From your experience, is it common for SA's to be expected to come in on a weekend? How often are summers unable to leave office at a reasonable time (6-6:30 pm) on Friday? Are social events typically scheduled on Friday nights or weekends?

I plan to go out of town on at least 3-4 weekends this summer, so I'm somewhat worried about conflicts with work.

Depends a lot on your firm. At some firms I've talked to, summer associates rarely, if ever, come in on weekends. At another, the rep bragged that she worked every single weekend of the summer, including on the 4th of July.

From what I understand, this both firm and practice group specific. A friend in a V25 said he was never there after 630 because he was in antitrust (slow) but that a classmate of ours in international arbitration was there until 1130, six days a week. Just keep your plans flexible. This is an 70 day job interview and being the guy who refuses weekend work because he has a vacation planned is at the top of the list for no-offers.

Sucks for that guy/girl, but in my experience it's pretty unusual. No one in my summer class came in on a weekend, and with one or two exceptions we were out by 6:30/7 every day. We were expected to check email/BB over the weekend and maybe put in a couple hours remotely if we were behind on an assignment, but this could be done from anywhere. Firm events were never scheduled on weekends.

OP: just give them (your recruiting contact) notice of your plans in advance, and explain that you will be available by email and to update assignments remotely if needed. They aren't going to no-offer you because you were out of town on Saturday.

My experience, which I felt was pretty typical, was that I ended up doing 4-5 hours of work on two weekends throughout the summer. Both weekends, I was not necessarily forced to come in, but rather that I would rather have come in on the weekend rather than stay really late on Thursday and Friday.

It varies though. If you are on a live deal that's close to closing, you could be in the office for 3-4 consecutive weekends (rare). Other SAs never came in on weekends.

Higher likelihood with corporate than litigation, and higher likelihood with M&A or cap markets than other practice groups.

Keep in mind that some firms schedule events for weekends. I know that my firm has two, and possibly, three events scheduled on Saturday or Sunday for this upcoming summer.

I had two weekends out of 10 with firm social events. I went out of town four of the other weekends. My firm told us pretty much the whole summer schedule in March though, so that made it easier.

What time did you all get to work on weekdays usually? According to Chambers, associates at the firm where I'll be this summer come in between 8:30-10:00. Should I expect to be there by 8:30, or do SA's have the same flexibility?

Edited to clarify that I was referring to weekdays, since the thread title references weekends.

9:30 is the pretty standard time, but if you're working for a partner that gets in earlier and wants to get a hold of you, you should be there earlier as well.

. . . Says the 1L.

Lol, because 1Ls never have any experience prior to lawl skool.

You're an idiot. Also, anon abuse.

Too bad you're still wrong.

How so? Obviously it depends on the firm.

Except that he isn't. Most attorneys arrive somewhere between 8:30 and 9:30 around here. Earlier if you have court, since that usually starts at 9:00.

It depends on the program, but you generally match your schedule to the person you report to.

His amendment was correct. It largely depends on the firm. In my market, most attorneys roll in between 10 and 1030.

The person I "report to" comes in a solid three hours before I do. Neither she nor anyone cares.

alright moron, explain how I came in at 10 am everyday and still got an offer with rave reviews in NYC

Who is this directed toward?

not you

1. Perhaps because it is largely city, firm, group, partner, caseload dependent, and your NYC firm's corp's partner's caseload this summer happened not to require you into work until 10 am everyday?
2. I merely pointed out that 1Ls/2Ls shouldn't be doling out SA-related information when they haven't yet had an SA. These boards are extremely helpful when not based on speculation or hearsay.
3. Congrats on the offer.

The only times that I ever worked on the weekend I did it from home, and only for a few hours; I also didn't do it every weekend.

Moreover, I know for a fact my firm didn't expect SAs to show up on the weekend, and I actually imagine they wouldn't have wanted us to. Now, we're a more "life-stylish" firm in the V100 (if that's at all possible), but even then, I just don't think many firms are going to expect you to put in long hours on the weekend, at the office.

Obviously it depends on the firm, and on the particular assignment, but it's not the usual practice.

What about hours at secondary market biglaw? Obviously weekends are even less likely, but is a 9-6 schedule fairly standard? Anyone have any anecdotes?

Except there's a handful of 1Ls and 2Ls who have already had an SA. There are several people in my section alone who had 0L SAs and I know several people (on TLS and at school) who have already locked down SAs for 1L summer.

Associates might roll in between 10 and 10:30 because they have been working late so their day goes from 10am to 8pm or later(or because they have appointments in the morning before work.) I don't think an SA should count on doing this. If you are only there for the summer you should be as visible as possible at the firm. I would even take a couple of laps around the halls in the morning to get coffee, whatever, so that the early working people might at least see you are in.

Lots of associates have weekend places to go, or summer shares, so not everyone is in every weekend. I don't think an SA should bother to come in unless they absolutely need to - you need to enjoy the summer too.