In Diversity Effort, Utilities Beef Up Summer Associate Programs

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In Diversity Effort, Utilities Beef Up Summer Associate Programs

Posted Apr 18, 2008, 09:00 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Some energy companies are helping law students get critical experience with expanded summer associate programs.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s legal department is expanding its summer program from four weeks to eight, the Recorder (sub. req.) reports. It targets students who have demonstrated a commitment to diversity.

Four students will be hired at a salary of $6,000 a month.

“This is a way to give people experience and opportunities to learn about areas they wouldn't normally be exposed to, and use it to take to the next job," said PG&E's corporate counsel Nicole Harris. She told the Recorder that the utility developed the program in response to complaints by outside law firms that they are having trouble finding minority associates with energy or regulatory experience.

Another utility with an associate program is Sempra Energy. It typically hires between 12 and 25 associates for three-month periods as part of its diversity program.

Legal recruiter Susan Pye recently told the Houston Chronicle that energy lawyers are in short supply, partly because of a lack of training programs.

“When I got out of law school [in 1979], corporations recruited entry-level lawyers, companies like Exxon and Shell, and had big training programs,” she said. “That training has not happened on the same scale.”

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