Law and Order MCC

0:00Welcome to MCC Made, the official podcast of Metropolitan Community College, giving you a backstage pass to all things MCC with your hosts Emma Frazier and Catherine Riggs. I was thinking about this the other day and okay so there's like a whole there it'll pop up like on my Twitter feed every once in a while and then I'm always like upset because then I like agree with it but it's people who are like what is your most and they'll and I don't want to I don't want to upset a whole generation of people but it's like what is your most boomer take that you still like what's something that now has maybe technology is taken too far that we don't maybe don't need it to or something you miss from the 90s because I'll tell you what mine is okay okay great give me a paper menu I give me a physical yes menu mm-hmm give me a menu give me a menu give me a menu I don't want to scan your QR code I don't because it's like maybe it's not because then you'll do that and they're like oh that's

1:04outdated and I'm like yeah you know what wouldn't have been if you updated wanted printed me a fresh one today and then if you scratched out with Sharpie if you got a yeah I don't know I don't know what to tell you man but like give me a paper menu we just yes hard agree we just went somewhere it wasn't a they didn't have a QR code but I are you a person that looks at a menu before you go to a restaurant what do you think of course yeah we went to a restaurant I looked at the menu beforehand well we were taking other people out yeah and the husband's a little picky so I was like I got to make sure that there's I got it yeah I got to make sure that there's something that he will eat got to do some prep work yeah I got new my own research yeah anyway so I like looked at the menu and I was like okay great there's it's fine but then like we got there and they did have paper menus but the menu was different I'm like yeah hello hello um you know what like I went I went to cheesecake factory this weekend and like you know what I need a spiral bound book

2:05at pretty much every restaurant actually yeah I never it's because that is what drives me nuts is like you'll go like you're like oh that sounds good and then you get there and they hand you a paper one you're like why already know and then you look and you're like oh but yeah but that cocktail that's an old cocktail are we out of that are we out of that season yeah turns out yes yes no actually that's very funny that is also fun fact for our listeners I keep a list of things that we can chat about yeah QR codes are on my list because I have thoughts we have a lot done back there I have thoughts but do you have any other um the other thing that I would say which I don't you know fun fun only enough uh in the year of our lord 2026 I don't think is any longer a boomer take although it should be um they they should respectfully be on board as I think that we need to um get rid of social media or or it's smart like I love my smart phone but you know what I my everybody would be better if everyone would be better if we did not have

3:10access to all this all the time that's like I do miss in a real 90s take having a computer yes I have to go to the computer room I have to go I want to go on the computer and then you get on there and you'd be like okay like what do I do right probably play a game I'm going to play the pinball one oh my god I'm gonna play solitaire I'm gonna play mine sweeper really poorly and then watch my sister be really good at it and still not understand I love mine sweeper oh I'm not good at it it makes me mad um but like yeah I'm like I would I need to be less connected so yeah I uh so that is again I don't I you know probably was a boomer take in the early 2000s when smart phones were becoming a thing and I think now the tide has changed and they're like no I need this is my life yeah and as people who grew up with and without them yeah formatively I'm like actually I we took computer glasses yes we did we did we had to learn typing uh-huh

4:15chay chay chay kkay kkay kkay did you have to do that I'm sure we did oh my god I was also now I don't know how I passed that because I was not good at it you know what I loved also was in in the computer room speakers the speakers but then the the thing that like held your paper like next to the thing and you're like don't look at your hands all your time oh I feel like would like swing out yes oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you've been speaking um teaches typing is what we did oh man I missed that Mrs. Gantroth shout out to Mrs. Gantroth Mrs. Weller was our computer teacher um-hm shout out to her wherever she is um that and I also miss I listen I like and I'll still do it but not as much as like people before us did is I just like a good chat on the phone love a chat on the phone I love a chat on the phone I would like if I have like something to if I have something to say which is a lot I know

5:15yeah some things same it's like why might pick up the phone pick up the phone pick up the phone hello you know um I just saw somebody who uh what what are they doing and I don't even know if they got rid of their smartphone but they're like I got a beeper because they're like now that's a step too far because and I I wish I I missed the whole context but I think that they're like our on call for work yeah and it was just connected to their like their smartphone and they're like I cannot like separate the two and so they're just like I got a beeper and I'm like you know what that makes sense I thought you and I was just like a person who's like I now have like a beeper and I'm like okay we don't need to be doing that wasn't I could get it I don't need a beeper could you be what would you be I would not beep you anything because I don't I don't I don't I don't need that just missed us I think I don't know how that works yeah they were like a movie thing I feel like at our time like I was like I don't know anybody who like truly uses what I know like doctors and stuff have majors and stuff is a pager and a beeper

