Summer associates have left the warm embrace of — well, I was going to say lengthy lunches and baseball games, but with COVID who knows what programs do anymore? In any event, students are returning the reality of watching their student debt pile up as they sit through “Law and French Impressionism” until they can start studying for the bar exam. How did the 2021 edition of the COVID summer program turn out for everyone? Law360 Pulse just released the second part of its Summer Associate Survey this morning and it breaks down the season with the help of 751 summer associate respondents.
Law360 did this survey in two parts, with a spring installment that asked law students about the upcoming summer before it even started. At the time, summers really wished they’d get in to Latham, Kirkland, and Skadden in order. After going through the programs, there’s a new top 30 of firm summer programs as ranked by associates. Here’s the top 10:
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Absent from that list are Latham, Kirkland, and Skadden. Looks like those MoFos know how to run a program.
It’s good to see my old firm setting up in that number 2 slot. It’s been a while since Cleary hosted Aquagirl and that’s still the top story people think of when it comes to the program. Hopefully this can change the narrative a bit and remind people that the Financial District can still provide a great summer experience without involving the Coast Guard.
That said, the respondents might not be seeing the full picture all that well:
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Hilarious. It’s not that the summer program doesn’t expose you to good work and get you prepared to effectively contribute to a high end legal team, it’s that it gives you one or two of those projects when your career will involve you doing 12 of them simultaneously. I’m confident that 86 percent of respondents didn’t think about that.
This is the saddest takeaway from the COVID summer experience. We’re big believers in the legal industry adopting hybrid work models that take advantage of tech infrastructure, but this is what’s missing from a true in-person working world. Hearings and depositions don’t always need to be held in-person, but as a learning experience, remote versions of these crucible events don’t really get the job done. The idea that almost half of all summers never went to anything like this is just sad.
As for social time, the survey finds people were about equally split on whether or not the whole experience amounted to “fun.”
That’s not encouraging. Surveys like these haven’t always existed, but I think historically one would find 60 to 70 percent of respondents in the generally fun camp. Hopefully 2022 can be a bit more positive for everyone.
There’s a lot more in this report too, so check it out.
These Firms Won Over Their Summer Associates [Law360 Pulse]
Earlier: What Summer Associates Are Saying About The 2021 Program
Joe 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.