Career Center: Summer Associate Experience Survey

Welcome back to school, summer associates –- well, not yet — but many of your summer clerkships are coming to an end. With the scent of sweet, sweet money still lingering in the air since spring bonuses were announced, Biglaw summer associate programs are roaring back to life –- or are they?

Are partners partying like it’s 2007, or groveling before their clients like it’s 2009? Are full-time offers being passed out like candy, or hoarded like the world’s last Twinkie? Are future associates (gasp!) no longer going to be subject to deferred start dates, or is your start date contingent upon a group hug between the Democrats and Republicans?

If you are a 2011 summer associate, let us know if it’s okay to go ahead and pop the bubbly by filling out a short survey (as always, responses will be kept strictly confidential), sponsored by Lateral Link.

Click HERE to take the survey.

Let us know about that clambake at Martha Stewart’s house in the Hamptons, or that time Flava Flav made out with Betty White during the firm’s booze cruise around the Santa Monica Pier. Did you learn a lot about practicing law or why law firms have no business sense? Are there firms folks should avoid like the plague, or storm the offices like a Filene’s Basement wedding dress sale?

Let us know! Brag, complain, recommend, or warn, and stay tuned for the results which will be highlighted in future posts for all the world (and your peers) to read. In the meantime, check out the Career Center for additional career insights, as well as profiles of individual law firms.

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Career Center Survey Results: Who Worked on the Fourth of July?

According to the more than 1,000 responses we received to this week’s Career Center survey, 65% of respondents took the Fourth of July holiday off to celebrate their freedom or something like that. That’s a huge jump from the 27% of respondents who reported not working on Presidents’ Day, and the 34% of respondents who reported not working on MLK Day.

For the unlucky 35% of respondents who reported working on Independence Day, what were the top reasons given for missing out on the festivities?

54% said that nobody specifically asked them to do work, but they had work they needed to get done.29% said a partner or associate asked them to do work.14% said a client asked them to do work.9% said they needed the hours.5% said everyone else in their office was working.5% said that Independence Day is not recognized as an official firm holiday.

Now let’s look at some firm-specific data….

At which firms were associates most likely to be watching fireworks from their desks? O’Melveny & Myers, Proskauer Rose, and White & Case.

On the other hand, these firms had the highest percentage of associates taking the day off: Allen & Overy, Alston & Bird, Bingham McCutchen, Dechert, Dewey, Katten Muchin, and K&L Gates.

For more information about these and other top law firms, check out the updated law firm profiles on the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link.

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Career Center Survey: Did You Work on the Fourth of July?

Back in the winter months, we surveyed Biglaw associates about working on the MLK Day and President’s Day holidays. Well, over half of respondents said they still clocked in on those holidays. But now that the weather is warmer, the barbecue grills are up and running, and partners are on vacation, surely more of you took Independence Day off, right? Take our short survey, brought to you by Lateral Link, and let’s find out.

As always, your responses are kept completely confidential. Stay tuned later this week when we reveal the survey results. For more information on vacation policies, check out the updated law firm profiles at the Career Center, hosted by Lateral Link.

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