The assistant U.S attorney for New York, Ni Qian, and the data intake coordinator Jackie Fleury, visited Bronx River for a career talk on Feb. 28.

What challenges did you overcome to become a lawyer?What was your journey?

Ms.Qian: “Well, my parents are immigrants and I was born in China.There were no lawyers in my family, but I liked to argue so they kept telling me to become a lawyer.So, I joined my high school debate team, but I went to college for an economy major.I wasn’t good at advanced math, but I was better at reading and writing, so I took the LSAT and got a good score.When I graduated, the U.S was going through a recession and there were a lot of fresh graduates.I read John Adams’ auto-biography and because of this I went to law school and from there I took a job at the U.S attorney’s office as an assistant.”

Ms.Fleury: “Right now I’m on my way to becoming an attorney.I’m Haitian and when I moved to New York, I was 18 and I got a job at a law firm with another woman of color as my boss and other 18 year olds.When I graduated college, I worked at the New York City law department. which is meant to look for evidence that protects the city of New York from lawsuits.Then I started working at the U.S attorney’s office as a Data intake coordinator, which means we pull evidence for cases off of the internet.I’m a first generation citizen in my family.”

What exactly do you do at the U.S attorney’s office?

Ms.Qian: “We investigate federal crimes and we prosecute and defend New York City.We do both civil and criminal law and we are all litigators at the U.S attorney’s office.”

Ms.Fleury: “We take electronic evidence from online and all records of data because data is never gone even if people delete it.We pull back evidence and that allows us to give out warrants to get more evidence.”
“How we put together a case is by using evidence like surveillance and talking to witnesses.Tape recordings are important because they might have time limits before they are taped over.We are also able to go back to witnesses if we know they didn’t tell us the truth.However, we need to have probable cause for search warrants and statistical probability for evidence.”

If you could change the constitution, what would you change or add?

Ms.Qian: “I would want more rights for bodily autonomy, which would allow abortion.”

Ms.Fleury: “I would want more rights to privacy and better internet safety.”

What advice do you have and what jobs are there for aspiring attorneys?

Ms.Fleury: “Internship as much as possible to gain experience.You could work in the mailroom, court timing, intern, and SSO which is security.”