6:15different I think they're probably the same I think they're the same you guys can correct us yeah feel free we're used to it um but oh man yeah just a little bit of disconnect yeah I think I think we would all be better off disconnect it a little bit yeah again not not that there aren't important things happening in the world that we need to know about but like you know what sometimes the night a nightly news I don't need a 24 hour news cycle yeah no no I don't I need I need I need your nightly news give me the what's really actually important and we don't need to talk about some inane thing for yeah for hours on end just a fill time and then it usually ends on like a nice store nice human interest piece anyway so I need it when you watch the nightly news it usually does I used to watch it a lot I don't really as much anymore but okay I'm gonna piggyback off that slightly because it's related because it reminds me

7:17my car being Bluetooth I don't need everything to be a touch screen yeah give me a button I want a button like my my whole screen in my car there are like really virtually no buttons and it is all a touch screen and I and one day it like glitched and wouldn't and I couldn't I literally couldn't do anything I couldn't change the air or my heated seat or the music yes and I was like hello okay nope we're going one further subscriptions I don't need everything to be a subscription yeah correct let me buy it let me have it let me have it give it to me I also now we're now here we go now we're now we're going like with all the streaming services yes when it's like this is cable you know what I you know it's funny and no one's going to believe me which is fine when streaming first started I distinctly I have this I was free who was free and I just think we remember having

8:19this conversation I think it was with my brother and I was like eventually we're just going to buy all of these and we're just going to be paying the same amount as cable and he goes that's crazy I go I don't think that it is turns out turns out I'm right and number paying more than we were for cable actually yep and guess what I still don't have access to everything that I want now you can take it away at a moment's notice you can take it away at a moment's notice um or it's like okay I'm already paying I'm already paying a subscription to have this why do I have to like pay extra to watch certain things yeah don't let me start it when when I moved when my husband and I moved in together um he was helping me like pack up my stuff and I have a bunch of DVDs and he goes why do you have these DVDs and I go my husband also has a bunch and I said because I like these movies and what if they are not available at a moment's notice when I and he goes watching that do you have a way to view said DVDs I go of course or blue or blue yeah like

9:23of course I do yeah of course I do I was like what if the internet goes out then what are we going to do for days that did happen to me that did happen to me there was a really bad storm there it was the year we had all this we had the derecho wins yes so whatever your that was it was like 2021 whatever we did not have power for I'm not joking we must have been the last call on the OPPD sheet we did not have power for I didn't have internet for or like power okay here's what here okay there's a backstory to this so sorry my house is old yeah we realized our house is on like two different like somehow like power units because we had power in the back of our house which thank God because our kitchen was yeah but the front of our house where our router and the television and our bedroom ceiling fan it was summer and like the ceiling fans in those

10:25rooms like that didn't work and wasn't working for five days and we were like I literally plugged in our DVD player yes because I was like and you go thank you so yes yeah thank you Sam for having these DVDs I had some too but I think I've kind of trimmed my collection down because there are some where you're like I was really just on a roll by a DVD yeah I don't know this is still in plastic yeah so true I remember this is really in my day when we got our very first DVD player hmm the year was 2001 sure it was a combo DVD yes of course it was very important yes it came with a free DVD okay that to this day is probably still in the plastic what was it the first Lord of the Rings oh my

11:26we were like oh is the wrong audience for this movie my sister actually I feel like my sister saw that in theaters if you ask her she'll say no because she has movie amnesia now but um we there'll be movies we've seen together that she does not remember seeing so you guys are on opposite end of that spectrum truly this actually just happened the other day I was trying to think of we're really diving deep and but I was trying to think of my friends and I were trying to think we somehow came up about like something with like we were talking about like Barbies and I was like oh when we had a Barbie house it was like an a-frame beach house if you google it I swear to god it's like very hard to find like the specific one I remember us having and I found a picture and I texted my sister and I literally prefaced it with I'm sure you won't remember this you will you won't remember this house at all but is this the Barbie house we had she goes I don't think we had an a-frame and I go we literally did so then I help on the group chat that my mom is on it I was like mom did we have an a-frame

12:28Barbie house and she goes yes immediately and I go okay well Julie ends under the impression we never have she goes yes I remember it because I bought it yes oh my god that's very funny yeah she has amnesia mm-hmm but she's aware of it well sometimes it's a hard truth sometimes hard pill as well I get it yeah but yeah I think that we need to get rid of QR codes go back to physical media disconnect us all call your friends call them give them a call call your grandma she probably loved to hear from me right a letter right a letter do it why not see what happens and only watch the nightly news yeah or the or the morning whatever pick pick your pick your time of day yeah but otherwise and you'll be fine you're set up for success you'll be fine or read the newspaper yeah read your newspapers people yes read your newspapers that's that's my pitch for actually that's my pitch read the newspaper yeah this episode

