For law interns, work comes with big perks

Jerry Taylor was all nerves before he started his summer internship at the Seattle law firm of Garvey Schubert Barer. He worried about the workload, whether he would impress his superiors, whether the other attorneys would be tough on him.

As a 23-year-old student with two more years of law school ahead of him, he was under a lot of pressure.

But Taylor's anxiety melted away when he arrived at the law firm and was ushered into his private office with sweeping views of Puget Sound and a nameplate on the door. The lunches, parties and recreation trips that followed helped, too.

"I love this company," said Taylor, a Seattle University student.

Welcome to the high-pressure yet perk-filled world of summer law internships, where firms compete to lure "summer associates," who can walk away with $100,000-a-year job offers more than a year before they graduate.

Every summer, law-school students from around the country file into the hushed, high-rise interiors of Seattle law firms for what seasoned attorneys refer to as a "12-week job interview."

As in most major cities, dozens of Seattle firms rely on this constant succession of fresh brainpower to build their permanent ranks. The experience, by most accounts, is part legal boot camp and part social junket.

The programs allow students to spend the summer writing memos, doing legal research, conferring with clients and soaking up everything they can from veteran attorneys.

Interns also devote a chunk of their time lunching at Seattle's top eateries, cruising the region's waterways, trekking to company retreats and tipping back gratis martinis.

Contrary to the intern stereotype, summer law associates are not treated as lowly hangers-on, sent to pick up partners' dry cleaning or lattes.

Firms compete for top students after meeting them on annual recruiting trips at law schools around the country. A typical summer associate at a midsize Seattle firm earns the weekly equivalent of $100,000 a year.

"It's a very exciting time for the firm when the summer associates show up. These are the best from America's law schools," said Craig Miller, partner and chair of the hiring committee for the Seattle office of Davis Wright Tremaine, which is bankrolling 12 summer associates this year.

Having students on staff for three months helps revivify a law firm's atmosphere, and most attorneys find satisfaction in helping train the next generation, Miller said.

"It's like buying a suit at Nordstrom and then picking it up two weeks later after the alterations. It's just great to have them around. We get a buzz out of it."

Firms want law students to get real-life experience, but they don't require frequent all-nighters and weekends at the office, say summer-program organizers.

"We want them to strike a balance. We don't want them to just grind away," said Bob Howie, hiring chair at Riddell Williams, which has three summer associates.

Still, some interns say they have found themselves basking in the computer glow at 3 a.m., perfecting the memo an attorney is expecting the next morning or working on the pro-bono case for which they have begun to feel a passion.

"You're paid what you're paid for a reason," said summer associate John Peterson, a University of Washington student who has worked this summer with corporations, nonprofits and a Central American youth seeking asylum. "It's a client business, and however you have to meet those needs, you do it."

That's not to say it's all work and no play.

This summer, Seattle student associates have traveled with their firms to San Francisco, Yosemite National Park and Minneapolis for long weekends, attended barbecues and cocktail parties at partners' waterfront manses, enjoyed Seattle's Teatro Zinzanni and concerts at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, cruised Puget Sound and Lake Washington at sunset, golfed, roasted marshmallows over campfires at co-workers' summer cabins, privately toured the state Supreme Court with Justice Richard Sanders, watched the Mariners from luxury suites at Safeco Field, kayaked Lake Union, hiked on weekend trips to the Cascades, picnicked on Bainbridge Island and watched horses race at Emerald Downs.

Of course, law firms pick up the tab for all these perks, as well as frequent lunches, dinners and cocktails and in-office events like deck parties and hors d'oeuvres in the library.

Attorneys say these impressive social calendars are not pure hedonism.

Because most summer associates are serious candidates for permanent positions, "It's really important that people fit into the personality of the firm," said Donna Cochener, associate co-chair of the summer associates with Riddell Williams. Social events allow students to get to know the other attorneys, she said.

The perks also serve to attract talented students in a competitive hiring environment, added Matt Pile, Cochener's co-chair. At most firms, second-year law-school students — who are vetted at multiple interviews before landing a summer internship — are almost guaranteed a permanent job as long as they perform well and "fit in."

For this year's crop, job offers will start coming in the next few weeks.

"These are highly sought-after individuals, and we actually want to be a part of their futures," Pile said.

Students say they appreciate the summer perks, but that those aren't the highlights. Hunter Ferguson, who has one more year at the University of Chicago, said his best day at Heller Ehrman was when he was hard at work on a project with a firm attorney, and both were struggling to craft an argument.

"I was starting to get nervous that I wasn't going to be able to see anything, and then all of a sudden I found the argument that drove our point home," the 28-year-old said. "I felt like I was doing real lawyering. The best experience wasn't a social event or any of the so-called perks, it was real work, and feeling like, 'Yeah, I can really do this.' "

The students are not coddled. Their work is critiqued by the firms' attorneys, and more than one intern recalls a memo being returned with harsh red markings for oversights as seemingly innocuous as a misplaced comma.

"I've gotten thrown right in on some projects and done real, substantive work. In the long run it gets me a better chance of landing in the right place," said Ben Potter, 30, a student at the University of Michigan, who is in his second summer interning at Heller Ehrman.

Potter has spent time this summer working with Heller Ehrman's venture group. He says the program has given him a picture of the life of a corporate attorney.

Besides learning the ropes, students spend the first few weeks getting used to their summer salaries. An average firm's internship pays about $2,000 a week.

"I was totally shocked. I've never earned more than $9 an hour," said Lauren Hemingway, a 23-year-old summer associate at Dorsey and Whitney whose new salary is about five times that amount.

Veteran attorneys who mentor students say it takes a certain unique skill set to be a successful lawyer, and the big bucks that come along with the job — even for students still in training — are deserved.

"It really does involve a kind of moxie that other, more technical professions perhaps don't," said Miller, Davis Wright Tremaine partner.

"You're paid to play the game with poise and not melt in the face of things you're not particularly comfortable with. You can work outside your zone of comfort, in a zone of challenge. We try to see that in people."

Taylor, the Seattle University student who spent the summer at Garvey Schubert Barer, is now waiting to hear whether his time at the firm will net him a job offer or at least an invitation back next summer. Meanwhile, he's prepping for a fall internship at the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, his last two years of courses at Seattle University and the recruiting season, during which he'll likely market himself to other firms hungry for new talent and then compare and contrast whatever proposals come forward.

"It's a lot to balance, but I think I can handle it," Taylor said. "That's one of the things I learned this summer — I'm very optimistic that I can do whatever is thrown at me."

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published August 24, was later corrected. In an earlier version of this story, the names of Donna Cochener and the law firm she works for, Riddell Williams, were misspelled.