Summer Associate Program Overview
McDermott Will & Emery's summer program is one of the most important aspects of our hiring effort and we take great pride in providing a terrific summer experience to law students year after year. Each fall, the overwhelming majority of our entering first-year associate class is comprised of law students who began their careers at McDermott as summer associates.
Our 2007 Summer Program was tremendously successful with offers extended to approximately 98% of our summer class. Our goal is to support the Firm's steady growth in each of its offices. As a result, we have 86 summer associates in our 2008 Firmwide Summer Program. Our goal is to extend offers to every qualified Summer Associate.
To read about what our summer associates have to say about their McDermott Summer Program experience, click here.
Our program offers summer associates a realistic introduction to the practice of law and day-to-day life as an McDermott associate. The summer associate program provides meaningful responsibility and feedback that is consistent with a junior associate experience. Summer associates are encouraged to indicate a practice area of interest, yet are welcome to accept assignments from other departments. In certain McDermott offices, summer associates rotate through our major practice areas. Summer associates receive formal feedback during a mid-summer evaluation and a final review, in addition to informal feedback.
Each summer associate is assigned at least one mentor to provide guidance throughout the summer, explain Firm policies, address any questions or concerns and to assist in the transition from law school to life in a law firm.
We offer a variety of educational opportunities to our summer associates through the McDermott University Summer Academy. These training opportunities are supplemental by including summer associates in departmental and office-wide training programs and other hands-on educational experiences such as court visits and attendance at client meetings and governmental proceedings.
The summer program also provides summer associates the opportunity to meet attorneys in all departments through a variety of social events. These events enable our summer associates to set the foundation for our summer associates for what will become long-term relationships with their fellow Summer Associates and McDermott lawyers.
One of the unique aspects of McDermott's summer program is the Summer Associate Retreat. All of our firmwide summer associates travel to one of McDermott's offices for a three day Retreat where they have the opportunity to attend McDermott University Summer Academy programs, meet the Firm's leadership and spend time getting to know each other. This year, the retreat was held in Washington, D.C. from July 10-13. For more information about the Summer Associate Retreat, click here.
We look forward to discussing McDermott and our summer program further with you.