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In an effort to standardize responses I've put together a framework of basic questions (quoted below for copying and pasting). Entries that conform to whatever the then-current edition of the standard response outline requested will get one of these things () next to them to help guide readers to the most information-laden posts (but mostly because I can't help myself with that kind of stuff).

Standard Response Outline (as of 04.26.2016) wrote: BASIC INFORMATION

• 1. What market did you work in (e.g., New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte, the Midwest, etc.)?
  2. What kind of firm was it (e.g., BigLaw, MidLaw, SmallLaw, etc.)?
  3. What year did you do your SA? Was it a 1L SA or a 2L SA?
  4. What was the firm or firm-range (e.g., DLA Piper, V30, V50-60, etc.)?
  5. What sort of work did you do (e.g., all litigation, mostly corporate, securities, etc.)?
  6. Around how many people were in your Summer Class (e.g., 100+, <10, 30-40ish, etc.; but consider not answering if you were in a market small enough for this to potentially be outing)?

CONTENT

• 1. What kind of assignments did you get?
  • Specifically, what were the assignments? For example, if you did mostly banking work, did you draft ancillary documents or did you mostly do cross-reference and defined terms checks? If you did mostly litigation, did you take the first swing at motions or just churn out internal memos? Please be detailed—this sort of information is scarce, but quite valuable to incoming SAs who have never worked in a law firm.
  • Do you have any tips for doing well on the assignments you mentioned? For example, if you managed a closing checklist for a deal, what tips did you wish you had before you got the assignment?
  • More generally, did you feel like you were assigned “make-work” or actual substantive work?
  • Did you get feedback on your work? Was it cursory or substantial and constructive?
  2. Was it a “working summer” or a more of a “party summer?”
  • Did social functions seem to be considered more important than the assignments you received?
  • Did it feel like a 12-week-long job interview?
  • Did they tell you at the beginning that everyone would receive offers or that not everyone would? Did they equivocate at all (e.g., “generally, everyone gets an offer”)? Or did they not bring offer prospects up at all?
  • What kind of events did they put on?
  3. What was the outcome of the SA?
  • Did you get an offer?
  • Did anyone in you Summer Class get no-offered?
  • Did you (or do you plan to) return to the firm as an Associate?
  4. Is there any other information you think those looking to learn what to expect during an SA might find helpful?

• New York City, N.Y. (Primary Market)
  • New York City Biglaw (Lower V100), 2010
  • New York City BigLaw (DPW), 2013 (Mostly Corporate)
  • New York City BigLaw (Cleary), 2013
  • New York City BigLaw (CSM), 2015 (M&A)
  • New York City BigLaw (Non-Vault AmLaw 200) (No Year Noted)
  • New York City BigLaw (V10), 2015
• Washington, D.C. (Primary Market)
  • D.C. BigLaw, 2014 (Patent Law)
  • D.C. BigLaw (V50-100), 2011
  • D.C. BigLaw ("Large Firm"), 2015
  • D.C. BigLaw (V20), (No Year Noted) (Mostly Litigation)
• Chicago, IL (Primary Market)
  • Chicago BigLaw, (No year noted)
• The Deep South
  • Southern BigLaw (V100), (No Year Noted)
  • Birmingham BigLaw, (No Year Noted)
• New England (Non-N.Y.C.)
  • Boston BigLaw, 2008 (Intellectual Property)
• The Midwest
  • [None]
• The Southwest
  • Texas Biglaw (Big 3), (No year noted)
• The West Coast
  • California Biglaw (OMM, GDC, or LW), (No Year Noted)
  • Silicon Valley/San Francisco BigLaw, 2007 (Intellectual Property) (Note: 1L SA)
  • Los Angeles BigLaw (White & Case/Winston/Milbank/Perkins), 2015
• Insufficient Information
  • (No Market Noted) BigLaw, 2009
  • (No Market Noted) BigLaw (Winston & Strawn), 2012
  • Regional BigLaw, (No Year Noted)
  • (No Market Noted) BigLaw Satellite Office, (No Year Noted) (Litigation)
  • (No Market Noted) BigLaw (DPW), (No Year Noted)
  • Secondary Market BigLaw, (No Year Noted) (Patent Prosecution)

