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Hey guys,
I accepted a summer associate position with a large firm for next summer. I'm about to schedule courses for the spring semester and was wondering if anyone has suggestions regarding courses that will prep me well for the SA position. I am broadly interested in litigation and IP.

Thanks a lot.

Bring lube?

1) Find the 1L LRW materials and carefully read them through again.
2) Read a book on legal writing and polish up your writing and research skills.
3) Shred off some weight now, for you will gain a lot after the summer.
4) Keep a reasonable GPA because some firms look at your 2L grades before making you an offer.

Anonymous User wrote: 3) Shred off some weight now, for you will gain a lot after the summer.

From my friends who just finished summering, this is very very true. Firms will feed you around the clock with portions far larger then you are used to eating. My friend said that with midnight pizza delivered to the office on a regular basis at her job, it was hard not to gain.

Anonymous User wrote:Hey guys,
I accepted a summer associate position with a large firm for next summer. I'm about to schedule courses for the spring semester and was wondering if anyone has suggestions regarding courses that will prep me well for the SA position. I am broadly interested in litigation and IP.

Thanks a lot.

Civpro and whatever IP topic you might be doing. Also, make sure you're a bluebook master/make sure your legal writing is on point.

You'll learn certain areas of substantive law when you work, though, so you can't really anticipate most of that. For example, if you're doing patents, take patent law or any other patent lit-related classes you want. In your cases, you'll have issues that don't come up in a LS class, but having the basic fundamentals down helps to start down the legal research road.

Don't stress too much, however, since you'll be learning mostly on the job. I did patent lit last summer, and it was basically patent law and civpro. If I could have done anything different, I would've brushed up on my FRCP.

Mostly, however, I recommend relaxing and not worrying about your summer.

HTH

Start drinking more regularly to train your tolerance level. Definitely do your best to avoid drunken shenanigans at all costs.

How do you brush up on you're writing?

tlstlstls73 wrote:How do you brush up on you're writing?

too easy

Any suggestions how to improve research skills?

All this advice is dead wrong. Your strategy should be to come in and sandbag the first week and a half - look as clueless and inept as possible. Then all of a sudden start turning out grade-A shit, and the firm will be impressed at your "quick learning abilities" and "adaptability." Definite offer.

Anonymous User wrote:Any suggestions how to improve research skills?

Forum search. There's some good threads, but I'm too lazy to link them. Also, google was really helpful for me last year. Get started on improving those skillz by researching on how to improve those skillz, dooder.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: 3) Shred off some weight now, for you will gain a lot after the summer.

From my friends who just finished summering, this is very very true. Firms will feed you around the clock with portions far larger then you are used to eating. My friend said that with midnight pizza delivered to the office on a regular basis at her job, it was hard not to gain.

A summer working till midnight!? That's just stupid...what is associate life at a place like that like?

Aqualibrium wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: 3) Shred off some weight now, for you will gain a lot after the summer.

From my friends who just finished summering, this is very very true. Firms will feed you around the clock with portions far larger then you are used to eating. My friend said that with midnight pizza delivered to the office on a regular basis at her job, it was hard not to gain.

A summer working till midnight!? That's just stupid...what is associate life at a place like that like?

He/She will never find out. Working until midnight as an SA = personality/fit fail.

Things that I'm doing:
-Completing one lesson every day from "Plain English for Lawyers"
-Ordered a legal writing book which I plan on studying.
-Casually going through Strunk & White's Elements of Style
-Signed up for an advanced research class in the spring

Take a lexis and westlaw refresher, especially on cost effective tips
Try to work part-time as a research assistant (seriously helps research and writing skills)

solotee wrote:Things that I'm doing:
-Completing one lesson every day from "Plain English for Lawyers"
-Ordered a legal writing book which I plan on studying.
-Casually going through Strunk & White's Elements of Style
-Signed up for an advanced research class in the spring

Honestly, dont you think this is way too ambitious? I plan on just focusing on school and enjoying not worrying about a job...everything your going to need to know as a summer will be on the job.

Any opinions on whether "core" classes are actually helpful/necessary before a SA? (e.g. Corporations, Evidence, etc.) Thanks.

Maybe I'm underestimating the intensity of the summer experience, but I am primarily going to enjoy the next 1.75 years of law school and try to build up a reserve of mental health and happiness.

what if you're going into a SA and planning to solely focus on corporate/transactional work? Is the writing/research prep as necessary?

tfer2222 wrote:what if you're going into a SA and planning to solely focus on corporate/transactional work? Is the writing/research prep as necessary?

Probably not as much, but take securities reg, corporations, and/or secured lending, if you can. They provide helpful background.

MrKappus wrote:

tfer2222 wrote:what if you're going into a SA and planning to solely focus on corporate/transactional work? Is the writing/research prep as necessary?

Probably not as much, but take securities reg, corporations, and/or secured lending, if you can. They provide helpful background.

How much, if any, research/writing does a corporate/transactional associate actually do? Just curious.

tfer2222 wrote:

MrKappus wrote:

tfer2222 wrote:what if you're going into a SA and planning to solely focus on corporate/transactional work? Is the writing/research prep as necessary?

Probably not as much, but take securities reg, corporations, and/or secured lending, if you can. They provide helpful background.

How much, if any, research/writing does a corporate/transactional associate actually do? Just curious.

"More than 'none,' but less than litigation associates" is the only answer I can really give, based on my experience. A lot more of your work is diligence, (some) drafting, creating filings, etc. You still do some research occasionally (e.g., on a state's particular UCC filing requirements), but it doesn't dominate your workload the way it does for lit associates.

What is the difference between litigation work and transactional work? which is more interesting and why?

Litigation and transactional are terms of convenience. Law firms tend to have litigation and then "everything else."

Litigation deals with issues most likely to go to trial. It involves discovery, depositions, filing motions, settlement negotiations, etc. etc. and occasionally an actual trial. To me, the majority of tasks in litigation are hopelessly boring, monotonous, and often unnecessarily contentious. When you get your first discovery response that is 15,000 pages of emails and business documents, you'll know what I mean.

Transactional work is kind of short-hand for anything that isn't litigation. It may be ferrying money around during a merger of two large companies, or it may be doing a will for an old farmer. Saying you're interested in transactional work doesn't really narrow it down.

For Summer Associates, do you recommend us to focus on transactional work projects or litigation projects?

Which are harder to do?