13:29has been sponsored by the newspaper the newspaper the newspaper whichever one wants to sponsor community magazines the only yeah there you go read community magazine yes all right good we've seen enough yeah we've got to we've got to wrap this up this is insane today on the podcast we have Quinn Eden who is from Omaha and is a local lawyer welcome Quinn thank you um just to get us started tell us a little bit about yourself your background how you got to MCC and we'll start we'll start yeah just what's your like what's your deal yeah so currently I'm a lawyer and I practice primarily employment litigation okay but I started off going to Metro I came here in 2010 to 2012 okay and did the paralegal program sure oh okay yeah

14:32and went from there to finish my bachelor's at UNO and then creating for law school wow so what what led you to MCC in the paralegal program I actually don't remember specifically what led me to the paralegal program um but I remember what appealed to me it was that I always enjoyed research like in high school in school I loved research projects that was like my favorite thing wow I can't really it depended well yeah also you went to you did journalism see yeah like a little bit I do but yeah on a topic that I'm into yes I love research yeah so it didn't matter what the subject was if it was a research project I loved the process of just reading and learning I love the little aha moments when you found that piece of information that made everything click makes it all make sense yeah and so I don't remember exactly again how I found paralegal specifically but I remember finding it interesting thinking okay here's a chance to go and research things and put things together for working for lawyers and so I started the paralegal program here so when you started

15:38did you and if you don't remember that's fine but where you just go like I'm gonna take some classes and kind of figure out what I want to do or did you come in knowing paralegal no essentially I came here like I just want to start going back to college I've been out of high school for a couple years just working random jobs so I just wanted to go back to college and I thought maybe I'll try the paralegal program and then just kind of see where that leads me I didn't know if I was gonna keep going to school or not at that point yeah so did you ever work as a paralegal or did you once you started your degree you're just like oh I like this I'm gonna keep going no I didn't formally work I did an internship during the program that was required as part of the program here at Metro so I interned as a paralegal but I didn't end up working because I decided just keep on going to school and I already had a job that was paying well and flexible of my hours so it worked out for me to keep going to school afterwards yeah being going to law school seems um scary I know if legally blonde has taught me anything it's that it could be scary the the first

16:39year is a bit scary yeah you could use to it but I would think yeah it could either it's like a maker break where you're like oh this is really for me or you're really like oh no I'm I'm good not being aware yeah there's a large group that either drops out or fails after the first semester but then it's like pretty much anyone who survives that first semester continues on the way through there you go yeah so you had you tried to go to college before you'd come to MCC I did I had a breeze stunt at UNO and then I wasn't taking things seriously at the time and just kind of you're not alone yeah you're not alone happens at the best of us yeah I uh so what was it about then when you came back to MCC that you felt like this stuck this time I guess it was the experience I had kind of working odd jobs without any clear path um and I'm like I want to know what I'm doing with my life so I want a little bit more structure and so I guess I appreciated it a lot more when I came back before I went to school because I'm like this is what you're supposed to do after high school

17:41yes but I didn't really want to but now when I came back here to Metro I'm like this is what I actually want to figure something out now so I had the motivation yeah and I I mean I just assumed to like going to UNO I mean not that I mean UNO is a big school so like there are big class sizes and then you come to Metro and it's like oh a little more personal yeah it's like feeling yeah it doesn't seem quite as overwhelming yeah yeah yeah yeah smaller classes and most of the teachers were people who like worked in the field or at least had worked in the field they weren't just purely academic which UNO kind of felt like that a lot so yeah it was an easier way to kind of step back in yeah so what kind of skills do you feel like you developed here at MCC during the paralegal program that like helps you a just like go on to get your bachelor's and then your your law degree and just as a lawyer yeah yeah the research for sure kind of solidified those but also writing I learned a lot about writing in the paralegal program you're not the first person I've heard that from actually I know another paralegal paralegal who went through our program and said

18:44the same thing yeah I couldn't believe how many that's where I learned how to use a semi-colon properly and I couldn't believe how many things that I'd gotten through high school without knowing somehow yes yeah did you say I'm dashes yeah I uh that's very funny well of course now AI uses I know I I think that it's like a telltale now I know I never get I've seen that before people are like I just genuinely like them and now I feel like I'm being accused of the job yes I feel that for Brian who works in the marketing department I I I was a communications major so like I and not in journalism so like I did not use M dashes and I started here and I was working with Brian I was like I literally have never even heard of an M dash became an M dash evangelist yes I was a real M dasher myself and then I'm like oh no yeah that's been taken from us how dare they yeah forever unclean so at what at what point during your time either here

19:44at MCC or when you then transferred to UNO did you were you like oh yeah law school is where I want to go really wasn't till later on at UNO in my bachelor's I still didn't know then I knew I wanted to continue and I went for a criminal justice at UNO okay I was just about to ask okay cool yeah but I thought that criminal law and procedure class took care of Metro was really interested so I thought I still wasn't committed to law but I would like kind of the criminal justice area yeah I thought I'd try that at the time I was thinking maybe I'd do like probation or like rehabilitative services something like that sure interesting interesting so what what do you feel like was again you had tried UNO after high school not for you again not for everybody come back you go through you through MCC's program and then you go back to UNO how do you feel like you were you better prepared than going back to UNO after your time at MCC yeah absolutely I didn't feel lost in a big ocean I felt like it was just kind of a stepping stone at that point yeah so

