The Best Summer Associate Programs -- Both For Fun Times And For Training

Summer programs have different purposes, and different firms excel at each.

happy young lawyers summer associates junior associatesIt’s Biglaw right before the start of on-campus interview season, and there’s a whole lot of ranking going on. Yesterday we brought you rankings for quality of life and for family friendliness — to the extent that these things exist in Biglaw.

There’s no questioning the premise of this next ranking: a list of the best summer associate programs, based on both fun times and training. (Okay, I suppose one could question the “training” provided to summer associates — it’s hard to fit professional development into a busy schedule of Taylor Swift concerts and trips to Italy — but suspend your skepticism long enough to finish reading this post.)

The good folks over at Vault just issued their latest ranking of summer programs. Here are the winners:

In addition to its top position as the Best Firm to Work For, O’Melveny & Myers is also the new No. 1 firm in Vault’s Best Summer Associate Program ranking, moving up one spot from its second place finish last year. Vault asked first- through third-year associates who had worked as summer associates at their current firms to rate the program both in terms of how well it prepared them for full-time practice and how much fun they had; the average of these two scores determined which firms ranked on the Best Overall Summer Associate Programs list. Former O’Melveny summer associates noted that the “summer program was amazing” and while it was “really fun,” the firm “also went out of its way to give summer associates meaningful assignments.”

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has been voted as having the Summer Associate Program that Best Prepares for Practice. One Orrick associate reported: “The work assignments slowly built up over the summer. They started as fairly discrete tasks, but by the end we were directly interfacing with clients and running deals and projects (under the supervision of our mentors).”

Shook, Hardy & Bacon repeats as the No. 1 firm with the Most Fun Summer Associate Program. One Shook Hardy associate told Vault: “Our summer program is simply unmatched,” adding that incorporate the program encourages “camaraderie among not only summer associates, but associates and partners alike.”

Congratulations to O’Melveny, Orrick, and Shook Hardy. But a question for Shook Hardy: will it be increasing the bacon that its summer (and full-time) associates take home? It’s not reasonable to expect the Kansas City-based firm to adopt the full Cravath scale, but some more modest pay hike might be in order. (Feel free to email us or text us (646-820-8477) with any info about SHB’s pay plans.)

And congrats to all the other law firms with top 10 summer programs, per Vault:

1. O’Melveny (up from #2)
2. Choate Hall & Stewart (up from not ranked)
3. Orrick (up from not ranked)
4. Foley Hoag (down from #1)
5. Kaye Scholer (up from #11)
6. Akin Gump (up from #10)
7. Fried Frank (up from #14)
8. Shook Hardy (up from #18)
9. Paul Hastings (down from #3)
10. Ropes & Gray (up from #15)

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How did your firm fare? Vault ranks a total of 50 Biglaw summer programs; check out the full list here.

2017 Best Summer Associate Programs [Vault]
50 Best Summer Associate Programs [Vault]

Earlier: Is Your Firm On The ‘Most Fun’ Summer Programs List? (2015)
The Law Firms Where Summer Associates Have The Most Fun (2015)
The Best Law Firms To Work For: Biglaw ‘Quality Of Life’ Rankings
The Top 10 Most Family-Friendly Law Firms (2016)


David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

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