Summer Program
The Snell & Wilmer Summer Associate Program is designed to provide new legal professionals with an opportunity to experience as many facets of the firm's practice and to work with as many of the firm's attorneys as possible. The firm appoints several senior associates to coordinate the program, solicit and screen projects from both partners and associates, and assign them to summer associates.
At the mid-point and end of the summer, the coordinators meet with each summer associate to discuss his/her progress. In addition, each attorney for whom the summer associate works provides an oral and written evaluation. To the greatest extent possible, summer associates are urged to attend client conferences, depositions, negotiations, closings of various commercial transactions, administrative and court hearings, and trials in which the firm is involved.
We are constantly working to make our summer associate program even better and more beneficial to participants. We recently introduced "Reality Snell & Wilmer" to provide a new and different type of learning experience. In addition to projects, summer associates are matched with a partner who brings them into other cases and transactions, as needed, to simulate the reality of working as an attorney day to day.
Our comprehensive interview process for the summer associate program involves spending a lot of time up front to target the individuals whom we believe will join the firm. Because of the extensive time and effort our hiring committee invests in the selection process, once a candidate is welcomed as a summer associate, the individual has great potential to become a valued addition to the firm.
Reality Snell & Wilmer
Reality Snell & Wilmer was developed to provide our summer associates with the most realistic experience possible. Our goal of the program is to ensure that through the summer, our summer associates become part of our firm, and have an experience that is as similar as possible to the reality of practicing law.
In addition to the traditional practice of assigning structured projects, our firm would like to enhance their experience by giving them a better idea of what it really is like to work at Snell & Wilmer… team projects, short fused projects, projects that expand and projects that change direction or pop up from time-to-time.
Beginning with their third week at the firm, Snell & Wilmer will assign each of the summer associates to a partner or senior level associate for the duration of their summer. Summer associates will be that attorney's "go-to" person. Partners/senior level associates (Mentors) will have summer associates work on any of their matters as they see fit. Mentors can call summer associates at any time, short notice or not, to give them work. Mentors can change the scope of the project. Mentors can keep summer associates on something as it progresses and mentors can (and hopefully will) include them in brainstorming sessions and client meetings. We anticipate that maybe 30% of their time would be spent working with their "go-to" attorney.
In addition to the perk of giving them a better sense of what it will be like to practice law at Snell & Wilmer, they can be a real asset to the Mentors in providing updates, suggestions and research on matters.
Summer Associate Reader Program
The Snell & Wilmer Summer Associate Reader Program assists Snell & Wilmer summer associates with their legal writing. The recruiting office automatically distributes each summer associate's first two projects to an assigned Reader. The Readers, who are partners with the firm, will review each clerk's projects for analysis, organization, clarity, language and style. While the Readers are not evaluating the substantive aspect of the summer associate's projects, they are evaluating organization and clarity. The Readers will read, edit and discuss the summer associate's projects with him/her and offer constructive feedback to help further develop and enhance their writing skills.
Calendar of Events
Our summer associates program is designed to provide each summer associate with an opportunity to experience as many facets of the firm's practice and to work with as many of the firm's attorneys as possible. In addition to several firm parties during the summer and other special events, each summer associate class's calendar is fine-tuned to meet the needs and interests of each class.