Biglaw

Top Firm To Pay Senior Associates Full Biglaw Salaries For Working In Yearlong Justice Fellowships

Orrick is really putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to racial and social justice.

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We wanted to do more than write a check. We asked ourselves what we could be doing. And pretty quickly we defaulted to the concept of partnering with organizations that were experts in facilitating change.

We saw the richness of the experience they had to learn and grow as lawyers and to learn more directly from organizations we admire. It is easy for organizations, in the moment, to make a commitment and close it over time. We wanted to make a lasting difference that was financially meaningful, had the energy required to make change and to give some of our best people the chance to be part of a new public-private partnership and have a real impact in the community.

— Mitch Zuklie, chairman and CEO of Orrick, commenting on the firm’s Racial, Social & Economic Justice Fellowship Program, during an interview with the American Lawyer. For the past year, six senior Orrick associates have worked as fellows at Howard University’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center, NYU Law’s Policing Project, the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Common Future, and A New Way of Life, all while earning their full Biglaw salaries and bonuses. Orrick is the first Biglaw firm to run any kind of full-salaried program like this, and recently decided to extend its fellowship initiative for the next three years.

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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