20:50and I know you said it earlier but remind me what kind of lawyer are you nothing to do of criminal actually I do all civil law and I do my focus is employment law okay and then I kind of do a little bit of general commercial litigation oh so okay so I I don't know how this process works so tell if I'm way off tell me is it sort of like med school where you kind of go like you sort of shadow what different types of lawyers to see what kind of lawyer like what kind of law you want to practice or are you you pick a specialty like pretty early on nope there's no specialty okay some schools claiming creating do offer like concentrations you can do okay what's not required I didn't do one okay I still had no idea um first year everyone takes the exact same classes okay after that you can take classes in different specialties if you have an inclination of which where you're gonna go um it's not required and a lot of people don't like I only took one employment law class in law school like I was still taking a lot of criminal law classes I

21:52still thought maybe I'd give it that way and I didn't um but you just graduate with the same degree and you kind of can go wherever from there okay so then what made you choose like litigation over criminal um I did my first summer of law school I clerked at the public defender's office okay and the experience was fun the people there were great oh yeah um however I learned very quickly that it was not a fit for my personality okay I'm very much an introvert I like sitting in my office maybe and writing really um and shadowing the public defenders their life is frantic it's yeah they're sometimes literally running to another courtroom from another one like flipping through their files as they're going to meet their next client yeah and then like my uncle was a public defender for a long time yeah I applaud the folks who can do it but I'm like that life

22:52is not for me yeah so so do you do you ever have to go to court or you mostly do like just behind the scenes stuff I go to court rarely um I'd say like maybe once a month every other month I have something I've a hearing I have to go for but when I do go it's like I have known months ahead of time I can mentally prepare so long I can charge my social battery enough to get me uh okay so just um tell us maybe like like uh like uh not it it doesn't have to be an actual like real life example but just like a scenario of like what kind of law you like what that you're like what kind of law you practice I guess like what a like a suit would be that you would help with yeah so I work on defense side so it's all manner of employment claims it's say the majority of them are like discrimination claims retaliation claims retaliation harassment claims okay that kind of makes up the majority but then there's also like other things there's wage and hour disputes um there's

23:54like restrictive covenants you know if you sign something saying I won't go you know solicit your clients yeah things like that um so it's a broad range but the majority of the claims uh end up being like discrimination oriented claims interesting wow I do I know uh america's very led to just I've never one thought I'm not seriously I do love throwing out like I'll see you recording and not serious way but um but I've never sued anybody personally still I want to yeah it seems like a lot of work you now see how it works yeah um okay so you um so where so you work for uh firm in Omaha correct um small firm here but it's part of like a large national firm okay gotcha and so how long have you been a lawyer now um going on nine years I guess the spring yeah how um so do you is it is it is it weird by representing clients that you like had a

24:59reference for before this or or going against people that you maybe knew before do you encounter that at all I don't believe I've ever encountered a situation where I know the person on the other side is usually just an individual the big city yeah um I do quite frequently the represent companies that I'm like oh I know this place or oh sometimes I'll get a new one in that I've heard of but I've never like been to and I'm like I'm gonna go check them out now yeah you've you've got a research yes how did you manage as a man who loves research you have to research yeah and sometimes that means going undercover oh my god people when you're when you work for a newspaper people want you to go undercover it turns out all the time about anything I used to get calls on Friday nights to go undercover yeah I got a story idea for yet and then it was lead into a whole thing about how they wanted me to go undercover and I was like I don't have the authority also they don't really do that anymore in the journalism world like a fake month yeah let's like undercover

26:03boss uh-huh so um again never been but law school is pretty intense it is yeah especially the first year is the worst it depends like what do you what kind of things did you do to like help you succeed and like kind of work through the intensity of law school um I've done some research before I went to law school learning about it actually took there's like a little like two-week long prep course offered by like a bar company I even did that too that kind of goes over what like kind of high level what the subject levels are about and kind of gives you guidance on preparing for classes um so I feel like I had a pretty decent idea of what I was stepping into but starting off I think the most important habit was just establishing a routine I was very rigorous about you know I'm gonna take my notes by hand at the end of every class or at the end of every week I'm gonna take my notes from each class and I'm gonna go put them into an outline

