Katrina Miller journal for the Chile Summer Program 2012
Third week:
This week I spent much of my time continuing to research the intricacies of the bailiff and sheriff system in the UK, US, and Australia. It was interesting and frustrating at the same time because the information I was looking for may have been easier to find in a library than online. There were books that sounded perfect but now way to get them. This is one of the downsides of conducting research in a Spanish language country, when you are in no way fluent. I wrote a brief on the information I had collected and then discussed my research with my supervising attorney. The discussion was very interesting and made me reconsider some of my views on policy making. It is a very difficult task especially in a country with such a significant gap between those with massive wealth and the destitute. One thing is clear the enforcement agency in Chile will not have police powers like the US sheriffs.
I also worked on editing the English version of the website, which truly needed it. Strangely enough the firm had actually paid for the website to be translated - they should not hire those people again. Beyond the spelling errors there was a lot of inconsistency. The most annoying thing was that some of the pages used American spelling and some used English spelling.
At the end of the week I once again immersed myself in learning about fidelity and bundling discounts. I discovered that I truly enjoy anti-trust issues. (this is not sarcasm)
Fourth week:
I did some translating and I was supposed to review and edit a document that had been translated by another girl in the office. While translating case summaries is no easy task, it is far easier than trying to edit something that has been translated by someone who does not understand it. The document was about doing business in Chile. It was so confusing it gave me a headache. Subjects and objects were missing in some sentences, while verbs were missing in others. Terms of art were completely mutilated and punctuation was over-abundant. I finally gave up because the best thing to do for it was to start over. The girl who originally translated it knew nothing about business or law, which made it too difficult for her to translate. Translation is often an art, especially in law, and it cannot be left to those who do not understand the original document. I was tasked with fairly simple translations where speed was more vital than perfection and therefore assigning the task to me made sense. Here a more expert touch was required.
This week I also got a very good idea of exactly how much work is involved in due diligence. Much of the firm was involved in the due diligence for a foreign company purchasing a Chilean entity. They were required to go over every contract, active case, and lease agreement. This is only one aspect. It is a massive job. I was glad for the opportunity to see the whole firm come together for a client.
