Working in the Dominican Republic

By: Lindsay Tatum
Lindsay has completed her first year of study at the University of Georgia School of Law and is one of three students participating in the 2012 pilot of the InteRDom Correspondent Program. She is participating in the 2012 10-week Graduate and Gap Year Program. You can read more about her, her interest in the Correspondent Program and her career ambitions here.

Hey guys!

I know it has been a while (3 weeks) since I blogged last, but my schedule has become so hectic! Everyday is so full of trying to see and experience everything. But alas, I am a blogger and therefore blogging is what I must do!

Let me give you a quick update on my schedule.

M-F:
8:30 - Go to work at La Universal Seguros (actually right now I am working at one of the top law firms in the country. I will be here for a total of three weeks.)
9:00am-12:30pm - WORK! WORK! WORK AWAY!
12:30-1:30pm - Lunch
1:30-4:30pm - WORK! WORK! WORK AWAY!
4:30pm - Quitting time

This is pretty much the schedule that I have daily, with variations sometimes, depending on if I have a special trip planned for the day or another special task. My work at the law firm has been so meaning and I have been learning so much. These past two weeks that I have been there, I have worked on two movies contracts for films soon to be released in the DR. I spent my time going through the contracts and making sure all of the small details aligned together. I have also worked on power of attorney agreements (where an individual or an entity gives their power to complete certain tasks and make certain decisions to an attorney). The kicker about all of this, other than the fact that all of the contracts are in Spanish is that I have done none of these type of agreements in ENGLISH!!! I am sure you can imagine how intimidating it is to conquer such intricate matters in English... but Spanish is a whole other battle. However, I am proud to say that the attorney's offices are still standing and I have not burned anything down.


The Senators

I have also been lucky to visit the Dominican Congress. I went to the Senate and the House of Representatives. While there I was able to meet both Senators and Representatives. While the type of law practiced here is different from the United States (the US exercises English Common Law and the DR exercises French Civil Law), the separation of the state powers and the means by which they operate are quite similar. I know I have bored you to death with all of these facts, here is what you really came for... AWESOME PICTURES! These photos are from my time in the Senate. I attended a public viewing that was discussing a new piece of legislation regarding the Dominican peoples involvement in their daily decision making processes.


Another Senator and the only female Senator in the public meeting