What Do Summer Associates Actually Do?

You've heard the pitch: interesting work, great people, free dinners. But what does a summer associate actually do for ten weeks? Here's the unvarnished version.

The Short Answer

You do real legal work, but with training wheels. Firms give you assignments that look like what junior associates do, minus the parts where something could go catastrophically wrong. You're being evaluated, but you're also being courted. It's a strange combination.

Typical Assignments

Most of your time is spent on discrete research and writing projects. A partner or senior associate hands you a question, "Can our client enforce this non-compete in Texas?", and you go figure it out. You write a memo. Someone reviews it and gives you feedback.

Here's what fills a typical week:

• Legal research memos, The bread and butter. You'll spend hours in Westlaw chasing down case law.
• Due diligence, If you're in corporate, you'll review contracts. Lots of contracts.
• Drafting sections of documents, A piece of a brief, a few provisions of an agreement, part of a regulatory filing.
• Sitting in on calls and meetings, You mostly listen, but it's where you learn how deals and cases actually move.
• Pro bono projects, Many firms encourage summers to take on a pro bono matter. These can be the most substantive work you do.

What You Won't Do

You won't run a deal. You won't argue a motion. You won't have your own client relationships. That's fine, nobody expects you to. The point is to demonstrate that you can think clearly, write well, and function as a professional.

You also probably won't bill 60-hour weeks. Summer hours are real but manageable, most summers work something closer to 40-50 hours a week, depending on the firm and the group.

The Social Side

Let's be honest: the social programming is a big part of the summer. Dinners at expensive restaurants, group outings, happy hours, maybe a firm retreat. This is fun, but it's also part of the evaluation. Firms are watching whether you can carry a conversation, hold your liquor (or politely decline), and get along with people you'd be working with for years.

Nobody expects you to be the life of the party. They do expect you to show up, be pleasant, and not create problems. More on this in our post on summer social events.

How Assignments Work

At most firms, you either get assignments through a central coordinator or directly from attorneys. Some firms let you choose your practice groups; others rotate you. The system matters because it affects what kind of work you see and who evaluates you.

Getting good assignments is a skill in itself, we wrote a whole post on that.

What Firms Are Actually Evaluating

Three things: work quality, interpersonal skills, and genuine interest in the firm. That last one matters more than people think. Firms want to extend offers to people who will accept. If you seem checked out or obviously shopping around, it shows.

Your work product needs to be clean, thorough, and turned in on time. Your interactions need to be professional without being stiff. And you need to seem like someone who actually wants to be there.

How to Make the Most of It

• Ask for work from practice areas you're genuinely curious about.
• Say yes to social events, at least most of them.
• Ask questions, real ones, not performative ones.
• Get to know the junior associates. They'll tell you what the firm is actually like.
• Use the firm directory before your summer starts to research the groups and people you want to connect with.

The summer is a long interview disguised as a job. But it's also a genuine preview of what your life would look like as a junior associate, minus the stress, plus the steak dinners.