No More Fun in the Sun? Rethinking Summer-Associate Programs

[WSJ Law Blog]

This past weekend, at a family function in the Garden State’s rural, western reaches, a family member told us the following tale: The Pennsylvania-based unit of his company, a large manufacturing conglomerate, had shed dozens of workers over the past few months as orders for its product had dropped. Then, totally without warning, in the last three weeks orders picked up, leaving the unit scrambling to find enough people to cover the orders. “It’s been mayhem,” he said. “Total mayhem.”

We were reminded of this tale today upon reading the Recorder story about the approach big law firms have taken during the recession. As any readers of this or a number of other blogs know, firms have cut associates and partners left and right, and have cut back mightily on their summer-associate programs, some by as much as 50 percent.

The cuts to the summer programs specifically signal that the firms don’t expect to see a talent shortage in fall 2010, when the ‘09 crop of summer associates starts full-time work.

But what if the economy rebounds between now and next fall? Such a scenario could leave firms stretched thin — as happened to several firms after the recession of the early 1990s.

“By cutting summer hiring, firms risk being ill-prepared to meet client needs and manage workflow should the market experience a surge in demand for legal services,” said law-firm recruiter Robert Depew.

For now, that risk seems to be the farthest thing from the minds of law-firm managing partners. “I think there will be, for the next year to two years, more first-years than law firms will be looking for,” said Keith Wetmore, chairman of Morrison & Foerster.

That said, such uncertainties are causing others to question the sanity of a system that requires firms to essentially make hiring decisions well over a year before they know what their personnel needs are going to be.

“What’s really going to happen is that firms are going to have to rethink their summer program and rethink their whole system, because it’s so difficult to anticipate your hiring needs two years out,” said recruiter Stacy Miller Azcarate said.

James Rishwain Jr., chairman of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, said the new economy, “where no assumption is safe,” is challenging the legal industry to rethink and re-evaluate the law firm model.

“This evaluation must include how law firms recruit law students from law schools and how law firms run their summer programs,” he wrote in an e-mail.