Queens DA’s Office hosts 70 summer interns

The Queens Criminal Courthouse in Kew Gardens. Eagle file photo by David Brand.

By David Brand

Seventy law school and college students will work as interns in the Queens District Attorney’s Office as part of the 2019 Volunteer Summer Internship Program.

The 10-week program began Monday and features students from the nation’s top law schools, including Harvard, Columbia and NYU. Undergraduate students attend CUNY and SUNY schools, as well as Howard University and the University of Michigan, among others.

“We are very happy to welcome these law students and college scholars to our hands-on summer internship program,” said Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan. “This year —as we do each summer  — we will provide a robust program for the interns that will expose them to the inner workings of a major prosecutor’s office.”

Ryan himself began his career as a prosecutor after serving as an intern in the DA’s office.

The DA’s Office has also established a weekly lecture series and question and answer session.

“The interns will participate in investigations, draft legal motions and briefs,” Ryan said. “The students may visit crime scenes with our assistant district attorneys and participate in a variety of prosecution-related duties.”

The interns are assigned to specific bureaus, such as the Gang Violence and Hate Crimes Bureau, the Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Economic and Environmental Crimes Bureau.

“The students will help prosecutors prepare for trials and for the interns with accounting experience, they will assist our forensic accounting personnel,” Ryan said. “Each college student will gain real life experience - the kind of knowledge that cannot be duplicated in a classroom setting.”