27:08that way have an outline kind of rolling along that I keep building on instead of trying to cram everything at the end of the semester and so I was very diligent about that I had time set up there I'm gonna sit down now prepare for the next class spend this many hours reviewing this many hours preparing for the next class and then um yeah I just had a schedule that I stuck to and they tell you in law school even like you got to treat it like it's a job like yeah yeah sometimes at two p.m. and I'd tell myself all right I'm gonna keep working till seven p.m. you know reading researching yeah like I'd love to do something else but I know I shouldn't yeah the same thing yeah you know it's funny I feel like uh um yeah like when you're younger you're in high school or whatever and you if you meet somebody who's like either really opinionated or like just yeah has a lot has a lot of thoughts and loves to express their thoughts like that person should be a lawyer now couldn't you do not seem to me to be somebody who's like just like an argument and yes yeah so it's just I guess it's funny to be like you know I just I'm a quiet guy

28:14who just likes to do my research and turns out turns out I'm a good lawyer yeah there is room for all personality types I was kind of worried about that honestly going in I had that same impression that like and it was kind of true a lot of classmates were very boisterous type a personalities and I was like I can can I do this only imagine trying to get a word in and some of those classes I bet yeah but you can you can find an area that works for you and I kind of found a niche that works for me and yeah use my talents to my advantage yeah yeah I think I uh yeah I I know a couple people who went to law school and yes and they are more the yeah they have an opinion and they're going to look they're gonna let you know what it is but I also know that there are a lot of English majors that end up going to law school which I also think is like fascinating that is yeah they're like well again they love research they love doing all the writing they love writing they're like yeah I don't yeah I don't have to be a big showy trial lawyer although

29:16if I was gonna be a lawyer that's probably what I would do I love the drama that's true I want the eyes on me I want to give those opening remarks that are really dramatic yeah oh my god I'd want to be a Nancy Grace type lawyer oh my gosh have you are you telling me I miss her show I know she's still on but have you this is I mean related but unrelated have you ever been called for jury duty I have I've never had to do it I've been called like twice since I've been a lawyer including just a couple of weeks ago oh my god funny that did you even make it into the art you didn't even know okay where the ones were you called the night before no you don't have to show up I'm like okay I'd be so curious like if you got it in the second you're like I'm a lawyer they'd be like they just think yeah you're too much you're good you know too much sir yeah I did get called in once and I did have to go into like I had to go to the courthouse and like yeah and sit and sit and they didn't even I didn't even get called to like I just had to sit and watch

30:20people live my dream I would love to do oh my god it sounds dreamy I would love to be on a jury yeah I want nothing more my husband it wants to be on a jury so badly and has actually never been called for jury duty I have also really never been called but he's just like he's like waiting for the day where he gets a call and I'm like he's gonna be so disappointed when he gets that letter and he calls and doesn't even have to like go in oh my god I have a very funny story about this my dad like Sam yeah has been had been dreaming about being you once did he wants to do jury duty he wants to be on a jury my dad is also a funeral director so his schedule is kind of wonky after yeah 45 years 50 years finally gets a jury summons and he's thrilled thrilled the day comes he forgets he forgets to go to church so not only do you forget he now is like yes

31:23kids and the cops come this is in a small town the cops come to the house and he's like what he's like a jury duty he goes no you don't understand I wanted to be there I want to go to jury duty I'm picturing like Andy Griffith showing like like two cops he knows he's pretty I mean yeah yeah he knows the cops anyway but yeah so I I don't know if he then did have to go to court to be like or call in and be like I really so sorry call me back I will do jury I want to be there like whenever you want yeah just tell me the time I'll be there whatever he I don't know if you had to pay for I don't know what he had to do he does get called again but then he had a funeral so he had a call in and be like I can't come in I have a funeral like you wanted he was devastated he has never recovered he hates seeing people living his dream yeah I again I get that when I got called for jury duty he's like I'll go I go you can't go for jury duty to jury duty

32:26for me yeah that's not outwards you can't just send in a sub I have to go to jury duty okay as a lawyer have you ever had like like a movie or like a TV moment like that were you either like drop a giant bomb in a courtroom or something like that or no unfortunately the big dramatic moments don't really happen in civil yeah and most of the big moments that do happen are like behind the scenes oh I feel like I find the perfect case it resolves a case and yeah by yourself and you're like yes that's usually how it is I'm I've worked from home mostly so I'm sitting at my house and on my computer for my dogs around me and that's where most of those moments happen I love I'm sure your dog yeah they're like you got them dad or they're like sleeping and all of a sudden you're like I got I have been to jury duty but not really been to thank God I've not been to court

33:29myself I just I just seemed like the most intimidating place to be and like so many like unspoken I'm sure they're spoken but like unspoken rules for like everybody else I just like there's so much procedural stuff do they I assume they go over that in law like courtroom decorum I guess is that yeah to some degree but the confusing and intimidating part is there are a lot of unspoken rules like some judges want you to stand when you're speaking to them and some want you to sit and that's fine oh that's not written anywhere it's like you have to just kind of especially especially when you're starting out like you're out of firm it's a lot easier you can ask yeah they'll be like by the way this judge yeah does he likes when you're xyz yeah or she or she wants you to stop by their bailiff's office like before they hear you're gonna check in let them know you're there someone she's just walking sit down so oh my god that seems like a lot do you have like a playbook with reminders of who likes what yes really didn't think you would I got a little cheat sheet each one of the things that I know from the past oh he really didn't like this argument she got angry at this

