always kind of joke and say ADD, because it's kind of true. You have to be able to jump from one task to the other quickly and be able to do it and keep your mind kind of straight. So being able to kind of jump tracks quickly is to do that. You know, being detailed, being able to get along with people. And that's usually the hardest part about our job, is getting along with people and dealing with people, and especially in some of their worst ways. You know, when you're dealing with the criminals or the family where emotions are very high, your freedom is high. So a lot of it's your counselor too.

Sarah  1:05  

What does a good working day look like to you?

Kimm  1:09  

People ask about my days a lot, about what a good day would be. Again, I joke and to say good day would be at the pool and not here. But normally, my days are so different. You know, on Mondays, I would be in court all morning. And then again, in the afternoon, were Tuesdays, I might just be in my office all day. So it just depends on the day. And you know, the people that you're dealing with, again, kinda goes back to that. So it's just never the same, which is what I kind of like about the job: is my days are never the same, you know, never two days the same. So that makes it for a variety and makes it a lot better.

Sarah  1:45  

The laws are changing all the time. How do you stay up to date and current?

Kimm  1:50  

So obviously, everybody always asked about new legislations that's come down and like expungement laws have now changed. So they always wonder how we keep up to date, how we get the new information. And a lot of times, the State Bar offers training classes, you know, different continuing education programs. And the State of Michigan doesn't require people to have continuing education, though the Criminal Division of of the State of Michigan does require us to have 12 hours each year. But as attorneys, you kind of have to continue even though nobody's telling you to. You have to. And otherwise, you're kind of out of the loop and you don't know what's going on.

Sarah  2:28  

As a lawyer, you have you see and hear things all the time that are difficult. How do you cope? And how do you deal with that?

Kimm  2:37  

There are days when things just kind of stress you out or get more difficult than you would like to, but as an attorney, or even in different professionals, like, the you know, physicians, you have to kind of compartmentalize what you're doing and realize it's not you, this is not your life, specifically, you're dealing with others, but you have to separate yourself from your clients, and to be able to kind of walk away each night and go home and kind of let it go. There are cases where you can't, they're just so,  kind of,  you're so used to it. And you're so invested in that case, that it makes it difficult to do that. But you really have to try, and kind of for your own sanity, to be able to walk away.

Sarah  3:25  

So you have to work on cases that you may not agree with the person you're representing. How do you put aside your personal feelings and represent your clients in a fair and unbiased manner?

Kimm  3:38  

We get a lot of questions as lawyers is how I could represent that person, or, you know, why am I doing this? Why am I representing them? And a lot of that is, again, in the criminal because, you know, why would I choose to represent somebody that's been charged with the sex crime against them against a child? I always choose that as a public defender, I am assigned those cases. And whether I like that person, I you know, don't like that person, I you know, the charges that they face, each person is still entitled to representation and good representation to make sure that their rights under the Constitution are being followed and not being violated. So that's kind of my stance on it. Everybody still needs representation, no matter what happened. We don't necessarily have to like the person, and we just have to be able to represent them in the manner.

Sarah  4:28  

What is a piece of advice that you would give a young lawyer or someone just starting out in law? 

Kimm  4:34  

So the advice that I would give a new attorney or somebody that is getting ready to pass the bar or in law school is go out and get the different experiences go do have lots of internships with different companies and law firms and get that areas. All of the areas you can do contract work, you can do family law work, you can do criminal law, you can do banking, you can do any number of different areas in the Law. And just because you think that you want to go in one specific area, the application of the law and what you learn in law school are two separate apart things. You learn theories and law school where the applications could be completely opposite of what you think. So, as an instance, I always thought I was going to be a prosecutor. That's what I wanted to do. I thought that would be best. But I actually like my job as a defense attorney. So you just never know. 

Sarah  5:26  

And if anyone has any questions, how can they get in touch with you? 

Kimm  5:29  

If you have any questions or for me, you can call at 517-797-6021 or you can visit my website at Kburgerlaw.com.