Associate Life Survey: Bunches of Lunches
We've received over 900 responses to our ATL / Lateral Link surveys on the lengths and lunches of summer programs.
Today, in honor of David Lat's Above The Lard Project Truman Show, let's focus on the caloric part of the results: lunch.
Associates seem to be of two minds on the summer associate lunch. Some commenters view the lunches as a positive perk . . . sort of:
The perks are important. Lunches and events are how you meet and get to know the associates and partners at the firm. Anyone who has ever lateraled can tell you how hard it is to meet the people around you when all you do is work (and forget about meeting anyone in another practice group). I don't know if it's a good investment, but it at least brightens the miserable halls of the firm for a couple weeks a year. All the lawyers pretend that working at a law firm is really like what we hoped it would be when we were law students. It's nice.
Others, however, view the care and feeding of summer associates as an unwanted drain on their time:
As an associate, I don't want to be obligated to take summers to lunches, and I don't care about free lunches myself.What I do want is to be left the hell alone during those daytime hours so that I can do the work I am being paid to do, which will allow me to leave two hours earlier than I otherwise would each day.
Summers are a hassle. They all want to go to lunch for two hours each day, and then when they go to happy hour or whatever event each night at 6:00, the associates get to stay in their offices billing the time that the summers stole from them earlier in the day.
Whether they're good or bad, though, one thing's clear: summer lunches are pretty pricey:
* About a third of respondents said that their firms had a budget of more than $50 per person when lunching with summer associates, and seven percent of respondents said their firms imposed no limit at all.
* Ten percent of respondents said that their firms impose a $50 per person budget.
* Ten percent of respondents said that their firms will reimburse $40 or $45 per person.
* Seventeen percent of respondents may spend $30 or $35 per person.
* Twelve percent of respondents may spend up to $25 per person.
The rest have lower budgets or no budget at all. On the bright side, though, their clothes are more likely to fit at the end of the summer.
Despite the expense, summer associates expect frequent feedings:
* Roughly nineteen percent expect to have lunch with their firm's lawyers five times a week.
* A quarter plan on lunching four times a week. The same number expect lunch three times a week, and another quarter will settle for lunch a mere two times weekly.
* Five percent of summer associates think they'll only have lunch with the attorneys once a week.
* A lonely one percent of summer associates don't think they'll have lunch with the firm's attorneys at all.
As the comment above would suggest, however, full-time associates are not nearly as enthusiastic about all that lunch time.
* Eleven percent don't expect to have lunch with the summer associates at all.
* Fifty-four percent expect to do lunch once a week.
* A quarter will have lunch twice a week.
* Seven percent will have lunch three times a week.
* Only three percent will have lunch four or five times a week.
Perhaps the firms should budget coffee runs instead?
--
Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.
(24) Comments
first... zzzz....
guys in my high school took summer associates out to lunch all the time, it was no big deal.
Just use arabic numerals--I wasted 15 seconds ($1.90) scanning for the numbers, and even more typing the response.
Golly, I love lolcats.
if you don't want to go to lunch w/ summers, then don't. it's just that easy.
i usually enjoy it, but i'm sure not going every day. too much of a good thing and all that.
I agree with 12:42. Use numerals, not words. In fact, I would prefer you simply present this in a few tables or graphs (at the expense of your clever turns of phrase).
I am an associate and I took this survey. The question about how often you plan to take summers to lunch was bad. It jumped from zero to once a week. I plan to take summers to lunch two-three times this summer, total, and I bet a lot of associates agree. I put zero because it was closer; there is no way I would take summers every week. I don't think any associates take summers every day! You should remove that data from the summary.
"Roughly nineteen percent expect to have lunch with their firm's lawyers five times a week."
Are you kidding me? Is there any firm in the country that takes these idgits out 5 days a week? As a summer, 3-5 times a month was an average. As an associate, I plan to attend maybe 3-4 SA lunches all summer long. Ridiculous.
Are there really 20 percent of firms (or firms where 20 percent of all summers are working) where 5 times a week is a reasonable expectation, or are these SA's just idiots?
Re "if you don't want to go to lunch w/ summers, then don't. it's just that easy."
I love statements that end with "it's just that easy". You're the same guy who says, "You don't want to work on weekends? Don't. It's just that easy." and "You don't want to go to your boss's wife's charity gala for $500 per person? Don't. It's just that easy."
Nothing is "just that easy" when there are office-politics at play and there's only one partner slot for one hundred wanna-be-partners and something as small as, "Well, I don't think he was a team-player, he didn't help our recruitment by taking out the summers for lunch often enough..." might actually matter. Yes, it's a screwed up world. But it is what it is.
Our summers expect to be taken out 4 to 5 times a week because each partner is expected to take them out at least once (and of course, there's that one happy, happy partner without enough work to do that actually takes them out once per week) and each associate is expected to take them out 2 or 3 times during the summer and the summer-coordinators are expected to take them out more than that....so in the end, by sheer numbers, they end up out almost every day with at least a couple attorneys.
1:30 - Amen, brother. It's rarely "just that easy." (Though I've never been hit up for $500pp dinners, which of course means $1000.)
I agree with 1:16. I chose zero as well because I plan on taking them only a couple times over the summer and not once a week or more. I might have been closer to once a week but my biglaw firm only allows summer lunches twice a week. May sound cheap, but at least my office isn't firing attorneys.
Where do the 3% of associates who are are taking summers out 4-5 times a week work??
I got my furst real assignment yesterday as a summer. I would much rather have caught a quick bite today and worked on the assignment than having to endure a 2 hour lunch just to be politically correct.
1:47 - they're called "corporate associates," usually M&A/PE, and they currently work (or at least show up to work) at many firms.
ah, love the lolcats & ICHC. Good work Justin.
1:48, no summer assignment is a "real assignment." You're not there to do real work. Go on your lunches. You will have obscenely more time to do your assignment than is necessary.
@1:30: most of the firms I know of, and both the firms I summered at, take SA's out to lunch 5x/wk.
My firm requires associates to bring back itemized receipts (in English) or else no reimbursement. We avoid taking summer associates to dim sum unless we are prepared to pay for the meal ourselves.
Outstanding use of LOLcat. This is really improving my opinion of lateral link.
1:30: before I started, I certainly didn't expect to be taken out 4-5 times a week. However, our recruiting office specifically told us that someone should be taking us out every day, and we are supposed to tell them at the end of every week who went to lunch with every day. So, now I do.
The associates on this board are a bunch of pu_ssies. If your boss or the firm tells you to go to an expensive lunch for a couple hours three times a summer, just do it. You get paid to do what they tell you, not what you think you should be doing every minute of the day. You're an associate, not the boss. Try talking to all the recent additions to the unemployment line and see if they sympathize with your "problems." You could be there next.
As a summer, I hated being taken out to lunch. I didn't care that it was free or "fancy." Back then as well as now, I'd rather pay for my own cheap food, get something I can eat quickly and/or at my desk, and use the time saved to get out of the office an hour or two earlier. That's the difference between having time to go to the gym or meet up with non-lawyer friends after work, which I find far preferable to a 2-hour, $50/person lunch.
Actually, firm-sponsored coffee runs would be a good idea: Practical, fast, allows you to be social without taking up too much of your day. Although I'd assume that most places have in-office coffee/cappuchinno (sp?) machines.
Well, I'm a secretary and I was told by recruiting that it was okay for me to take the summers out to lunch, coffee, etc. too.
@7:52: Good luck with your no-offer.