34:35one lawyer when they said this so let's not do that you know what's gonna be most it's like a have been lawyers yes yeah you'd think that they'd be like I get it like we're all just doing our best out here but then you become a judge and you're like they put that role in an iron yeah yeah rolling with an iron fist yeah but fortunately most I should say all but at least most of our judges around here are great okay that's we don't really have people who drop the hammer on you for arbitrary reasons well that's good yeah no that's if anyone out there's about to sue someone snow judges are pretty favor are very nice people for the most part okay so I also was told that you do work with Nebraska Legal Aid yeah I do a lot of kind of ribbon and volunteer opportunities whenever I can yeah tell us about how you got involved with that and what kind of what you do for them um they do a whole bunch of stuff um but they also do like a lot of clinics that they host um and then they try to get just volunteer lawyers from the community to come staff

35:39them um so I've done a number of different clinics like they do one for criminal conviction set-asides um it's a fairly simple process at least you know from our perspective you know as far as just filling out the forums and stuff but you know obviously if you're not in the legal world I can understand it's intimidating to know where to start yeah what does that mean yeah so it's basically um we don't really have expungements in Nebraska like you might hear about other states yeah yeah you have to get like a pardon from the government to actually expunge something but we have what's called a set-aside where the judge enters like an order basically saying that like this shouldn't be held against you oh like sort of like ignore it yeah but it's still there it shows up on your background checks still but along with an order from the judge saying like you know don't let this yeah oh yeah so it is helpful and so clients will come in and we'll like kind of go through their record and then just put together all the forms for them we'll over there and then legal aid even goes and files it for them and then you just explain the process to them here's what you need to do here's what you're

36:41gonna say when you show up um answer any questions they have so they have clinics like that they have a number of other clinics they have kind of like there's transfer on deaf deed clinics where you can like where if you pass away and you have your home automatically transfer it to a child which saves a lot of time and expense especially for people who you know don't have like a will and complicated trust planning that that stuff gets real murky real fast yeah and I've say it can it can get families um-hmm riled things aren't in order or in the order that they thought they were gonna be so yeah bless those lawyers because I could not be me and then they also do just like general clinics I went to one a couple of weeks ago um where people just show up with any questions they have those ones can be interesting because you don't know what's walking in yeah that is like grab bag truly pulporee as they would say on jeopardy yeah and there's one of those things where it's like you can't you know you're limited to what you're gonna give them

37:42there so it's like you can't solve the problem for them but you can kind of take this giant pile of facts they lay on you and they don't know what to do with it and you can figure out okay here's what your actual legal issue is here's what you need to do and here's your next step if you want to go this way yeah and then if there's forums online um you can kind of show them to the forums and explain the process and kind of just give them a road map of what they need to do next and yeah so is there like um like rules on yeah giving legal advice I was just wondering that like actually like I assume kind of like doctors like if you had go to a party you don't know people and people people find out you're a lawyer they're like actually have a question about does that happen to you a lot actually yeah yeah yeah because I knowing friends that are nurses I ask them a lot of medical questions so I can imagine if you're a lawyer they're like now tell me who's right in this situation there's things like that yeah yeah so I mean it's kind of up to you however you do have an

38:42ethical duty to like only work within the area you're competent um which makes a convenient cop out obviously yeah yeah yeah are you a corporation yeah no I can't help you yeah so especially like I'll get a lot of questions about like family law it's a very common watch yeah yeah yeah impacts everyday individuals and it's an error that I know nothing about I had a study that some tiny amount of it for the bar exam yeah and then promptly wiped it from my mind afterwards because you were like that is not my not the path I planned yeah so it's like I'll get those questions and it's like I am not going to try to help somebody with that but what I can do is I know very good family law attorneys and so I just refer them on to somebody yeah that also seems like a area of law that seems to be messy all the rough rough but also bless the lawyers yes yes yes I mean you need them you need them it couldn't be me but yeah so what if you could you could go back in time and give yourself advice either when you went to UNO the first time or when you came to MCC what kind of

39:47advice would you give yourself or a student thinking about entering the paralegal program or becoming a lawyer I would say just be open to experiences um you know I still you know I went from a criminal justice degree thinking I'm gonna do this and then even when I went to law school I took a lot of criminal classes thinking that's the way I'm gonna go and obviously I end up going a path that has nothing to do with that and I'm like oh my law school offered several family law classes and or not family law employment law classes and several other classes that would have been really useful but I got very narrow in law school because I was certain that's what I was gonna do and then even though halfway through law school I decided not to go that way so I'm like I wish I would have diversified a lot more yeah because you just don't know what's gonna happen like it doesn't matter how prepared you are when you're in law school you you still don't really know where you can end up as a lawyer and especially before law school if you're thinking about going to law school and you're not there yet you don't know where you can end up as a lawyer it doesn't matter you're certain you do you don't so be open and like get as many experiences as you can touch as

