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For Summer Law Interns, the Livin’ Is Easy
Not all summer jobs are created equal.
Full disclosure: I'm sitting in a cubicle having microwaved rice and broccoli for lunch.
For Summer Law Interns, the Livin’ Is Easy
A-Ded
In an annual rite, big firms lay it on thick for students: kayaking, bowling, jam bands
By Sara Randazzo
July 6, 2015 8:47 p.m. ET
Ah, to be a law-firm summer associate. For several thousand lucky law students, it’s the season to be courted by the nation’s top firms. ... Full-time work in the industry can be grueling. But in a sharp divergence from the fate of interns in medical schools and at investment banks, the entry level is pretty cushy.
At Silicon Valley-based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, 55 summer associates spent a weekend kayaking, hiking and biking on California’s Monterey Peninsula. Back at work they are visiting the offices of Twitter Inc. and the firm’s other technology clients. ... At Chadbourne & Parke, summer associates went to a Dave Matthews Band concert at a waterfront amphitheater and went bowling at Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers. In the office, they learned trial skills through a re-enactment of Chadbourne partner Abbe Lowell’s cross-examination of a government witness from his successful defense of John Edwards in a case accusing the former presidential candidate of campaign finance violations.
Other firms are treating their summer associates to chartered helicopter tours, disc-jockey lessons and cooking classes, balanced with mock-deposition sessions, presentations on firm practices and research assignments. At some firms, a saying goes that in the hierarchy, there are partners, then summer associates and then everybody else.
The summer jobs pay about $3,000 a week in major markets—based on the average starting salary at large law firms of $160,000 for first-year associates—and last between eight and 10 weeks. The assumption is that those who succeed will be asked to return full-time after graduation.
In an annual rite, big firms lay it on thick for students: kayaking, bowling, jam bands
By Sara Randazzo
July 6, 2015 8:47 p.m. ET
Ah, to be a law-firm summer associate. For several thousand lucky law students, it’s the season to be courted by the nation’s top firms. ... Full-time work in the industry can be grueling. But in a sharp divergence from the fate of interns in medical schools and at investment banks, the entry level is pretty cushy.
At Silicon Valley-based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, 55 summer associates spent a weekend kayaking, hiking and biking on California’s Monterey Peninsula. Back at work they are visiting the offices of Twitter Inc. and the firm’s other technology clients. ... At Chadbourne & Parke, summer associates went to a Dave Matthews Band concert at a waterfront amphitheater and went bowling at Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers. In the office, they learned trial skills through a re-enactment of Chadbourne partner Abbe Lowell’s cross-examination of a government witness from his successful defense of John Edwards in a case accusing the former presidential candidate of campaign finance violations.
Other firms are treating their summer associates to chartered helicopter tours, disc-jockey lessons and cooking classes, balanced with mock-deposition sessions, presentations on firm practices and research assignments. At some firms, a saying goes that in the hierarchy, there are partners, then summer associates and then everybody else.
The summer jobs pay about $3,000 a week in major markets—based on the average starting salary at large law firms of $160,000 for first-year associates—and last between eight and 10 weeks. The assumption is that those who succeed will be asked to return full-time after graduation.
