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All summer associates participate in a one-week orientation program, which is generally conducted in the New York office. Summer orientation is designed to (i) introduce the summer associates to the Firm’s culture and values as well as to our lawyers, (ii) allow the summer associates time to get to know each other, (iii) offer practical advice about working at S&C, (iv) add to their knowledge of basic research and writing skills, and (v) provide basic instruction about the technology they will use during the summer.
In addition, S&C offers a wide variety of training programs and skills workshops over the course of the summer. In 2011, such programs included:
- Taking and Defending Depositions Workshop
- What's the Deal With Corporate Finance?
- In Law and War: An Introduction to Negotiation Skills

Each summer associate is assigned a partner advisor, an associate advisor, and a junior associate “buddy.” The partner and associate advisors are selected primarily on the basis of the summer associate’s expressed interest in specific practice groups. The goal is for each summer associate both to work and socialize with his or her advisors during the course of the summer. The junior associate buddy is selected based on the summer associate’s outside interests, prior experiences, law school affiliation, and/or other relevant factors.
Partner and associate advisors are intended to be the primary sources of work assignments for each summer associate. Additionally, associate work assignment coordinators in the four main practice groups – Estates & Personal, General Practice (Corporate), Litigation, and Tax – and a Pro Bono work coordinator are charged with distributing assignments to the summer associates. The work assignment coordinators attempt to match available assignments with summer associates’ expressed areas of interest.
Any summer associate who spends nine or more weeks of the summer at S&C receives two formal reviews: one in mid-summer and a final evaluation. The reviews are conducted by the summer associate’s partner advisor, based on feedback received from the lawyers with whom the summer associate has worked.

Summer associates may request placement in one of our foreign offices for four to six weeks or they may elect to split their summer between two domestic offices, subject to space and staffing needs. In 2011, ten summer associates spent time in one of our foreign offices, and two summer associates split their time between two domestic offices.
Although S&C discourages splitting the summer with another firm, S&C will consider allowing a split with a firm in a different city, provided the first eight weeks are spent at S&C. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.
Every year, S&C offers a limited number of two-week externship opportunities at a variety of public service organizations through the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.