'Residency program' associates at this BigLaw firm will get more training and less pay
Greenberg Traurig is introducing a new residency program to hire talented associates who aren’t recruited in traditional on-campus interviews.
Associates in this program, being introduced at the firm’s 29 U.S. offices, can spend up to a third of their billable hours in training, the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) reports. They will bill at a lower rate and will earn a lower paycheck.
After a one-year trial period, associates in the program may have to leave the firm—or they could become a regular-track associate or become a “practice group attorney,” a new position for nonshareholder lawyers.
Some associates hired in the new program will likely come from schools outside the traditional schools Greenberg Traurig visits for on-campus interviews. Each office will be able to determine how many residents to hire.
Greenberg vice president and treasurer Bradford Kaufman, who oversees associate development, backed the new program. He tells the Am Law Daily he’s not worried about resentment between residents and traditional associates.
“This isn’t supposed to be some sort of second-class opportunity,” Kaufman told the publication. “What we’re trying to do is make sure we’re not losing the opportunity to bring in phenomenal legal talent because the marketplace is saying we don’t value recent grads any longer.”
