Summer Associate Gripes: No BlackBerrys, Too Much Food and Booze
Summer associates surveyed by American Lawyer were relatively happy with their experiences, giving their firms an average score of 4.541 on a 1-5 scale. They earned an average of about $3,000 a week and said, on the whole, that they were getting more interesting work. But that didn’t stop the complaints.
Some summers told of anxiety whether they would receive a permanent job offer, the American Lawyer reports. Others complained about distant partners, long hours, “skimpy” $55 lunch budgets, no BlackBerrys, and too much fattening food and alcohol.
“Fifty-five dollars is not enough for most nice restaurants in midtown,” huffed one summer at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in New York. One Foley & Lardner associate complained about the abundance of food, the story says. “Not every event needs cake,” the person said. “It is not a good idea to have a reputation for making summer associates gain 15 pounds (the ‘Foley 15’).”
A summer at Weil, Gotshal & Manges focused on the drinking, the story says. “They throw numerous social events that last for eight hours, including heavy drinking, and then expect summers to behave ‘appropriately,’ ” the person complained.
Seventeen percent of the 7,600 responding associates said they weren’t sure if they would get a job offer, compared to 12 percent who felt that way last year, the story says. Associates were particularly worried at White & Case; Mayer Brown; and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. One Mayer Brown summer said more reassurance was needed, the magazine reports. “As it was, too many of my peers were too concerned about their standing with the firm. It made the atmosphere too tense, resulted in unnecessary competition, and harmed cohesion.”
Yet all three firms said a high percentage of summers received permanent offers, including 110 out of 113 summer associates at White & Case.
Most of the law firms with top ratings from associates had relatively small summer classes:
Nutter McClennen & Fish in Boston.
Cozen O’Connor.
Crowell & Moring in Washington D.C.
Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor in Wilmington.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which had 182 summer associates, the largest class in the top five.
