My Summer at Cook, Schuhmann & Groseclose
by Benjamin A. Seekins

This past summer, I had the opportunity to work at Cook Schuhmann & Groseclose, Inc. in Fairbanks, Alaska.  I was born and raised in Fairbanks and I spent my undergrad years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as well.  I’ve always considered Fairbanks to be my home.  My first summer of law school I wasn’t able to make it back home at all.  I intend to practice in Fairbanks, and as such I was eager to learn about the legal environment.

I am married and have a child.  My wife wasn’t able to return with me for the summer because of her job.  We decided that our 6 year-old son, Christian, would be better off spending the summer in Fairbanks with me, so he could then play with cousins and visit other family.  While I missed my wife, and even ended up going home a week early to see her, the experience was worth it, and I learned a lot about the law.  I was concerned about taking Christian with me, but the firm was very understanding, and didn’t require me to stay late in the evenings.

I had a lot of fun over the summer catching up with family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a while.  I did some fishing, and spent time having fun at Harding Lake.  I made it to the family’s annual fishing trip in Chitina.  The fishing wasn’t very good that weekend, but we found a good hole and managed to limit out.  It was a good thing that the firm let me have a couple days off to extend the weekend, because it was some of the hardest fishing I’ve ever done at Chitina.

I had a chance to get to know people at the firm pretty well.  I went out for lunch with a variety of people from the firm and I also was able to attend the Tanana Valley Bar Association lunch.  This was a particularly pleasant experience, because it exposed me to a number of characters from the Fairbanks legal scene.

I worked in a variety of areas over the summer.  It seemed as though I had a taste of just about everything the Fairbanks legal scene has to offer.  I worked on family law, criminal law, fish and game law, social security law, and torts.  On more than one occasion I researched areas that had never come before the Alaska Appellate Courts.  Working on these novel areas was exciting and made my research feel valuable.

On one very interesting appeals job, I helped develop the argument that the district court’s dollar level jurisdictional limitation applied to codefendants separately.  When I began the research it seemed impossible to develop an argument.  I enjoyed the chance to sink my teeth into such a challenge, and I was proud of my end product.  I was even given the opportunity to help draft some of the pleadings.

I researched a Social Security issue that was quite a surprise.  Everyone felt certain that benefits under Social Security would be reachable in divorce just like any other retirement benefits.  I was pleased to find an exception that was applicable to the case that helped our client.  While the case may never make it to court, the research undoubtedly gave additional leverage in negotiations.

In a pro bono case that I worked on, I had the pleasure of helping a woman who had been thoroughly frustrated by the courts.  The court had placed money in a trust and wouldn’t allow access to it until the woman’s child reached 18.  The family needed the money.  A couple of lawyers had tried to help her previously but failed to convince the court.  The case seemed impossible to win based on the prior refusals, and knowing that it was going back to the same judge.  However, we were able to create a convincing pleading, and the judge agreed to release the funds.  The client was overcome with joy.

Outside of their legal abilities, I was impressed with the balanced lives lead by the attorneys.  Many people live well-balanced lives participating in a wide range of activities.  One member of the firm runs marathons, and frequently wins, and also runs a summer fishing charter service on side.  Another person took mountain biking trips out into the wilds of Alaska.  Another person has a private pilot license, and enjoys flying his plane to a variety of areas.  Another person is helping her future spouse construct their home in the evenings.

The summer was a lot of fun, and although I was eager to get back to my wife, I look forward to returning to Fairbanks where I hope to have more experiences as great as the one I had this summer with Cook Schuhmann & Groseclose, Inc.