The Summer Associate Experience: Washington, DC
We continue to cover summer associate news closely. Summer associates, after all, are faithful readers of ATL. Many of them have lots of time to spend in front of their computers, and not enough work to keep them busy.
Yesterday we posted a memo of advice for summer associates, from NYU Law School’s Office of Career Services, featuring an amusing list of “Real World Examples of Career Limiting Behavior.” If you missed it, check it out by clicking here.
Today we turn our attention to summer associate programs here in Washington, DC. They’re the subject of a very interesting article in this week’s Legal Times. Writes Marisa McQuilken:
The paychecks still top $3,000 per week, and most summer associates are still expecting an invitation to come aboard their firms at six-figure salaries. But this year, worries about the rotten economy are likely to infiltrate small talk around the open bar at summer associate events.“Everybody, I think, is at least psychologically affected,” says Georgetown University Law Center’s assistant dean of career services, Gihan Fernando, adding that his first- and second-year law students are “more thoughtful, more alert” about the job market.
Most large law firms in the nation’s capital hired summer associate classes that were the same size or smaller than last year’s classes. For detailed, firm-by-firm data, see here.
Discussion continues, below the fold.
Despite lawyer layoffs in some firms’ D.C. offices, there is still fun to be had for SAs:
Cadwalader’s New York summer class had a private Q&A session with Laurence Fishburne two weeks ago, after attending his Broadway show “Thurgood,” a one-man play about the late Justice Thurgood Marshall. Weil, Gotshal & Manges is renting out an entire Nintendo store for its New York class to hold a Wii competition. In the District, Crowell & Moring’s summer associates took a tour of the city while riding on Segways, and the firm will host its annual black-tie-optional summer associate casino night at a Washington hotel. Patton Boggs’ D.C. office will host a wine and cheese event where an artist will teach summer associates how to paint.
About half of those items — and the most fun-sounding ones — are taken from New York summer associate programs. But at least we have a cleaner subway system.
[M]any law students are well aware that the wine may one day stop flowing so freely. “I think the economy is something that we’re all thinking about,” says Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker summer associate Maria Tennyson.
Luckily for Ms. Tennyson, she’s summering at Paul Hastings, which is not doing layoffs.
For Summer Associates, A Future That’s Less Certain [Legal Times]
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First off...
"Weil, Gotshal & Manges is renting out an entire Nintendo store for its New York class to hold a Wii competition."
SWEET.
"In the District, Crowell & Moring's summer associates took a tour of the city while riding on Segways, and the firm will host its annual black-tie-optional summer associate casino night at a Washington hotel. Patton Boggs' D.C. office will host a wine and cheese event where an artist will teach summer associates how to paint."
Total lamesauce.
When do they work?
2:41 - Summers get a week or two weeks to do projects that would take regular associates a day (or a few hours).
"Weil, Gotshal & Manges is renting out an entire Nintendo store for its New York class to hold a Wii competition."
Then, tomorrow, a field trip to the petting zoo.
hmmm after ranting in the article about the sky falling -- 8 of the 10 firms on the chart had the same size or larger summer class. Yeah, that makes sense.
I hate Gihan Fernando with the fire of a thousand suns.
Welcome to the world of Legal Times, 2:58. Its stock-in-trade is making sweeping generalizations that turn out to be directly contradicted by actual data.
In other news... pants still optional on Fridays!
What the fuck is Crowell & Moring? You deserve many field trips just for working at a firm nobody's ever heard of.
Washington DC is a horrible place. Most of it is a war zone apart from NW. It is segregated and full of federal office drones, everybody is the same. It is hot as hell in the summer. The real estate is ridiculously expensive and the taxes are high. I have no idea why anyone would want to live there.
The fact that Latham and Hogan significantly downsized their SA class is a great sign for them. On the other hand, the A&P summers better start polishing their resumes for 3L OCI.
making some copies, delivering some coffee - ahhhh yeah summer in dc
Latham and Hogan summers should be relieved. A&P summers should be polishing their resumes. How did they go from 40 to 67 summers? Ding!
Crowell & Moring has 450+ attorneys in DC, NY, CA, London, and Brussels. Its government contracts and antitrust practices are amongst the best in their fields.
I hate Gihan Fernando with the fire of a thousand and one suns.
Dipshit at 3:33. Ever hear of Don Flexner? That's where he formerly worked. Pretty good antitrust practice.
DC is so muggy and hot during the summer. I think I saw a rat a day during my summer there. And that was just in the office not in the sewers. Ba dum ching.
3:37, looks like we have a winner for the D-Bag Post of the Day Award.
