Lawyer Development

An Unwavering Commitment to Lawyer Development

Orrick is committed to develop each associate who joins the firm with the knowledge, skills and characteristics essential to delivering outstanding advice and exceptional service to our clients. This commitment includes providing extensive training and resources, backed by clear professional development goals, to associates as they develop and manage their careers.

The tenor of Orrick's lawyer development efforts mirror the culture and core values of the firm. Our goal is to allow each individual's strengths to shine, and to ensure they have support in all areas. A core part of our lawyer development efforts is one-on-one coaching and mentoring. Partners and senior associates serve as coaches and mentors, providing valuable feedback and support to associates. In turn, new associates are expected to take an active role in the development of their own careers by seeking out advice, training and work experiences that will enhance their ability to be great lawyers.

Training & Support at Key Development Points

Orrick offers intensive training retreats at critical career transition points. To provide the support needed, we offer:

New Associate Orientation Retreat: Each Fall, first-year associates from all of Orrick's offices gather for a three-day comprehensive introduction to Orrick. Associates learn about our business and growth strategies, our culture and our practice areas. Professional training provides insights into key skills, including legal writing and professional communication, that will help first-year associates acclimate to law firm practice.
Midlevel Development Retreat: Each Spring, Orrick organizes a two-day retreat to help all fourth-year associates transition to more senior roles in the firm. Associates hear from firm leadership about career management topics including delegation and project management, understanding the business of law, client relationship management, and the path to partnership.

Practice Specific Opportunities

Each Orrick practice group supports its associates' training needs by offering a comprehensive legal skills and knowledge curriculum.

Practice Retreats: Associates are invited to participate in practice group retreats, which bring together lawyers from our various offices who are all focused on a specific area of practice. Practice group retreats are held approximately every two years and provide associates and partners with an opportunity to build relationships among the attorneys in the group, identify ways to collaborate, develop new business strategies and more. Often, the retreats include practice skills training, as well as information on industry and market trends to keep attorneys aware of key issues and trends in a given industry or practice area.
Practice Group Training: Each practice group offers comprehensive training programs which help associates develop the in-depth technical skills and knowledge needed to best serve our clients' needs. These programs are traditionally led by partners or senior associates and take place several times per month, particularly during the first-year of practice. We also offer more advanced training for midlevel and senior associates. Litigation associates, for example, participate in intensive, multi-day Motion Practice and Trial Advocacy seminars that Orrick offers in collaboration with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.

On-line and Public Resources

In addition to in-house training and development programs, Orrick provides associates with ready-access to online information and tools and to industry-leading public continuing education programs:

On-line Resources: Orrick provides unlimited access to over 7,000 On-Demand and Live Webcast programs from more than 90 distinguished local, state and national continuing legal education providers. Attorneys can participate in the programs whenever they have time and wherever they have access to the internet.
Public Resources: Orrick provides associates with unlimited access to training programs offered by Practicing Law Institute (PLI), an industry-leading provider of continuing education programs. PLI's extensive offerings allow attorneys to extend their training and development into areas of interest outside their specific practice area and easily fulfill state mandated CLE requirements.

Clear Expectations, Consistent Feedback

Clear communication of expectations—from individual performance today to areas of future professional growth—is a fundamental part of every lawyer's career development at Orrick. We review practice group specific performance benchmarks with each lawyer, outlining the knowledge, skills and work experiences associates are expected to master at the junior associate, midlevel associate and senior associate levels. In addition, our mentoring program in each office provides associates the opportunity to build professional work relationships with colleagues who can guide and assist each associate's professional development and understanding of Orrick's unique culture, values, processes, expectations, and vision.

Outlining expectations is only the start. We also believe strongly that meaningful, timely feedback is a critical component for every attorney's professional development. In addition to annual performance evaluations for all associates, fourth-year and seventh-year associates participate in a Career Development Review. During the Career Development Review, associates describe their evolving sub-specialty areas and work experiences, identify priority growth areas and describe their plans to address these growth areas. As part of the Career Development Review, associates meet privately with their practice group leader (or a designee) to discuss how best to address their professional development goals and to identify development priorities for the coming year.

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