Meyer, Unkovic & Scott's summer associate program demonstrates the firm's overall commitment to recruiting and nurturing new associates. As a result of this philosophy, we have built a comprehensive program that balances real-world experience, training, interaction, and, of course, plenty of fun.
Because MUS's first year associates typically are hired from our summer classes, it is vital to the firm — and the new lawyer — to make this experience realistic. Too often, new attorneys discover a drastic difference between life as a summer associate and their existence as a first year attorney. That is not the case at MUS. Summer associates leave our program knowing they haven't witnessed a "censored" version of firm life. Accordingly, they can accept a full-time position objectively and without fear of the unknown, which should be the primary goals of both the summer associate and the law firm.
MUS offers all its attorneys an appealing balance between work and home life. Summer associates are introduced to that philosophy immediately, with work, training and social activities all offered in balanced doses. Best of all, our summer associates find the program flexible enough to work with many different attorneys and discover what practice area is most appealing to them as individuals, all while fully enjoying the summer break from law school. The result is a truly memorable experience.
Our mentor program focuses on helping the summer associate begin the transition from law school to law firm. Each summer associate is assigned one partner and one or two associate mentors. This relationship not only assists the summer associate in understanding the profession and improving their work, the rapport helps them to comprehend the "intangible" qualities every successful lawyer must develop.
However, creating an optimal balance between work, training and personal interaction can only exist through a focused firm-wide effort. MUS has placed the full weight of the firm's resources and creativity to bear in developing our summer program. As a result, the summer associate program has been refined over the years to combine an efficient structure with enough flexibility to allow individual attention.
In the end, uncertainty has no place in any successful summer associate program. In addition to our mentor relationships and constant interaction with summer associates, MUS has developed an excellent work assignment and evaluation program. As a result, our summer associates always know how they are progressing. Attorneys first assign projects through the partner in charge of summer associates, who then hands out assignments with a full understanding of each summer associate's workload and interests. The assigning attorney works closely with the summer associate throughout each project and then submits an objective evaluation based on performance.
Through this evaluation process, summer associates constantly are aware of their performance and are empowered to pay more attention to certain aspects of their work and capitalize on their strengths. These evaluations play a key role in our formal summer associate reviews, which are conducted in the middle and end of the program.
The following are some of the highlights of the MUS summer associate program:
