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Summer Associate Program
Everyone in the firm participates in the Summer
Associate Program ("Program") throughout the course of the
summer. A committee of attorneys is responsible for running the
Program and has extensive contact with each Summer Associate.
The Program consists of five major elements:
Work Assignments
Work Experiences,
Presentations,
Social Interaction, and
Evaluations.
We believe the Program has facilitated the
integration of new associates (hired from the Program) into the firm
and has provided advanced training in the practice of law which they
can take back to their law schools in their final year of study.
This refers to substantive and
billable work performed by the Summer Associates. In past
summers, work assignments have been provided by attorneys in the
firm and have been diverse in terms of length, complexity and
area of the law. They have included legal research, preparation
of memos and pleadings, drafting documents, review of contracts,
interviews of witnesses, and "second chairing." Generally,
Summer Associates have the opportunity to meet with clients and
other outside attorneys in connection with their work
assignments. The work assignments are supervised by the
attorneys who generate the assignments. The committee
continually evaluates the work assignments and the work load of
each Summer Associate and, in distributing work assignments,
attempts to provide each Summer Associate with as much diversity
and contact with as many attorneys in our firm as possible.
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Summer Associates participate in
and observe situations where attorneys exercise "lawyering
skills". This is generally non-billable time. They may be
attending court hearings, administrative hearings, arbitrations,
depositions, client conferences, transactional negotiations and
the like. Our attorneys are asked to provide work experiences
over the course of the summer. The Summer Associates may be
asked to select from the available calendar of work experiences.
The committee supervises the choices and make certain that work
experiences are not overlooked.
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Each Summer Associate makes a presentation to
our attorneys and legal assistants on a subject of the Summer
Associate's choosing but which is of substantive interest and
some relevance to the private practice of law. A member of the
committee works with each Summer Associate in choosing,
refining, and preparing his or her presentation. The
presentation is made over lunch in our conference room with the
Summer Associate setting the parameters of the discussion. These
presentations are a part of our regular "in-house continuing
legal education" program, where our attorneys and legal
assistants make similar presentations in their areas of
concentration (and which the Summer Associates are encouraged to
attend).
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A less formal, but no less important, element of
the Program is social interaction between Summer Associates and
our professional staff. Summer Associates may be invited to dine
with professional staff members, visit their homes, go to
movies, play golf, and other "fun events". We all recognize it
is easier to work with people with whom you can easily
communicate and share experiences.
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When a Summer Associate completes a work
assignment, the attorney who generated the assignment is
required to provide the Summer Associate a written or oral
evaluation of the project. A copy of each written work
assignment and each evaluation is kept by the committee.
During late June or early July, the committee
conducts an abbreviated "mid-term" evaluation of each Summer
Associate's accumulated written evaluations and additional oral
or written input from the attorneys. The committee meets with
each Summer Associate, discusses the evaluations received and
may make recommendations and suggestions for improvement for the
second half of the Program.
Usually during August, all attorneys are asked
to evaluate each Summer Associate. The committee obtains
information from each attorney for an assessment of each Summer
Associate's performance over the summer. The committee then
meets with each Summer Associate for the final evaluation and to
discuss the results of its survey of the attorneys.
Often at the end of the summer and, if possible,
in conjunction with the final evaluations, we extend offers for
associate positions for the following year.
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