Joining a specific group as a summer associate—any advice appreciated! Forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 432524
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Joining a specific group as a summer associate—any advice appreciated!
I am a 2L joining a specific group at biglaw this summer. I think this might be pretty rare as a summer associate (I got this position by applying to the firm’s symplicity posting after OCI). It’s corporate but fairly niche industry. Since I am not rotating during the program, I expect to work all the time with people who I will continue to work with after graduation (if I secure the offer, of course). This makes me bit nervous, so if there is anyone who had similar experience, can you share? Any other advice will also be greatly appreciated.
-
JHP
- Posts: 257
- Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:11 am
Re: Joining a specific group as a summer associate—any advice appreciated!
I didn't have that experience so can't speak from a personal experience standpoint, but as someone in big law, if we had a summer joining a specific group with the expectation that you will join that particular group:
DOs: obviously make nice with the people in the group, figure out who the Big Deals are, how the group is structured and how it works with the other groups at the firm, go around and introduce yourself if you don't have a group-specific meet-and-greet for you, try to work with several people but not too many that you don't at least somewhat start to develop a relationship with a few key folks, and most importantly, make sure your work is at least inoffensive if not stellar. Since you'll be doing work with just the group, people will talk, ask "hey, how as X worked out this summer? Are they good?" and they'll remember if you have characteristics that do not bode well (i.e. inability to look up basic things, lack of resourcefulness, being a know-it-all when you don't know it all, etc.). Try to be curious and take opportunities to ask questions about stuff--summer is the time to ask those questions and be seen as curious rather than as a junior and have people wonder "how do they not know this yet."
Otherwise, I wouldn't be too concerned. It would be helpful to, carefully and tactfully, try to feel out the health of the group, how busy people are and why (busy is not always a harbinger of good), and the personalities/your fit. If you're hired into the group but find out it's not what you want, I imagine a big law firm would likely amenable to you trying to transition to a different group after you are hired if there is space. Don't be afraid to mingle with the other groups, too--that's still important since you are still a member of the overall firm itself and you still want to make sure people outside your group know who you are in case you don't end up wanting to stay in your group.
DOs: obviously make nice with the people in the group, figure out who the Big Deals are, how the group is structured and how it works with the other groups at the firm, go around and introduce yourself if you don't have a group-specific meet-and-greet for you, try to work with several people but not too many that you don't at least somewhat start to develop a relationship with a few key folks, and most importantly, make sure your work is at least inoffensive if not stellar. Since you'll be doing work with just the group, people will talk, ask "hey, how as X worked out this summer? Are they good?" and they'll remember if you have characteristics that do not bode well (i.e. inability to look up basic things, lack of resourcefulness, being a know-it-all when you don't know it all, etc.). Try to be curious and take opportunities to ask questions about stuff--summer is the time to ask those questions and be seen as curious rather than as a junior and have people wonder "how do they not know this yet."
Otherwise, I wouldn't be too concerned. It would be helpful to, carefully and tactfully, try to feel out the health of the group, how busy people are and why (busy is not always a harbinger of good), and the personalities/your fit. If you're hired into the group but find out it's not what you want, I imagine a big law firm would likely amenable to you trying to transition to a different group after you are hired if there is space. Don't be afraid to mingle with the other groups, too--that's still important since you are still a member of the overall firm itself and you still want to make sure people outside your group know who you are in case you don't end up wanting to stay in your group.
