Professional Development
We are dedicated to investing in our associates’ careers and have committed substantial resources toward this end. A key element of this investment is McDermott University. Through McDermott University, the firm supports a 4-fold coordinated effort to promote quality and excellence: 1.) departmental core skills, 2.) training 3.) mentoring, and 4.) individual career plans.
Core Skills - The identification of core skills by each department and the Firm as a whole provides a roadmap of skills and proficiencies that associates and partners can follow in their career development. They include:
- Substantive core skills related to practice area
- Professional skills
- Management skills
- Leadership skills
- Client relationship skills
Training - McDermott University offers a wide variety of training on essential substantive knowledge and legal skills both fundamental and highly specialized. This training is aligned with the Firm's and each department's core skills. Many of the programs are taught by our own lawyers, who bring a wealth of experience to the table. We also engage outside consultants for a variety of specialized programs, including deposition and advanced advocacy skills training, writing seminars, presentation and public speaking workshops and financial skills programs.
To reach its global audience, the Firm maintains an electronic Professional Development Calendar to which all our lawyers have access. McDermott also uses numerous forms of program delivery: live, videoconference, Webinar, DVD, video, and audiotape.
Mentoring - McDermott believes that integration into the Firm from the outset is critical to each lawyer's success. To assure that this takes place, each associate is assigned a mentor upon arrival at the Firm and both mentors and mentees are trained in the mentoring process. Unlike many mentoring programs, ours has structure. Joint activities are planned for mentors and proteges as to goal setting and career development planning.
Career Development Plans - Career development plans are becoming a key tool used by our lawyers to assist them in monitoring their development. Mentors work with associates to develop career plans which department leaders review with them semi-annually. Our lawyers receive group training and one-on-one coaching to assist them in the development of their career plans.
First-Year Associate Orientation and Integration Program - We conduct a Firm-wide orientation for first-year associates. The orientation provides practical information to ease the transition from law student to lawyer. The program offers preliminary departmental training to help associates hit the ground running and it helps foster a collegial atmosphere for building personal and professional relationships with colleagues from around our Firm.
The integration efforts continue long after the orientation is concluded. Additional Firm-wide and office-based programs cover a variety of practical topics, from accepting assignments to working with support staff to conducting legal research and handling conflicts and ethics issues.