Erik Bedrosian

Summer 2022 Clerk

University of California, Hastings College of the Law

University of California, Santa Barbara

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Erik is a second-year law student at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara, double majoring in Philosophy and Communication and receiving a Certificate in Sports Management. In addition to the clerkship at Lloyd & Mousilli, he will be working as a research assistant in the Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors Clinic (MLPS) at UC Hastings.

Excelling in his legal research and writing courses, Erik received the CALI Excellence Award as the highest scoring student in his LRW 1 class. Additionally he received “Honorable Mention” for best oral argument in LRW 2. This year, he will serve as Internal Vice President of the UC Hastings Sports Law Association and participate as a peer mentor for the Hastings Tech Law Society.

Erik is especially interested in the intersection of sports, law, and technology and aspires to practice in the field of IP and commercial transactions upon graduation.

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About Me

Erik is especially interested in the intersection of sports, law, and technology and aspires to practice in the field of IP and commercial transactions upon graduation.

My Clerkship Diary

The second week was much more manageable as I settled into a scheduled routine between the Lloyd & Mousilli and UC Hastings Clinic positions. My calendar was organized and I knew what periods of the day throughout the week that I would have meetings and which periods I would be available to work on tasks. I had one on one meetings with Megan and my assigned attorney mentor, Beth, who both had a lot of advice for me and provided direction on how to approach tasks. I am feeling more confident in my ability to produce quality work this week, and I expect to continue to improve as I settle in and become more adept.

I started out the week editing and finishing up the last bit of the article I started in Week 2 about patents in VR. I did extensive research on global trends in VR patents, discovering that in the last 3-4 years the Asia-Pacific Region (led by China) has eclipsed the North American Region (led by the U.S.) in the quantity of VR/AR patents being filed per year. Companies like Magic Leap, Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung continue to pace the field in VR patents. VR patents are currently trending toward a focus on real-world object rendering, which means that companies are developing technology that would allow consumers to directly scan objects in their surroundings into their VR environment to interact with.

This week was an excellent learning experience for me. Due to conflicts, I missed the Week 3 clerkship check-in meeting and was very glad I was able to attend Monday’s meeting this week. It was great to sit in with Estella, Tiffany, and Megan and hear about the different assignments and experiences everyone else had undergone over the last week. I appreciated being able to ask questions in a less formal environment and hearing Megan’s anecdotal stories, which she always relates to some of the issues us clerks are experiencing. After the meeting, I stayed on and talked with Tiffany about our experiences working thus far and our professional interests and goals. On Tuesday, I met with Feras to discuss the Patents in VR Article that I had written last week. Later, the clerks had an intro to time-keeping for billable hours seminar with Beth. It was reassuring to hear that it is typical to only be able to report a fraction of the time you spent “working”. I had been feeling a slight sense of dread seeing how few hours I was able to actually report on my time sheet as compared to how many hours I was sitting at my desk “working”. After the seminar, I had my attorney mentor meeting with Beth, where she explained her huge win this week in her Toyz case against Toys R’ Us. Learning how she structured her arguments was extremely informative in understanding how to incorporate circumstantial occurrences into logical legal arguments. The rest of my time was spent working on tasks

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I felt I had much better balance between my two positions and was able to accomplish what I set out to do this week. I got to have an introduction into soft IP this week. I also had to prepare and take a new professional headshot for Daisy because I did not have anything more recent than my college graduation.

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Officially halfway through the summer, I feel like I have finally settled into a good routine. I had my mid-summer review with Feras and Megan this week which was incredibly helpful. I relayed that I had been struggling adjusting to working in general as well as figuring out how to balance my time and work schedule between two positions, leading to dissatisfaction with my own performance. Feras and Megan were very understanding and gave me specific areas in which to improve for the second half of the summer. I am extremely grateful for the time and energy that they provide to the clerks and helping us learn as we work through so many things that we haven’t necessarily seen before. Following my review I was able to immediately have my attorney mentor meeting with Beth, who always gives incredible advice. This week, I made the true transition into the Soft IP rotation and have really enjoyed it so far. To top off the week, I was accepted into the UC Hastings Startup Legal Garage Corporate Module for this upcoming academic year.

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It is absolutely unbelievable that it has already been over two months since the summer started. It has gone by incredibly fast and I notice myself learning more and more. We have reached our final summer rotation, in which I will be working with litigation for the remainder of the program.

This first week in litigation was somewhat of a blur because the clerks spent most of our time preparing for the firm’s clerk mock trial. I did have my first litigation team meeting this week, and I was both surprised and impressed at the speed and clarity in which Lema operated the meeting.

