We view our Summer Program as the first three months of an incoming associate’s career. Our summer associates are staffed onto cases just like any other associate would be—by considering the particular summer associate’s interests as well as the firm’s needs. We take pride in the fact that our summer associates are given substantive and meaningful work from the outset, just like any other new associate to our firm. Summer associates work with attorneys at all levels, from first-year associates to partners, and they become an integral part of the team. Summer associate projects at Desmarais LLP are not the busywork or file memos that flood other summer associate programs; rather, summer associates are asked to undertake tasks that would otherwise need to be completed by another member of the team. We believe that the summer provides an important opportunity for mentoring and training that should not be squandered, and our goal is for our summer associates to authentically experience the life of a Desmarais LLP associate.
We provide formal training for summer associates, such as lectures given by firm partners, and National Institute of Trial Advocacy training programs—the same type of formal training programs we provide to full-time associates. We also provide informal training to our summer associates through constant feedback regarding their work assignments. In addition, we try to give our summer associates the opportunity to experience various aspects of patent litigation, and often invite them to attend client meetings, court hearings, depositions, and trials.
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