Summer associate perks proliferate; pay is $3,000 a week at some firms
Summer associates at the nation’s major law firms are earning $3,000 a week while being treated to special events such as chartered helicopter tours, disc jockey lessons, cooking classes, museum nights and baseball games.
The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) spoke with associates and law firms to learn what they are doing this year. Some of the findings:
• Summer associates at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, spent a weekend kayaking, hiking and biking on California’s Monterey Peninsula. They also were treated to a day of games and food at AT&T Park in San Francisco, rented for the occasion when the Giants were out of town.
• At Chadbourne & Parke, summer associates attended a concert by the Dave Matthews Band and went bowling at Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers.
• At Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia, associates went to sports events, cocktail parties and museum nights. They also played a game called Escape the Room in which they couldn’t leave a locked room until they found and solved hidden clues.
• Paul Hastings gets to know its summer associates with a Facebook page posing questions such as, “If you were a superhero, what power would you most like to have?”
Christopher Boyd, senior director of professional services at Wilson Sonsini, told the Wall Street Journal that the fun and games are part of a “nine-week job interview—for both sides.”