My favorite part of this week was the amount that the clerks interacted amongst ourselves. We often have short conversations throughout the week about how our tasks are going, but this week added another dimension as we all were focused on preparing for our mock trial oral arguments. It was so great to be in close contact with one another throughout the week and we have been discussing plans to do a virtual happy hour all together sometime in the next week or so.

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Mock trial was a different kind of beast to prepare for this week. I have never spent so much time doing research for something, and still felt so unprepared. One of the main issues I had was that we were asked to develop an argument using an Erie doctrine analysis. Unfortunately, my Civ Pro class did not cover the doctrine at all because we ran out of time at the end of the semester. After talking to my fellow clerks, who all spent multiple weeks learning about Erie in their courses, I realized how far behind I was in terms of learning the substance and being able to create a functional application of the doctrine for an argument. So, besides simply researching case law to write the pre-mock hearing memo, I had to try to learn what the Erie doctrine was and how to apply it. I was not prepared for how complicated it would be, since the bare definition of the doctrine seemed relatively simple. Luckily, Tiffany recommended some video and other resources to help me cover the material. Both Tiffany and Tyler were extremely helpful during the process and were always available to answer questions I had. So many times they were able to offer insight and clarify confusion I had about the nuances of the rule.

Since we were all initially struggling writing the memos, I asked Lema if we could extend our deadline from EOB to midnight (CT). Despite the extended deadline I still ended up having to work on it until 2am PST (4am CT). After trying to learn Erie, do legal research, and write the brief for about 13 hours on Tuesday, I had a quick turn around to working full days on Wednesday and Thursday in Clinic at UC Hastings, then trying to prepare for the oral argument at night afterwards. I know for a fact that I would not have made it through this week without Tiffany’s help. We stayed in constant communication messaging and scheduling calls to talk through ideas we had about the memo and mock trial. She was an absolute boon for me this week while I tried to get a handle on how to argue the subject matter that I was having such a difficult time even understanding. She was so kind and patient with me as I bombarded her with a million questions. Come Friday, the day of the actual argument, I was extremely nervous and anxious. I have typically struggled with anxiety issues before public performances in the past, so this was a big deal for me to be able to prepare. Despite knowing that this was an educational experience for the clerks and that it was a low stakes and supportive environment, I still had to work through a couple anxiety attacks in the morning as I tried to prepare. Once again Tiffany was there to help, and we scheduled a few calls Friday morning to chat and semi-rehearse our scripts. When it got to show time, I was extremely nervous to present the argument in front of the firm. I ended up referring to my script notes much more than I had hoped and did a lot of reading. My biggest blunder was that I did not put my case law citations on my script notes (as they were in a separate document I had created for cases) and was so nervous that I blanked on a few very important references and was unable to cite where I had drawn the authority from. Despite that huge mistake, I was able to work through the rest of my argument and answer a majority of the questions I was asked by the judge panel. Following the oral argument portion, we had a feedback panel which was so uplifting. After feeling like I got punched in the stomach (“In Feras’s words) the feedback panel was incredibly helpful. We received so much constructive feedback from Lema, Beth, Jeo, Feras, Ghallia, Marlene, Megan, Daisy, and Allie. Despite struggling a bit during the mock hearing, I was so appreciative of the supportive environment we had afterwards and cannot thank everyone enough. I messaged Lema after the event to thank her for all her guidance and feedback and told her how it helped me gain an even greater appreciation for what she does on the day to day. She is truly an inspiring figure in the firm and I am so excited to be working under her for the remainder of the clerkship. Despite not being particularly interested in litigation myself, I understand how crucial the skills developed in litigation are to other areas of practice.

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Due to the previous mock trial event, this was my first full week in the litigation rotation group. Although I currently do not have the intention to go into litigation, I wanted to keep my mind open for the summer and see first hand how the litigation looks in practice before closing my future options. Working under Lema is such a great opportunity. She is so organized, tenacious, and focused. Her confidence and knowledge is so impressive and I hope to one day be able to mirror that. I started out the week sitting in on the litigation team meeting with Lema and Marlene. They discussed each outstanding case and I was extremely appreciative of the time they took to pause during the case discussions to explain to me why the case had reached the point it was at and give insight on the firm’s next steps for each. Lema tasked me with researching a procedural issue in Justice of the Peace Courts in Texas and drafting interrogatories for another case. I later had my weekly mentorship meeting with Beth and as always she gave me great advice on how to approach drafting interrogatories and other things to key in on while in the litigation rotation.

