This year was an excellent year to be a summer associate. In early June, Cravath raised associate starting salaries to $180,000, and Paul Weiss applied the raise to summer associates. In short order, many other firms followed, paying their summers around $3,500 a week for the privilege of going to lunches at nice restaurants and otherwise having fun. (For the full tally of firms paying summer associates at the new going rate, see our Biglaw salary scorecard.)
Did Biglaw firms scale back on summer events to cover the pay raises? Anecdotal evidence suggests they did not. As far as we can tell, summer programs at law firms were just as much fun as they’ve always been.
But let’s hear from you, our readers, to get the inside scoop. It’s time for Above the Law’s annual summer associate event contest.
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Last year, Quinn Emanuel trounced the competition by taking summer associates on an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy. But now that Quinn has scaled back its summer program in favor of recruiting 3Ls and law clerks — which it woos with signing bonuses of $35,000 and $75,000, respectively — there’s an opening for another firm to take the crown.
So which law firm put on the best summer associate event of 2016? Please send your nominations to us by email (subject line: “Summer Associate Event Contest”) or by text message (646-820-8477, including the words “Summer Associate Event Contest” somewhere in your text).
We keep our tipsters anonymous. We’ll collect the best entries, let you vote on them in a reader poll, and then crown the best summer associate event of 2016. We look forward to reading all of your submissions!
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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 [email protected].