Senior Trial Attorney Elizabeth Counce – Los Alamos Office, 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office, in the Justice Center with students from Los Alamos High School Teacher Lori Thompson’s Sports Lit class. Courtesy/LAPS
By JAVAN RAEL
Los Alamos High School
Sports Lit Student
Recently in our Sports Lit Class, we conducted interviews with people who work at the courthouse. We got assigned to Senior Trial Attorney Elizabeth Counce of the 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office. The interview and the whole experience were informative and enjoyable.
During the interview, we found out that the job of an attorney includes judging and reviewing cases, as well as communicating with other co-workers. My interviewee specifically spoke about how she could be working in court all day, or even traveling around New Mexico to speak with others.
She said, “So some days I will be in court all day, others I’m running from here to there to everywhere.”
This is what an average day in the life of an attorney looks like.
Counce is a very interesting person to talk with; she has a lot of hobbies outside of her job and also entertaining stories. She is originally from Minnesota, where she got her degree, but is raising her children here in New Mexico. She spoke about her experience in the field and gave advice to the younger generation. Her advice to us was to try a lot of different things and always minimize your debt.
“I would say: there are a lot of things you can do out there and don’t be downtrodden or saddened by the fact you can’t do something,” Counce said.
That definitely sounds like wise advice on how to live a quality life. As far as hobbies, she mentioned that she likes to build LEGOs in her free time and to garden in her yard. Her favorite LEGO set that she built is the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Finally at the end of our interview, we received more information and details about her job. Her favorite case that she reviewed involved a somewhat hilarious story. This case happened in 2006 and involved a woman who had a fake baby to induce child support from her ex-husband; but when the baby was needed for trial, she stole a child from the local mall. Fake birth certificates and DNA tests were created before showing up with the fake child. Counce picked this case as her favorite because she thought it was very funny how it played out. We agreed.
Overall, this interview with the district attorney was extremely informative about trial processes and just her overall extensive knowledge. I will take her advice about trying a variety of different things, so I can figure out what I am interested in for my future career. Her stories were very entertaining as well. They were funny, but also scary. I thank her for supplying me with her wisdom and hope to meet her again soon but not in trial or as a client.