Recruiting Summer Associates

"My summer associate experience at Foulston was a great opportunity to begin applying my legal education and observe how a large law firm works in the “real world.” Working with some of the best in my class, we were able to see how the firm interacts with clients from start to finish. Summer associates are exposed not only to a wide variety of practice areas, but also to a variety of out of office experiences such as trials, depositions, and client interviews. This gave us the experience we were searching for to determine the areas where we wanted to begin our legal career. "
~ Alicia Bodecker, J.D. University of Kansas, 2005

Mentors

Each summer associate receives personalized attention from a partner mentor, an associate mentor, and a group of writing mentors. We are especially proud of our writing mentor program. Writing mentors review and edit all of the written work produced by a summer associate. The mentor and the summer associate meet to review the mentor's comments and discuss ways in which to improve the summer associate's writing skills. Our summer associates repeatedly rank the writing mentor program as one of their favorite parts of our summer program.

Typical Summer Schedule

You can find an example of what summer associates do by looking at our 2007 summer schedule.

Assignments

Summer associates are not assigned to a particular practice area. Instead, all projects are assigned through one of the attorneys responsible for coordinating the summer program. Most summer associates are assigned two or more projects at a time to help them develop the work-juggling skills all lawyers must possess. The summer program coordinator, however, keeps track of each summer associate's work load to ensure he or she doesn't get overwhelmed.

Summer associates are typically assigned work from a number of different practice areas, both to broaden the summer associate’s experience and to allow the summer associate to meet and interact with as many of the firm’s attorneys as possible.

In addition, there is more to learn about the practice of law than how to do legal research and write a memo. Our summer associates accompany our attorneys on a wide variety of OOEs (out of office experiences), including trials, hearings, depositions, witness interviews, settlement conferences, closings, client meetings, and seminar presentations.

Compensation

In summer 2006, summer associates who had completed their first year of law school were paid a weekly salary of $1,350. Summer associates who have completed their second year of law school were paid a weekly salary of $1,500. The salaries are reviewed annually, and we intend to remain competitive with salaries in the Midwest.

Reviews and Offers

All summer associates are given a mid-point and final review. The mid-point review helps summer associates gauge their progress at the firm and identify and address any problem that needs attention well before the final review.

At the end of the summer program, each summer associate receives a final review to evaluate his or her performance. The final review establishes a benchmark for offer decisions.

Offer decisions are made by the Recruiting and Executive Committees upon completion of the entire summer program. We personally call each summer associate with our decision, typically prior to Labor Day.

Split Policy

We generally prefer that summer associates spend the entire summer with our firm. We will permit a first year student to split his or her summer with another firm only in exceptional circumstances. If a second year law student elects to split his or her summer with another firm, as a general policy we require that he or she spend at least the first six weeks of the summer with Foulston Siefkin.

Housing

We will make every effort to assist you in finding summer housing. We have made arrangements with several apartment complexes to provide short-term leases for our summer associates.