Biglaw

Are Firms Radically Cutting Back On Summer Programs?

A tip about summer lunches could portend dark times for summer fun.

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Summer programs go through some degree of ebb and flow. A few summers of wild bacchanalia are generally followed by a few more button-down years. There are some good reasons to keep things more reserved — “boozefests” can play to the worst impulses of law firm culture, even if firms are taking it way too far in response. But generally speaking, the health of Biglaw can be traced by its approach to the summer.

When things are looking up, firms spare no expense to match hard work with hard play. The festivities are as much about the firm’s full-timers as they are the summers: it’s the party the attorneys earned over the last year of hard work. When the outlook is more gloomy, summer programs put a cap on things — there’s not much to celebrate and the summers are just happy to be given a shot.

An unconfirmed report suggests that at least one elite law firm is in the latter camp:

[Biglaw Firm] has canceled associate budgets for summer student lunches. Now, the only way an associate can have a paid lunch with a Summer student is if there is a partner present…CHEAP!!

So, the good news for partners is there’s a pretty clear path to earning the eternal loyalty of your favorite associates.

Still, this is a frustrating level of nickel and diming. Firms don’t need to be springing for lavish four-star meals every day, but associates being able to treat summers to a mid-range lunch once or twice a week without breaking the bank. A summer going out every single day amounts to, at worst, an additional 5 percent expenditure over what they’re getting paid already. Considering they’re more likely only going out one or two times, it’s a pittance.

Partners aren’t always free for lunches and, frankly, having “management” at lunches during the recruiting season isn’t necessarily productive. A lot of the value of summer lunches comes in building bonds with soon-to-be peers and having the freedom to ask questions about the firm that one might not be willing to ask with a partner in the room.

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Are other firms following this more reserved path? Is something rotten at the top of the legal industry that the revenue numbers aren’t quite telling us?

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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