U.S. Summer Program

"If your goals as a Summer Associate are (1) to find a fabulous work environment, (2) full of friendly and supportive coworkers, (3) where you can do cutting-edge legal work, then Orrick is a check, check and check!"

–Alexandra Stathopoulos, Berkeley 2012
Orrick Summer Associate

Experience Orrick

We want our summer associates to consider the summer program the start of their career with Orrick. Our goal is to immerse you in the firm and provide a straightforward look at our work, our people, our culture and our clients.

Our summer program runs from late May through July, and we provide law students with an opportunity to experience a realistic view of associate life at our law firm. We keep our summer associate classes small in order to provide focused and personal attention, practical training, varied assignments, extensive feedback and hands-on experience with real client matters, topped off with a variety of great social events.

Work Assignments

As a summer associate, you will have the opportunity to do substantive associate work and will be assigned to projects that allow you to hone your research and drafting skills. You will also have opportunities that will get you out of the office to observe our attorneys doing what they do best—interacting with clients and other counsel at client meetings, court proceedings, depositions, hearings and negotiations.

Training

Our summer training program is comprehensive and includes formal training sessions as well as opportunities to learn while working aside great lawyers who are experts in their areas.

The training highlight of our summer program is a two-day development retreat. This retreat brings together summer associates, partners and associates from many offices and gives summer associates the opportunity to engage in intensive training workshops focused on skills that are critical for a junior lawyer. As part of the retreat, you will participate in workshops that focus on writing and professional business communication, hear from firm leaders about their experiences and their advice on what it takes to be successful in today�s legal environment, and meet with a panel of clients, many of whom are firm alumni, who will share their insights on client expectations of junior associates and, more broadly, of their outside counsel.

One of the unique aspects of our training program is that all summer associates have access to our full-time, in-house Legal Writing Instructor. Summer associates can meet with this resource to receive one-on-one, specific coaching that will help you enhance your writing skills.

Feedback and Evaluations

Our firmwide commitment to provide associates with robust and timely feedback starts with our summer program. For many summer associates, working in a law firm is a new experience, and you won't get the maximum benefit unless we provide you with honest and timely feedback on your work. You should receive feedback from each assigning attorney on every assignment, and we will do our best to ensure that attorneys are giving you that input. In addition, you will have the benefit of detailed mid-summer and end-of-summer evaluations with guidance to help you improve and flourish as you progress through the summer.

Mentoring

Like evaluations and feedback, mentoring is an important facet of life and work at Orrick. The summer program provides you with an introduction to our mentoring program. Each summer associate is assigned at least one mentor who will help guide you throughout the summer program. Outside of our formal mentoring program, we also encourage you to develop informal mentoring relationships with other Orrick lawyers.

Fun

New York Summers Enjoying Pizza

We provide many opportunities for summer associates to meet our lawyers and staff in a variety of social settings. Previous activities have included cooking classes, beach parties, dinners with partners in their homes, baseball games, video game competitions, surf trips, museum tours and a number of informal, impromptu events during evenings and weekends.