How many students does Wiggin and Dana include in its Summer Associate Program?
Wiggin and Dana’s 2007 Summer Associate Program
included 6 students who completed their second year
of law school. In previous years we have hired students who finished their first
year of law school. Summer associate hires have also included third year
students who want to spend their summer at Wiggin and Dana before
beginning a judicial clerkship in the fall.
Before extending offers for summer employment, the firm makes every effort to accurately predict the number of first-year associates it will need to hire the following year, so that our summer associates will not feel that they are competing against one another for a limited number of positions.
What are the firm’s goals for its Summer Associate Program?
The overall objective of the Summer Associate Program is to give each Law student a realistic view of what it would be like to work at Wiggin and Dana on a regular basis. Wiggin and Dana hires summer associates with the expectation that they will all have productive and satisfying summers and will return to Wiggin and Dana the following fall as first-year associates.
Can summer associates work out of any of the firm’s offices?
While the Summer Associate Program is based in the New Haven office, summer associates regularly interact with lawyers from all offices. If a summer associate has an interest in ultimately working in a particular office, we will take steps during the summer to ensure as much contact as possible with that office.
Are summer associates assigned mentors?
Each summer associate is paired with a partner and associate buddy. While both buddies are available to help orient the summer associate and educate him or her about the firm, the partner buddy serves the added role of reviewing all written work that the summer associate produces. Of course, in addition to this review, the partner whom he or she is helping will assess the summer associate’s work.
Why type of work does a Wiggin and Dana summer associate do?
Summer associates are encouraged to speak to the work coordinator and partner buddy at the outset of and throughout the summer about practice areas that interest them. The work coordinator collects assignments from partners in all departments and distributes them to the summer associates with this in mind. Summer associates work directly with the lawyer or lawyers who generate the assignments.
What training opportunities are available to summer associates?
Summer associates attend weekly meetings at which heads of departments, firm management and attorneys from various practice areas speak. These meetings give the summer associates an opportunity to learn about interesting, ongoing matters and also gain insights into the type of responsibilities that more junior associates in those departments and practice areas are able to assume.
The 2007 Summer Associate mock trial program gave each summer associate a chance to prepare and examine a witness, and give an opening or closing argument. We strongly encourage summer associates to attend court proceedings, depositions, client meetings, pre-trial conferences, closings and other events outside of the office.
Does the firm sponsor events outside of the office?
Several social events allow our summer associates and attorneys the opportunity to get to know one another outside of the office. In addition to The Mighty Wiggin and Dana’s weekly softball games, our summer events have included a clambake, deep sea fishing, an evening at the theatre, a New York Yankees baseball game, cooking class, golf outings and cocktail parties at partners homes.
Can summer associates work on pro bono matters?
Wiggin and Dana summer associates have extensively worked on pro bono matters involving constitutional limitations applicable to legislative prayer and on potential First Amendment violations relating to presentations by guest speakers in certain Connecticut public schools.
Click here for more information on the firm’s pro bono activities.
What were summer associates paid in the summer of 2007; and what is the starting salary for first year associates?
Summer associates who completed two years of law school received $1,825 per week. Summer associates who finished one year of law school received $1,775 per week.
First year associates in the New Haven and Hartford offices receive a salary of $105,000. As a cost of living adjustment, first year attorneys in the Stamford office receive $125,000.
