FIU Honors College Alumna Sofia Gomez has earned a position working for Miami-Dade Judge Milton Hirsch as a Judicial Assistant thanks to her hard work, dedication, and recommendation and support from FIU Honors professor Andrej Milic.
Gomez graduated this past fall with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Philosophy and a Law, Ethics, and Society certificate.
Gomez started taking Milic’s classes to satisfy her honor’s requirements and fell in love with his teaching style and the subjects he chose to cover.
“I took every single honors class I could with him because I knew he focuses his honors classes around law-related topics,” said Gomez.
One, in particular, allows students to get an internship in a law office; they can see up close how the law in the real world functions. She took the class in the summer of 2023 and was able to work in a tax and estate firm, Legacy Counsel PLLC. The internship went so well that, after the end date, the head lawyer offered her a job to stay on for the remainder of the summer.
Before that, Milic allowed her to shadow a lawyer focused on international business in South America for a week, Sanchez Fischer Levine LLP. This was her first exposure to a law practice. It excited her and confirmed her interest in the career.
Towards the end of the fall semester, as her graduation date was nearing, she asked for a recommendation letter and shared with Milic how she was struggling to find a job within the law field. Many positions are typically reserved for current law students or individuals with more experience. Milic put her name and resume out to people in the industry, and she soon after received a call from the current judicial assistant for Judge Hirsch asking her if she would be interested in interviewing for the position.
There was initially a lot of back and forth because she could only work for one and a half years as she wanted to start law school in the fall of 2025, and the judge wished for someone who could commit for at least two years.
“Professor Miilic ended up advocating for and helping me get the job,” said Gomez.
He assured the judge that the Honors College had many great students who would be interested and able to take on the job once Gomez had to leave and that she was an excellent choice for the position. This led to her securing the offer.
Judge Hirsch introduced her to the public defenders and the other people she would be working with for her job, and she had a lot of kind words to say.
“When he introduced me, he mentioned that her professor highly recommended her. It was obvious that that was one of the biggest reasons I could get the job.”
This job will allow her to gain criminal law exposure and build her resume preparing for law school.
She plans on starting law school in the Fall of 2025. The top schools she is applying to are George Washington University, Georgetown, and UVA. She hopes to go to a highly-ranked D.C. school.
Her position officially begins March 1st, and she is very excited to start on her next chapter. She is very grateful to Judge Hirsch and Professor Milic for the opportunity.