Rudman Summer Fellow of the Week: Portia Castillo

Portia Castillo is working this summer at the Camden County Hall of Justice, which is the Superior Court in New Jersey for the Camden County vicinage.  She is working for the Honorable Judge David M. Ragonese, a criminal court judge.  She is a Rising 2L 

(The following excerpts from a recorded interview have been edited for clarity and brevity.)

On the work of the Camden County Hall of Justice: 

We see a variety of things. We do get homicides frequently, unfortunately. We also get manslaughters, assaults, even all the way down to disorderly-persons offenses – for example, somebody yelling at somebody and making terroristic threats.  We get sexual-related crimes, like sexual assaults.  And we do get a small amount of civil cases in our courtroom, like gun-permit appeals, which my judge has experience working with. 

On her work for Judge Ragonese: 

I summarize witness testimony or how a motion went. The judge needs that kind of support because he's not able to sit down and re-listen to witness testimony or motions. So I'm able to help him edit his opinions and include the things that are necessary, like citations or the way an opinion needs to be submitted to meet New Jersey court standards.

And I do a lot of observing. I'm in court almost every day that he's in court.  I see lots of motions and lots of detention hearings.  When I get lucky, I get to see a trial, and those are really great experiences for me because I get to see the attorneys in action, and I get to see the whole criminal justice process from beginning to end in Judge Ragonese’s courtroom. 

I’m also learning the dos and don’ts of courtroom behavior, and the importance of reputation -- of how you speak to people and treat court staff. 

On how the experience is helping her plan her legal career:  

I also get the opportunity to observe my law clerk doing mediations, like landlord-tenant mediations or small-claims mediations. At the Superior Court in Camden County, being a mediator is almost part of the job description for a law clerk. 

My goal, right after law school, is hopefully to clerk for a judge. I've had the honor of meeting and getting to know a lot of other judges and observe them in their courtrooms.  After law school,  I would love to stay at the Superior Court or wherever else opportunity lies. 

I would also love to be a prosecutor. I've been meeting plenty of prosecutors every day, even getting cards from a couple of them. A lot of them have encouraged me to apply to be a summer intern next year at the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. 

I want to get into sexual-related crime, sexual assault, molestation. It is very, very heavy, however, so I wanted to hear prosecutors’ perspectives on having to hear victims' stories every day and how that affects them. And I've been getting such great advice. They tell me that it doesn't always have to be about the compensation you'll get. The fulfillment supersedes the compensation because you'll be helping someone going through a really tragic time in their life. 

And I've also been having really great conversations with public defenders. I think it’s important to see the human behind the defendant. A prosecutor even encouraged me to intern for the public defender to get that insight. So I'm definitely taking that advice if I have the opportunity, whether it be in New Jersey or even in New Hampshire, to externship or internship for a public defender somewhere; that would be a really great opportunity.