By Emma Coreno

I have wanted to be a litigation lawyer for as long as I can remember. I had imagined for years who my first client would be and what my first hearing or trial would look like. Was I going to feel at home in the courtroom, or would I be terrified? Would the judge and opposing counsel take me seriously? Would the client feel comfortable having a young and inexperienced student attorney represent them? I was excited for the day that I would finally have the answers to all these questions: the day that I would stand in a courtroom with my client seated next to me. At that time, little did I know that my first hearing would be entirely different than anything I had ever imagined. I already knew attorney-client relationships contained fraught power dynamics due to systemic and institutional flaws, but I was not prepared to see these relationships deteriorate so much in this new age of Zoom, to the point where I am no longer certain if there is such thing as effective assistance of counsel in a COVID world . . .