Summer Associate

The Snell & Wilmer Summer Associate Program is designed to provide new legal professionals with an opportunity to experience as many facets of the firm’s practice and to work with as many of the firm’s attorneys as possible. The firm appoints several senior associates to coordinate the program, solicit and screen projects from both partners and associates, and assign them to summer associates.

We aim to provide summer associates with meaningful assignments, shadowing opportunities, and feedback to prompt professional growth. To the greatest extent possible, summer associates are urged to attend client conferences, depositions, negotiations, closings of various commercial transactions, administrative and court hearings, and trials in which the firm is involved. At the mid-point and end of the summer, the coordinators meet with each summer associate to discuss their progress. In addition, each attorney for whom the summer associate works provides an oral and/or written evaluation.

Our comprehensive interview process for the summer associate program involves spending a lot of time up front, to target the individuals whom we believe will join the firm.

Because of the extensive time and effort our hiring committee invests in the selection process, once a candidate is welcomed as a summer associate, the individual has great potential to become a valued addition to the firm.

Reality Snell & Wilmer was developed to provide our summer associates with the most realistic experience possible. Our goal for the program is to ensure that through the summer, our summer associates become part of our firm, and have an experience that is as similar as possible to the reality of practicing law.

In addition to the traditional practice of assigning structured projects, our firm would like to enhance the experience of our summer associates by exposing them to team projects including: short-fused projects, projects that expand, and projects that change direction, or arise from time-to-time.

Beginning with their second week at the firm, each summer associate will be assigned a Reality Partner for the duration of their summer program. Summer associates will be that attorney’s “go-to” person and may work on any of the partner’s matters, as the partner sees fit. Reality Partners may call summer associates at any time, sometimes on short notice, to give them work, change the scope of a project, or to include them in brainstorming sessions and client meetings. We anticipate that 30% of a summer associate’s time would be spent working with their Reality Partner.

Reality Snell & Wilmer provides summer associates with a realistic experience to the practice of law, while allowing them to showcase their assets through assistance with updates, suggestions and research on matters.

The Snell & Wilmer Summer Associate Reader Program helps Snell & Wilmer summer associates with their legal writing. The recruiting office automatically distributes two projects from each summer associate to an assigned Partner Reader.

The Partner Readers will read, edit, and discuss the summer associate’s projects with them, and offer constructive feedback to help further develop and enhance their writing skills. While the Partner Readers are not evaluating the substantive aspect of the summer associate’s projects, their guidance regarding legal analysis, organization, grammar, language choice, and clarity will help the summer associate produce more polished legal writing.

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