Biglaw

Thanks To COVID-19, Biglaw Summer Associates Are Very Concerned About Job Security, Money

What matters most to summer associates? Here's some insight.

By  
on

The summer of 2020 was pretty strange for summer associates. Thanks to the coronavirus crisis, law students who normally would have been wined and dined by their Biglaw firms all summer long instead found themselves at home, anxiously experiencing law firm life through their computer screens. But for all that was unusual about this past summer, law students made the most of it. According to a new survey from the American Lawyer, this year’s crop of summer associates were generally satisfied with their virtual experiences in Biglaw. One summer associate at an Am Law 50 firm perfectly summarized law students’ experience in this sentence: “It was the best you could do in this situation.”

So, which Biglaw firms were on top during COVID-19’s summer of sadness? Unfortunately, the summer associate program rankings are yet another thing that the novel coronavirus has taken from us. Although there is no formal ranking this year, the following firms stood out above the rest in the minds of summer associates:

  • Proskauer Rose
  • Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
  • Shearman & Sterling
  • Dorsey & Whitney
  • Clifford Chance

So, what were this year’s summers most concerned about, all things COVID considered? It’s all about the money, honey (and mental health, too). After having witnessed their programs be shortened and austerity measures rolled out across the Biglaw landscape, about half (48.4 percent) of the 2,500 summers polled by Am Law said job security was their top concern. (Last year, summers cared the most about work-life balance. It’s nice to remember when things were so simple, isn’t it?)

Some summers were properly peeved that their paychecks were discounted based on their shortened programs because they were “counting on being paid” for the full length of the program — after all, other firms did paid full freight, despite cutting weeks from their summers’ schedules.

“This probably saved them some money (and maybe they needed it), but after talking with the other summers, I think most of us were really financially hurt by this. Overall, I am not sure that move was worth it because it really hurt the summers financially and it hurt their confidence in the firm,” the associate continued.

That sentiment played out in respondents’ assessments of their firms’ finances. Most of those assessments were glowing. But summers who faced pay cuts had a gloomier perspective. Some saw the reduced compensation as a reflection of their firm’s ability to weather a storm—or, in this case, a pandemic.

On top of pay issues, summer associates were having trouble staying busy. Not only were their hours down — they worked 42 hours a week and billed 20 hours on average, compared to last year, when they worked 43 hours a week and billed 24 hours on average — but the quality of the work just wasn’t up to snuff. Summers were not only working virtually, but they were doing simulated work on fake deals. Why’s that? To protect associate hours. Eeek.

Sponsored

Next up, we’ve got mental health, which is an understandable concern for people who were working alone and feeling isolated during a pandemic. Around 48 percent of respondents said they were concerned about their mental health, up from 39 percent last year. Thankfully, summer associates say their firms have taken their mental health seriously and given it proper focus during these tough times. Seventy-one percent said that mental health seemed like a priority at their firms during the pandemic (up from 63 percent last year).

What do these Biglaw firms have in store for their 2020 summers — most of whom have already received offers of permanent employment — in the future? COVID-19 isn’t quite done with the legal profession yet, so we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, congratulations to all of the firms that earned the respect and appreciation of their summer associates.

‘The Best You Could Do’: Summer Associates Rate Their Unusual, COVID-Influenced Experiences [American Lawyer]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , ,