Matthew Torgerson

Catholic Charities – San Antonio, TX

What was the most surprising thing you learned at your job?

What I was most surprised to learn was how creative and skillful attorneys must be  when solving issues for clients. No issue has a clear-cut solution, and the work of an attorney is as much testing all possible outcomes and branching paths as it is knowing the law.

What did you like most about your job?

What I liked most about my job was how rewarding it can be to help a client. Researching and finding solutions to problems may seem dull at face value, but when a client gets the result they were seeking, like an approved citizenship application, seeing real lives being changed for the better makes you realize what the legal system is all about!

What was the most valuable thing you’ve learned at your job?

By far the most valuable thing I learned at my job was how to approach real-life problems. Taking the knowledge I have gained so far in law school and helping to apply it in real world situations grounds everything in a way that will change how I learn and understand information from my classes in the future. I now know that the law is an art, and mastering it takes much more than memorization. Learning to apply my knowledge has helped me evolve much more as a law student, and I feel that my summer job has served as the perfect complement to my education at St. Mary’s.