• The Deep South
  • Southern MidLaw, (No year noted) (Corporate, banking, litigation, bankruptcy, and real estate)
  • Southern MidLaw, (No year noted) ("Transnational Boutique")
• New England
  • [None]
• The Midwest
  • Midwestern MidLaw (No Year Noted) (Note: 1L SA)
• The Southwest
  • [None]
• The West Coast
  • Pacific Northwest MidLaw, Between 2012 and 2016 (Litigation)
• Insufficient Information
  • [None]

• The Deep South
  • [None]
• New England
  • [None]
• The Midwest
  • [None]
• The Southwest
  • [None]
• The West Coast
  • [None]
• Insufficient Information
  • Regional SmallLaw, 2013 (Insurance Defense)

• Comment regarding SA work assignments
• Advice on how not to get a No-Offer from someone who did Chicago Biglaw
• Discussion among former CSM SAs of the CSM SA Experience: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4

Anonymous User wrote:Sorry to poke a bad memory further, but why is it preferable to withdraw candidacy over taking a no-offer? It seems like only the firm wins on that, and screw those guys.

I had no idea W&S was going through that kind of stress then - I was working with their NY office around that time on a prior Dewey contract that transferred to W&S post-acquisition and got no sign of any issue, although it explains why the junior associates I worked with kept jumping ship.

bjsesq wrote:was offered the opportunity to say I withdrew my candidacy instead of getting no offered

Traynor Brah wrote:

bjsesq wrote:was offered the opportunity to say I withdrew my candidacy instead of getting no offered

On NALP, does this mean you would not have been included in the "SAs considered for full time offers" stat?

Great thread so far though, thanks guys.

zacharus85 wrote:tag. Thank you North and other posters!

Anonymous User wrote:I summered at a D.C. BigLaw in 2014 and focused on patent law. Sorry that I cannot disclose the name of the law firm for obvious reasons. My summer work was a mixture of social events (one per week at least) and real substantive legal work that can be billed to clients. For example, I was able to finish a provisional patent application (claims first, specification second) after reading
1) a published paper by the client;
2) a PowerPoint slide about their "New" technology;
3) one old poster for a conference; and
4) a two-page summary of the experimental results/advantage of their "New" technology.
The senior associate simply gave me the green light of doing the work from scratch (I had drafted scores of patent applications before and during law school), and checked my work according to an agreed-upon schedule. The work was in kind of a rush since there would be a new round of investment which hinged on a new evaluation of the worth of the company. This new technology was conceived as one building block for the company's perceived money-earning/ground-breaking project. In the end, I completed the work in time. The attorney told me that the claims I drafted were better than those drafted by some other attorneys. I was a bit relieved after hearing that since I wanted an offer.

The rest of my legal work includes
1) numerous memos based on legal research on issues central to a few patent litigation cases in the patent litigation department;
2) numerous office action responses in front of patent offices in the U.S., Russian, Australia, Chinese, and EU;
3) updating some standard client letter formats regarding legal opinion work (cite-checking);
4) two FTO opinions which included reading (browsing the claims) over 500 patents/patent applications and trying to find potential 102/103 issues for key patents/patent applications owned by one entity (prior to M&A or new round of investment); and
5) Searching and analyzing the patent portfolio of certain companies, whose stocks were held by an investment group, for a purported "business proposal" project in which my mentor would try to sell this patent analysis service to the investment group.

We also visited USPTO for half a day and interacted with attorneys from several branches of USPTO. And we attended a few oral arguments/hearings at the CAFC and USPTO.

As to social activities, like I said, we had at least one event every week. I scheduled working lunches with at least two groups of attorneys every week. Free food, free rides, free wines, etc. We also had a Summer Associate Summit at the firm's headquarter for three days. All these events were designed to test whether a summer associate could mingle with his or her future colleagues. Most of the attorneys who attended those social events were fun, relaxed and helpful. I was sure they all wrote reports afterwards about SA's behaviors. Just do not become DRUNK in any of those social events.