Welcome, Summer Associates!

Boy I remember a time when downtown was thick with young, fresh-faced, overeager summer associates, prepared at the drop of a hat to "sheperdize" a case or bring you an important "fax."

Now, according to the ever intrepid Julie Kay, not so much:

But one firm that completely eliminated its summer associate program in Miami now regrets it — especially since business has picked up. Jim Miller, litigation chair at Akerman Senterfitt, said the firm had no summer associates in Miami this summer but is already planning to resume the practice next summer.

“You don’t want to have summer associates unless you plan to hire them,” he said. “But we regret not doing it.”

 Yep.  Who in the world knew Providence would guide one of the world's worst environmental disasters right through our solid oak front doors?

Ca-Ching!

Meanwhile, the question of transparency in law school graduate hiring continues to simmer, with one 3L actually on a hunger strike to bring attention to the issue.  As ATL points out:

We’ve written about the Law School Transparency project before. It’s an organization asking entirely legitimate questions. LST wants law schools to provide accurate statistics about employment outcomes for graduates. It’s hard to understand why law schools aren’t willing to support the Law School Transparency group, other than a base desire to keep prospective law students in the dark about their post-graduate employment options.

Even incoming ABA President Steve Zack, in an otherwise full-throttled endorsement for going to law school, raised the question of transparency:

What advice would you give someone entering law school now, or thinking about going for a law degree?

I tell them that they are lucky to be in our profession because the law is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the last 200 years. When I started practicing law, we hung up a shingle. Today, graduates register a domain name. The one area that I have real concern about is the cost. I think it’s time for there to be--and this will probably be pretty controversial--some truth-and-lending documents that go to applicants to law schools. There’s not enough information given to people considering the legal field.

So dear young ones, do enjoy the free lunches, the law firm "mixers," in addition to the desperate back-stabbing, rumor-mongering. brown-nosing, and win-at-all-costs mentality of your peers.

All that will change once you become an associate, I am sure.