By Leonardo Garcia

Most high school seniors spend their Thursday afternoons scrolling on TikTok or trying to survive fifth-period economics. Today, though, my uniform was business casual, my commute took me straight into an office suite right here in Irving, and my desk was buried under a stack of actual, active civil litigation files. I’m doing my high school practicum at the Law Office of Mark Hernandez, and if day one taught me anything, it’s that TV shows have lied to us completely. Most high school seniors spend their Thursday afternoons scrolling on TikTok or trying to survive fifth-period economics. Today, though, my uniform was business casual, my commute took me straight into an office suite right here in Irving, and my desk was buried under a stack of actual, active civil litigation files. I’m doing my high school practicum at the Mark Hernandez Law Firm, and if day one taught me anything, it’s that TV shows have lied to us completely. By the end of my first day, my feet were sore, and my brain was completely fried. But walking out of the Irving office and into the evening traffic, I knew one thing for sure: textbook law and practice law are two entirely different animals.

First Day of Practicum in Law, at the Law Office of Mark Hernandez