Besides the work aspect of the week, I have come to realize how important it is to pour some emotion into these journal entries, so I wanted to cover a few things before diving into my weekly tasks. I had a little bit of an odd week outside of working. On Monday, following the litigation team meeting, I had to travel home to my family to go to a doctor’s appointment to address a knee issue I have been experiencing since falling prey to a ski accident in January. The doctor’s office was running behind so I had to wait an extended amount of time. Had I thought things through, I would’ve brought my laptop to be able to work while I was there, but unfortunately did not have the foresight to do so. By the time I was able to return to my apartment in San Francisco, I was exhausted and had lost 6 hours of my day to travel plus the appointment. I was frustrated by the result of the appointment and have to get an MRI this coming week. I was also frustrated by the clear inefficient use of time that forgetting to bring my computer caused me, since I had thought the total time would only be 2-3 hours at most.

Another important aspect that I wanted to share is that I have been struggling a lot with mental health issues recently. I think it is important to share these things because others do not have the ability to read your mind or assume anything about you. The stigma surrounding mental health issues continues to trend towards empathy and acceptance, which is crucial for those who struggle from issues such as anxiety and depression. I feel comfortable sharing that I unfortunately had a depressive episode this week that made it quite difficult to accomplish my work tasks as well as my daily routine. For example, on Tuesday, I could not get out of bed until 6pm and slept most of the day. In response, I shifted my work day to 8:30pm-4am to finish the tasks that I had been assigned. Every day brings something slightly different, so it is important to try and maintain a level of optimism, work through it to complete life and work tasks, and hope to receive empathy from others as you try to improve to become your best self.

Ending the week on a positive note, Tiffany and I discussed organizing a happy hour/game night for the clerks next weekend. Tiffany went ahead and organized everything so we will be able to have a little get together over Google Meets next weekend!

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I settled into the litigation rotation this week. After attending the litigation team meeting Monday morning with Lema and Marlene, I was given further direction on completing the draft for the motion for written discovery and request for production for the Travis County Justice of the Peace court issue. I realized I had very much overcomplicated what I was tasked to do and that in actuality, the task was quite simple. I was frustrated that I had spent so many hours reading through Westlaw and the TRCP trying to figure out how to properly write the motion, when in reality, it should’ve taken me little time to complete. I was able to send in drafts for both tasks later that day. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to listen in on Beth’s hearing on Tuesday and we proceeded to have an hour long call following the hearing to discuss how and why things went the way they did, coupled with Beth’s typical amazing advice on how to approach standard practices in the field.

It almost doesn't feel real that there is only one more week left of the summer. Last Sunday, Tiffany organized a virtual happy hour and game night for the clerks plus Ghallia and Allie. We had been talking about doing an event like this for a few weeks and it finally came together. Of course, as luck would have it, I popped a tire on my car driving home and had to spend the rest of the day at Costco getting it fixed and missed the event. I am hoping that we can plan another event so that Tyler and I can attend this time around. Our weekly clerkship meeting was great per usual. I always enjoy hearing the insights on how the other clerks have been doing in general and with work as well as listening to Megan’s updates on all aspects of the firm. Sometimes as a clerk you forget that there is so much more going on outside of our little bubbles. So, getting that reminder every once in a while is humbling and reinforces my respect for everyone in the firm that much more.

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As luck would have it, after 2.5 years I finally got Covid during the last week of the program. I tested positive on Monday and had the energy to do some work for the first couple days of the week, and then the fatigue hit me hard. I was bed bound for the next three days with extreme fatigue and brain fog, but luckily my cold and flu symptoms were relatively mild. I mostly laid in bed and slept this week, so I was disappointed to miss out on my last week of work for both L&M and the UC Hastings Clinic. Additionally, my birthday was also on Sunday, so I ended up being stuck in quarantine and unable to fully celebrate. I did travel home to see my family with masks on and had a nice socially-distanced birthday dinner. I am finally feeling much better and hope to test out of quarantine in the next couple of days.

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Erik Bedrosian

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About Me

My Clerkship Diary

We are accepting applications for Law Clerk.

Interested in a clerkship with L&M?
We are accepting applications!

More team members

Zane Tannir

Destiny McManimie

Tiffany Lam

Erik Bedrosian

More clerk diaries

Zane Tannir

Sreya Bhattaru

Sana Achraf

Tyler Golian

Got a question or matter to discuss?

Erik Bedrosian

Watch Video

What’s a Rich Text element?

Static and dynamic content editing

How to customize formatting for each rich text

About Me

My Clerkship Diary

We are accepting applications for Law Clerk.

Interested in a clerkship with L&M?We are accepting applications!

More team members

Zane Tannir

Destiny McManimie

Tiffany Lam

Erik Bedrosian

More clerk diaries

Zane Tannir

Sreya Bhattaru

Sana Achraf

Tyler Golian

Got a question or matter to discuss?

Interested in a clerkship with L&M?
We are accepting applications!