About how many hours do you work as a Summer Associate? Forum

[BeautifulDidem]

on a weekly basis?

[Anonymous User]

Depends completely on the firm. I probably did only 20-25 hours of billable work each week, which was mostly work a secretary could do. My summer program was essentially a paid vacation.

[ph14]

on a weekly basis?

Generally hours are something like 9:00-9:30 am (depends on market and firm) to 5:30-7:30 pm. It's not uncommon to have afterwork social events as well. And it's not uncommon to have to stay later than that if you get work late in the day. But if you manage your workflow in a reasonable manner, it's not hard to get out at a good hour. My firm also often encouraged me not to stay late, and especially not stay late for the sake of staying late.

[Omerta]

My lowest week was in the mid-40s. My highest week was in the high 80s. That's not really representative though because I "billed" time for recruiting activities, so if we had an all-day recruiting event it showed up as a 14 hour day. Billables isn't the greatest category to use either because you get stuffed with lots of non-billable stuff sometimes (just as a function of workflow).

I'd say I spent roughly 9.5 hours a day working, with the rest being recruiting stuff. I only had to work on one weekend (and only for like 5 hours), though I did work through lunch multiple times.

[BeautifulDidem]

Depends completely on the firm. I probably did only 20-25 hours of billable work each week, which was mostly work a secretary could do. My summer program was essentially a paid vacation.

SWEET GIG!!!

[BeautifulDidem]

on a weekly basis?

Generally hours are something like 9:00-9:30 am (depends on market and firm) to 5:30-7:30 pm. It's not uncommon to have afterwork social events as well. And it's not uncommon to have to stay later than that if you get work late in the day. But if you manage your workflow in a reasonable manner, it's not hard to get out at a good hour. My firm also often encouraged me not to stay late, and especially not stay late for the sake of staying late.

That seems realistic to what I have heard of on TLS thus far from 1st year associates...I think. Are these hours similar to what 1st year Associates work, or are they longer?

[BeautifulDidem]

My lowest week was in the mid-40s. My highest week was in the high 80s. That's not really representative though because I "billed" time for recruiting activities, so if we had an all-day recruiting event it showed up as a 14 hour day. Billables isn't the greatest category to use either because you get stuffed with lots of non-billable stuff sometimes (just as a function of workflow).

I'd say I spent roughly 9.5 hours a day working, with the rest being recruiting stuff. I only had to work on one weekend (and only for like 5 hours), though I did work through lunch multiple times.

Is that similar to what 1st year Associates work?

[Detrox]

I echo the sentiment that it was very close to a paid vacation (except for maybe one week of almost real work). 1st year associates made sure to dispel us of any belief that full time would be in anyway similar except for the sweet food.

[BeautifulDidem]

I echo the sentiment that it was very close to a paid vacation (except for maybe one week of almost real work). 1st year associates made sure to dispel us of any belief that full time would be in anyway similar except for the sweet food.

Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

May I ask what kind of work everyone did? I'm just wondering what kind of assignments are typical. I imagine it's things like memos, but can anyone recall, for example, a specific memo topic they were given?

[Anonymous User]

(1) I was at work from around 9:30 to 7:30-8:30 (not in NYC). I occasionally left earlier (particularly on Fridays) or later (particularly when we had social events). I was generally the last summer in and the last summer out.
(2) My workload was about a third billable, a third non-billable client development or research projects, and a third pro bono. Work product was almost always in the form of a memo on a discrete legal topic (or an email if the question was particularly simple), although I occasionally was asked to draft short articles.
(3) I was told that my schedule as a summer would not be too different from an associate's most of the time , but that I would inevitably work more weekends, take more work home, do more fire drills/100 hour weeks before trial, etc.

[BeautifulDidem]

(1) I was at work from around 9:30 to 7:30-8:30 (not in NYC). I occasionally left earlier (particularly on Fridays) or later (particularly when we had social events). I was generally the last summer in and the last summer out.
(2) My workload was about a third billable, a third non-billable client development or research projects, and a third pro bono. Work product was almost always in the form of a memo on a discrete legal topic (or an email if the question was particularly simple), although I occasionally was asked to draft short articles.
(3) I was told that my schedule as a summer would not be too different from an associate's most of the time , but that I would inevitably work more weekends, take more work home, do more fire drills/100 hour weeks before trial, etc.

That is very insightful.

Thanks for posting

[Anonymous User]

For future reference, http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=189981

But since this thread already exists, my experience was about the same. Anywhere from 50-70 hours recorded in a given week, and like others have mentioned, it's usually due to recruiting/social events being recorded. My schedule was usually from 8:30 - 6:30. I personally found the social events to be draining at times though, especially the all-day events that fell on Saturdays. Free, personal time was somewhat of a luxury but can't complain considering the paycheck and the free food.

[bdubs]

on a weekly basis?

Generally hours are something like 9:00-9:30 am (depends on market and firm) to 5:30-7:30 pm. It's not uncommon to have afterwork social events as well. And it's not uncommon to have to stay later than that if you get work late in the day. But if you manage your workflow in a reasonable manner, it's not hard to get out at a good hour. My firm also often encouraged me not to stay late, and especially not stay late for the sake of staying late.

2.5 hours sounds about right.

[ph14]

on a weekly basis?

Generally hours are something like 9:00-9:30 am (depends on market and firm) to 5:30-7:30 pm. It's not uncommon to have afterwork social events as well. And it's not uncommon to have to stay later than that if you get work late in the day. But if you manage your workflow in a reasonable manner, it's not hard to get out at a good hour. My firm also often encouraged me not to stay late, and especially not stay late for the sake of staying late.

2.5 hours sounds about right.

What?

[Anonymous User]

Usually 9:30–6 or 6:30 actually at work, with a solid hour for either a social lunch or some training program, and then once or twice a week a social event until between 8 and 10 pm. Of that 9:30-6 day, maybe 4-6 actual solid hours of work on average. NY V20 firm. Was told in no uncertain terms not to expect this lifestyle when I return as a first year.

[Anonymous User]

Usually 9:30-4:00. Secondary market. Some people worked longer, but there didn't seem to be a need. As long as we finished a set # of products, they didn't really care how much we produced/billed.

[BeenDidThat]

8-6ish.

[Aqualibrium]

I'll say this because someone asked about the comparison to first year work, no matter how many hours you work as a summer, it won't really compare to what you end up doing as a first year associate.

I think everyone knows the "lawyers work long hours" stigma but I don't think most know why. The shift from when I was a summer to now has been really very pronounced. As a summer, I felt comfortable rolling projects over to another day. As a first year with a billable hour requirement, I don't feel like I can afford to do that. I find that when I get billable work, I try to spend as many hours in a day doing it so that I can complete it and hopefully pick up another billable matter. That means I end up staying at the office until 8,9, sometimes 10, not out of necessity, but because I know if I can log 9-10 hours on this project and get it done, I can hopefully grab another project and log some billable time on that so I'm constantly a bit ahead of the weekly and monthly billable averages I've calculated. It's not a stressful thing, it's just that I don't feel like I can afford to let billable work pass me by because I was working on something else.