40:52many areas to find out if this could be of interest to you or not yeah um we've been talking about this a lot just because obviously it's the hot conversation in the world but how do you see AI affecting law lawyers paralegals would you guys use AI a lot or again is that a kind of a um with like the the privacy you have to have with the client so you're like yeah I'm not putting that stuff into AI yeah it's a very fraught topic um we do use AI um however there's um courts are current courts and bar commissions are currently figuring this out because you might have heard some cases in the news the last couple of years there have been cases of lawyers getting caught using generative AI because they get this brief that AI puts together for them the brief looks fantastic it reads and it tells you at what you want to know here and it sites cases for you and then you submit it and the opposing party comes back and says those cases don't exist I look

41:52up it's a false case it doesn't exist or sometimes the case is real but it doesn't say what your brief said it said nightmare and a number of lawyers across the country have gotten caught which is highly embarrassing yeah bad for the reputation and then they're starting to get sanctioned um some people are starting to get their bar licenses suspended I'm sure disbarments are coming up because it seems like every time another lawyer gets caught it gets punishment gets more severe because courts are now at the point where they're saying you know this is a problem you've heard about this yeah you should know better like this isn't an innocent mistake like you like you put this into AI and you didn't even like check to make sure that this is like actually yeah accurate information yeah well because I mean I'm sure again it's like if you're if you're making a brief you have so much information you're going through I'm sure people make innocent mistakes like that yeah not using AI human error yeah yeah it's like I mean you can only do so much but yeah

42:56I mean I don't know and honestly I guess I don't even know but explain to me what paralegals do I guess yeah so it depends on the firm a lot um they're kind of this substance of what they can do varies quite a bit where you're at um some firms they might be little more than a secretary of just kind of a better title um some firms though in my firm we use them pretty heavily um they'll do a first draft of some like simple things where you know there's a lot of uh issues that come up especially like disputes and discovery where we've seen it a thousand times and it's basically the same argument um they can put together the first draft or something like that and then hand it off to me and I look it over make sure it all is accurate and make sure there's just nothing specific I need to add to this case but they can save a lot of time sure on my side also saves a client a lot of expense they have a lower rate so they can do some work um that would have been me billing out instead um so it depends on what the firm lets them do essentially

43:59check they can do quite a bit they can put together discovery requests um our paralegal at our office she's fantastic she is kind of the first line when we get discovery in um reviewing the documents putting together summaries for us and telling us here's what we got from the opposing party and I think you're going to want to take a look at these documents these look really important um so saves a ton of time um makes our lives a lot easier yeah yeah well I mean that's that's what I had in my head but I was like before I before I assume what a barely I was also like yeah I'm sure yeah it ranges depending on where you're at but as a legal matter they can really do anything a lawyer can other than go to court or advise a client those are like the two things they can never do um other than that they can do with however much you want them to do um as long as you then afterwards look at their work product and approve it sure yeah but yeah that's that is what I've what I've been hearing about AI a lot is that yeah paralegals might go away but I mean if

45:02if they're doing as much as like you're saying that your paralegal does it's like I mean never could be now fully replaced by yeah um I'm sure their lives can get easier if AI but that's kind of the same for us too yeah we do I personally do use AI it's just I never ask it or write a brief or make an entire argument for me yeah but I do use it almost daily sometimes just to like kind of like I'll get some specific issue I haven't dealt with before and I'll pop it into a chat GPT and be like tell me how this area of law works and tell me the statute some relevant cases and it'll pop out a two paragraph explanation I'm like okay now I have the gist of it and then I'll go and you know copy paste that citation and over make sure it's a real citation yeah I would say make sure those are real yeah but assume it is now it's gone and it's done like that half hour of work it would have taken me to kind of get the kind of high level overview yeah kind of get me started so that's where it has its great use right now as it gives you the starting point and saves you time

46:03yeah you know something it's always interesting to me which is like of course I understand why I do it but like the the discovery of it all and having to share information back and forth because you're just like I don't want you to know that because I want to I want to I want to get you with it but it's like big as someone who watches a lot of date line and like any true crime show when I first like really figured out that like you that there aren't a lot of like surprises surprises because you have to share them that was really a sad realization because I was like oh these movies have all lied to me that it can be like and here's the smoking gun that you didn't know about we have a big surprise in the court turns out that's not really a thing no not especially in civil we do a lot more discovery on the civil side and we even do depositions of witnesses we're using you know bring them over you're sitting in a conference room and you get their sworn under oath by a court reporter yes and we ask them questions so we have a transcript of all of the questions we would possibly want to ask them and we know what they're going to say so if you do go to trial it's

