Of the top 20 ranked firms, only four had summer programmes with more than 100 clerks, while nine hired 30 or fewer summer associates. Students most commonly cited firm reputation as a factor influencing their clerkship decision, but that does not mean the behemoths of the legal world always have the upper hand in winning over law students.
“They go out of their way to make you feel like a part of the family from day one,” wrote an enthused summer associate at first-ranked Nutter McClennen & Fish, which had only 11 clerks. His comments were echoed by a clerk at third-ranked Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, which hired 25 summer associates: “The firm truly incorporates the summer associates into the firm life and treats each summer associate as a first-year.”
For firms the recruiting game is getting tougher, say several hiring partners. Small firms, Wall Street investment banks, academia and non-profits are competing with The AmLaw 200 for top talent, these partners say.
Thomas Golden, chair of the professional personnel committee at eighth-ranked Willkie Farr & Gallagher, says: “In the past few years I have seen students exploring smaller firms with greater frequency than they used to.”
More than 10,000 law students flocked to work at the 195 firms in our survey this summer and more than 7,300 supplied evaluations. As in previous years, the overwhelming majority gave good reviews, awarding an average 4.513 on a scale of one to five. But some firms got extra kudos. Thirteen firms from last year’s top 20 made the top 20 again, suggesting they have found a repeatable formula for success.
Other firms made big jumps to land in the top ranks, including second-ranked Fox Rothschild (110th last year); fifth-ranked Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo (70th last year); and Willkie Farr (113th last year).
The number one firm, 155-lawyer Nutter McClennen, earned perfect fives in eight of the nine scoring categories. The programme’s small size goes a long way in explaining its success, says Alexander Glovsky, chair of the firm’s hiring committee: “A firm like ours has the opportunity to really embed our summer class.”
Personal attention was exactly what most students seemed to be looking for. Firms that did well in the survey, whether large or small, focused on training and mentoring and pushed partners to involve interns in exciting projects. Thomas Burton, co-chair of Mintz Levin’s Boston hiring committee, credits the firm’s improved ranking to its decision to keep the summer programme small (just 32 clerks) and to a renewed emphasis on mentoring. “We really reached out to lawyers and shook them down and said, ‘What are you doing today? What are you doing tomorrow? What can you take a summer associate to?’” he says.
This structured yet informal approach to mentoring paid off: Mintz Levin received the third-highest score in the training and guidance category. “Everyone has an open door, is willing to answer your questions and wants to teach you how to produce good legal work,” wrote one Mintz Levin summer associate.
One of the few big programmes at the top of the chart, Philadelphia’s Morgan Lewis & Bockius, maintained its strong ranking — fourth this year, seventh last year — by making sure that its 120 clerks had plenty of real work. “I was amazed at how quickly I was given access to clients,” wrote one summer associate. “On my second day (before we even completed training), a partner grabbed me to attend a client meeting. For many, another winning aspect of the Morgan Lewis summer was its plethora of pro bono opportunities.
Morgan Lewis was not alone in emphasising pro bono projects. Asked about the summer’s most memorable moments, many students mentioned representing Hurricane Katrina victims, political asylum applicants and prisoners. “I assisted an attorney in a pro bono matter by writing her brief for the appeal. The judge called us and the prosecutor into chambers and told us that he thought our argument in the brief was more compelling than the prosecutor’s, which effectively forced a deal. So, basically, I won my first case this summer,” boasted a clerk at second-ranked Fox Rothschild.
Others found exotic legal adventures abroad. “My most enjoyable experience was going to
Wherever they spent their summers, law firm clerks were, as always, lavishly entertained. A summer associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom enjoyed “grazing on
The pay was good, too. In step with first-year associate salaries that have reached $160,000 (£78,000) in cities such as
For a few students, it was not enough. A summer associate at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy whined about “how much [he] had to pay in taxes”. Others suggested they would gladly trade some of the riches for less time at the office. “Stop raising salaries, it is just going to hit us in hours in the end,” grumbled a summer associate at Hogan & Hartson.
Indeed, interns got a taste of how arduous law firm life can be. On average, they worked 44 hours per week. At LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae, a clerk recalled “sending an email to an associate past 1am and getting a reply in less than two minutes. Scary”.
For most respondents, long hours were not appealing. When asked to identify factors influencing whether they would accept a full-time job offer, students cited “work-life balance” 54% of the time. No other factor was chosen more often. The desire to live in a particular city was the second most common factor, selected by 48% of respondents.
In general, though, the firms that ranked lower in the survey results lagged not because they forced too much work (or too much money) on their summer charges, but because the clerks felt just a little bit neglected.
But even at the lower-ranked firms, associates came away impressed with their taste of big-firm life. From
Big law firms may be facing more competition for law students in the recruitment wars, but they are still holding their own.
A version of this article first appearedin Legal Week’s
The American Lawyer.