Life as a Summer Associate

[JDat45]

$3100 if you go to a good school.

$500-$750/wk for the less exalted.

Um, no....unless it was only a few hours a day.

We're talking about summer between 2L & 3L, right?  If we are, the high numbers are realistic for only the upper echelon, the well-connected, and maybe a few people who are very highly motivated despite their average grades/school. Run-of-the-mill 2L summer positions - the ones most law students have and don't talk much about - pay $15-20/hr maybe with some regional variance.  After taxes/ss, they clear $500-$750/wk or so for fulltime work.   Students outside of the very best schools and without excellent connections should not count on making much more; very few of them will.  Of course, that doesn't mean that it's impossible and that you shouldn't try.

Wow at the disparity, but ok, thanks for the info.

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

$3100 if you go to a good school.

$500-$750/wk for the less exalted.

Um, no....unless it was only a few hours a day.

We're talking about summer between 2L & 3L, right?  If we are, the high numbers are realistic for only the upper echelon, the well-connected, and maybe a few people who are very highly motivated despite their average grades/school. Run-of-the-mill 2L summer positions - the ones most law students have and don't talk much about - pay $15-20/hr maybe with some regional variance.  After taxes/ss, they clear $500-$750/wk or so for fulltime work.   Students outside of the very best schools and without excellent connections should not count on making much more; very few of them will.  Of course, that doesn't mean that it's impossible and that you shouldn't try.

Wow at the disparity, but ok, thanks for the info.

I'll add that the standard is $3100/wk depending upon the CITY.  School and grades obviously play a part as well.

If, for example, you go to top notch Wash U in St. Louis and go to work for the best firms in Missouri the standard market rate is $2100/wk.

In the larger cities (NY, Chi, LA, SF) the same firm pays $3100/wk.

But understand that when we had a good economy, only 25% of all law students across the country were actually selected to work for big market rate firms.  The other 75% were not. With today's economy, who knows that figure looks like now. 

I don't know a single law firm, even here in NYC, that didn't decrease their summer intern pool significantly for next year....so I'd guess that the 25% figure is more like 15% for the class of '09 and beyond...at least until the economy is turned around anyway.

[Special Agent Dana Scully]

started work today...exciting but still nerve wracking.

[AgreeToDisagree]

Congrats.

[A.]

Any real work going around?  What's the lunch limit?

[Special Agent Dana Scully]

Any real work going around?  What's the lunch limit?

i dunno about "real" work...my first assignment is a survey.

lunch limit is (i think) $60 per person, once a week.  i don't know how much movement there is with that though.

[A.]

Well, ITE, I'd say that's pretty good

[Top Cat]

I stumbled across this thread, and I think it is a really good one.  For those of you who have been through the summer associate process, could you describe it?  I understand that there is a lot of doc review and research, but what kind of hours did you keep?  How were you treated?  If offered a job, how was it offered?  How did you find out you had the summer job in the first place?  Any insight would be very helpful.

[A.]

Doc review as a summer?  I should hope not...run away from that job.

2Ls get the jobs typically through on-campus interviews.  1Ls typically blanket firms with resumes and participate in a limited OCI.

Offers come (you hope) at the end of the summer...method varies by firm.

[TruOne]

Offers come (you hope) at the end of the summer...method varies by firm.

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