"Washington DC is a horrible place." [Only about 5 million people disagree with you.]
"Most of it is a war zone apart from NW. " [And McLean and Bethesda/Chevy Chase, only two of the nicest suburbs of any big city in the U.S. -- and, oh yeah, you can get downtown in about 15 minutes (try that in NYC). Too bad the public school systems in said suburbs are also routinely ranked as among the best in the country....same for the private schools.]
"It is segregated and full of federal office drones, everybody is the same." [Hmmm, "segregated" and "everybody is the same." Uhhh, okay...]
"It is hot as hell in the summer." [Wait a minute. You mean to tell me it is hot? In the summer? You don't say. It must be especially bad in August, when virtually everyone goes on vacation and isn't actually in the city.]
"The real estate is ridiculously expensive and the taxes are high." [True, perhaps everyone in DC should move to Florida, Texas or Nevada where they have no state income tax....is it hot in the summer there too?]
"I have no idea why anyone would want to live there." [Again, only about 5 million people disagree with you...]
Perhaps you can enlighten us as to which wonderful city, with no poor economic areas, a moderate climate, cheap real estate and low taxes you live in?
Crowell & Moring's segway tours = Epic douchiness.
too bad associates at weil's new york office still share offices. personally, i'd prefer my own office all day every day to some alone time at the nintendo store.
too bad associates at weil's new york office still share offices. personally, i'd prefer my own office all day every day to some alone time at the nintendo store.
@3:37 - and in what temperate Shangri-La do you reside, oh wise and powerful one? Please, do enlighten us.
F them. As someone who applied to many DC area firms for summer positions over each year of law school, all I can say is...I can't wait for my federal agency to school your overpaid brats in Court. F you Biglawfirms for overlooking Western state schools. Stupid poison ivy league.
Fingers crossed that 3:37 is Barak Obama.
@4:33:
Dude, I agree with you that 3:37 is an idiot.
But... Bethesda/Chevy Chase? McLean? Really? Affluent though they may be, I'd rather live in a Maytag box in SE before I ever took up residence in one of those suburban cesspools.
Did law school really suck that much soul out of you?
And 15 minutes from the burbs? Are we riding the same Metro?
Crowell and Moring = cruel and boring
Actually, some of the best material in the article come from the grossly misinformed comments of the summer associates themselves:
"I've always believed that when a person is committed to doing great work, the opportunities will always be there." -- Um, well, if you don't have the workload on which to do "great work," then it's hard to prove your worth. Of course, firms routinely evaluate whether their first-years are doing really excellent document review...
"Even though there's a downturn in the economy, [Sutherland] is doing their hiring for like 18 months down the line.... I would say there's not really a feeling of fear." This is the quintessential problem in a down market -- hiring for work that might exist, but does not currently exist. It bit people in the early 90s and the early 00s. Why are the late 00s any different? When revenues are down and PPPs are at risk, they will not still be committed to hiring 18 months down the line. They will hire (or fire) for their current needs, and pick up laterals or new associates when they actually have the need for them - a la 2004.
"At Columbia, they're pretty confident in telling us that we don't have to worry about getting work...." Oh really? I knew a lot of T10 grads without jobs in '02'-03 -- those who were told to show up late or never show up at all, or those who were later laid off. Including some from CU.
The same CU student publicly admits to considering legal academia, in-house work, or the federal government. Way to show your employer you're committee to being a firm associate! (Do law students ever consider what they're saying?)
5:19 = Post of the Year!
5:01, I'm not 3:37, but I know of this temperate Shangri-La, and her name is "San Francisco." Sure, she's expensive, and there are places I wouldn't walk alone in my French cuffs and cute Hermes ties (as there are in any city), but I don't know of a better work-life situation than the one I've been able to find here. Some days I get a little jealous of the NY & DC offices of the firms out here getting more of the "front page" work, but I solve that problem by leaving work at 6 or 7 in my convertible (oh, and I don't have to work with New Yorkers).
At the summer associate welcome reception last week, Warren Gorrell, chairman of Hogan & Hartson, told the summers that the last four months have been the busiest in firm history. He said that summers should know that they intend to make every summer associate a permanent offer at the end of the summer.
10:22 -- sometimes firm lie. Especially to summers. Shocker, I know.
A&P will make offers to everyone. They had a lot of associate departures over the last two years and need to re-stock after having smaller than usual summer classes the past few summers.
Who gives a shit how many lawyers Crowell and Whoring or wahetever has? It's an also-ran, average, nondescript third choice firm.
Ummm... I would take DC, market salary, and 1900 billables.