No Apprenticeship Trend Yet, Although Law Firms with Programs Report Success
Frost Brown Todd partner Chris Habel is a big fan of his firm’s new yearlong apprenticeship program that pays new associates reduced salaries of $80,000 while they focus on training and client interaction.
“It’s turned out fabulously, to be honest,” Habel tells the National Law Journal. “The clients understand that we are trying to improve the legal profession, and the partners have been happy with it.”
That enthusiasm isn’t rubbing off on other law firms. So far, only five have announced apprenticeship programs, and all of them are either regional or litigation-oriented firms, the National Law Journal reports. No large general practice or white-shoe firm has jumped on the bandwagon, the story says.
Habel, who chairs Frost Brown’s attorney advancement committee, says 23 new associates in the firm’s program took starting pay reduced by $20,000 to participate. Frost Brown is one of three law firms that announced apprenticeship programs last year. All report success, and all plan to continue their programs this year.
The National Law Journal spoke with Habel and lawyers from the two other firms. They are Howrey, which is paying 24 first-year associates $125,000 rather than $160,000 in a two-year apprenticeship program, and Drinker Biddle & Reath, paying 37 associates $105,000 rather than $145,000 or $160,000 in a six-month program. Two smaller firms—Ford & Harrison and Strasburger & Price—created apprenticeship programs in 2007.
Partners told the NLJ they are pleased with associates’ progress, while associates said they are getting a better understanding of law practice and what clients want. Client interaction is a priority in all three programs, the story says. At Frost Brown, Chad Eckhardt spends three days a week working in the legal department of a Cincinnati-area health system. “This is the practical stuff you don’t get in law school,” he told the NLJ.
There is at least one downside—the costs of running the programs. Partners loose billable hours as they train new associates, while firms bill at lower rates or don’t charge at all for associate work. There are also fears that reduced salaries will hurt recruiting when the economy picks up.
Habel, however, sees an upside. “Because we’ve had first-year associates sitting in client offices on secondments, that’s generating work for us,” he told the NLJ. “This is an investment by the firm.”