47:04like most of the time you've already asked this specific witness these specific questions before and you know what they're going to say they're really snow so yeah they're also not going to drop like a giant revelation in court I mean I thanks for you but you know for me who wants a little drama in there yeah I mean I guess they could if there's like I guess I forgot about it when you asked me before but like also this happened you're like they can yeah but then you you know confront them with the transcript of their definition and why didn't this come up there do you remember saying this I don't recall how often do people like actually get like help for like perjury it's pretty rare and your line is it rare or just in general it's rare in general it's rare one it is hard to prove it's like you would have to you would need to show you know especially if it's criminal you need to show beyond a reasonable doubt that what they said was false not that they forgot or they were just slightly inaccurate yeah and two it's just not a high priority for others yeah yeah I just that is the other thing when I yeah when I

48:08watch date line or 2020 and it's like yeah you have people testifying and you're like okay well there's stories aren't matching but like nobody's going in for them perjury after the fact like well you lied you lied so just like how often do that actually also with Karen Reed I feel like that's specifically what I'm thinking about should you watch a Karen Reed trial I didn't know do you mean okay is that something you like consume or like pay any attention to is like any like law or like yeah do you watch courtroom dramas no and I really don't follow like the big court cases that come off the news I might have watched you know 10 minutes of trial testimony from like the Johnny Depp trial and I'm just kind of like yeah that's questioning I'm like okay yeah I'm like there's really nothing interesting about the case other than the fact that like the people are famous but it's like this is every day yeah it's like this is not exciting which is like in a way sort of sad because that story is very crazy but like yeah yeah yeah I can't get enough of any giant yeah

49:09trial which I think like that I do I do I do get that because I uh when which I'm obsessed with this when the show jury duty came out I don't know you watched it okay you should watch that one it is very it's a simple suit that they cover yes yes and it is there's a guy who thinks he is on a jury but everybody else is an actor the whole thing is everything is take but he does not know that and there is a questored and he's the foreman of the jury yes and it is like and it's so it's so good yeah anyway because you're like how can he believe all this and you're like but why would he ever think it was fake like yeah because sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction so you're like I guess I could see this being real yeah but I it's a good it's also it's fun it's on prime it's it's a good time yeah I we're like my whole family like describing it to my uncle who is now a judge and he's just like why would I watch I show about jury duty yeah I just I that's my life yeah I've seen enough yeah I have seen enough yeah I don't need to so I get it I get that yeah I get it

50:15although I of course not even close but it's like well when did scandal come out maybe I was in still in college when scandal was yeah yeah I was like I'm in I'll watch yeah I'll watch that yeah yeah but I mean I'll watch almost anything so yeah I'm not the person to ask so what other what other kind of things do you do any other like pro oh that was okay I'm I want to circle back we talked about your work your pro bono work do you do that like on your own or do you do that like through your firm just on my own the firm does provide kind of some incentive you get hours that kind of fall into the separate category then outside of your billable hours so you do kind of get some acknowledgement from the firm they will kind of take that in as a soft factor for raises and promotions and such but for the most part it's like yeah it's just something I sign up for on my own and do and that's what most lawyers do I love that nice out of the goodness of your heart yeah I figured you know I recognize I'm kind of in a good position compared to where I started

51:19and so it's nice to be able to use my skills and just help people out sometimes because you see such as the clinics and stuff it's like some of these questions that to me are just like so simple and so basic because I look at it every day I'm like this is nothing to me and then to realize like oh this actually made somebody's life so much easier I'm like okay that is a good feeling always did you ever now like looking back like the Quinn who went to UNO right after college or right after high school and like did you ever what if you had told that guy he was gonna become a lawyer is that like such a wild thing to think about very well I think about that sometimes I would not have believed that yeah sure yeah sure yeah but then turns out yeah it's like you just really don't know like your path can be super winding but then it ends up in like a crazy awesome place and that's that MCC can help with that stuff yeah well it's been so fun chatting with you Quinn yeah

52:22is there anything else you you want to say about the MCC paralegal program or your time here or just or anything you want to shout out while you're here we like a shout out on here so if you want to you'll have to yeah no I'd highly recommend anyone who's curious because again you're not locked into that if you want to go forward I you know obviously I didn't end up using my paralegal degree to be a paralegal but if I was able to seamlessly just take it into UNO and continue mm-hmm so even if I didn't want to go to law school you know it's like I could have gotten into corrections or probation or whatever and so I don't think you're limiting yourself at all and there's a lot of opportunity here yeah I mean we think so start here go anyway yeah well thanks so much for coming on and chatting with us thanks for having me it's fun yay MCC made with Emma Frazier and Catherine Rinks produced by Emma Frazier production support by Herdat got a question for us email MCCmade at mccneb.edu in your question may be answered on a future podcast