Firms Get Creative With Summer Associate Activities, While Fears of Downturn Persist
At first glance, things don’t appear so bad for summer associates. Some at the biggest law firms will be earning $3,000 a week. And record numbers were hired this year by law firms that did their recruiting months ago, before the economic downturn hit hardest.
And the law firms are still providing memorable activities for their new recruits, Legal Times reports.
The publication provides several examples. Summer associates at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York attended the play Thurgood about the late Justice Thurgood Marshall and met with its star, Laurence Fishburne. Weil, Gotshal & Manges is renting out an entire Nintendo store in New York for a summer associate Wii competition. Crowell & Moring’s summer associates in Washington, D.C., got a tour of the city while riding Segways. And Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C., will host a wine and cheese party where summers get a lesson from an artist in how to paint.
But talk of law firm layoffs and a poor economy are having a psychological effect on associates, one law school official tells Legal Times. Law students are “more thoughtful, more alert” about the job market, said Gihan Fernando, assistant dean of career services at Georgetown law school.
Carole Montgomery, who leads the career development office at George Washington law school, said some students are rethinking their career options. “All those ‘I can only go to a large law firm’ people” are starting to consider consider jobs in government or at smaller firms, she told Legal Times.
A few large law firms have cut their summer hiring, the story reports. They include McDermott Will & Emery, which hired 90 summer associates compared to 129 last year. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom hired 272 summer associates, compared to 321 last year. And Cadwalader hired only 58 summer associates, compared to 101 last year.
