Founded in 1949, Sullivan & Cromwell’s Visiting Lawyers Program provides practical training in the United States to visiting lawyers who plan to return to their home countries to practice law.

With 255 alumni in 42 countries, the hallmark of the Firm’s Visiting Lawyers Program has been the substantive nature of the experience provided: our visiting lawyers do not learn by observing others at work, they learn by active involvement in transactions. The Firm believes that it is difficult to provide meaningful exposure to U.S. practice in a short time. Accordingly, the program begins in September of each year and participants generally are at the Firm for a term of nine months.

S&C’s visiting lawyers are actively involved in the client work of the office. They are generally expected to perform legal work at the level of a regular U.S.-trained junior associate, and they join teams of S&C lawyers assigned to client matters. They also participate in the Firm’s formal training programs for new associates.

Most visiting lawyers are assigned to our General Practice group, which covers all the corporate, financial and other transactional practices of the Firm. Members of the program are welcome to become involved in litigation and tax assignments, and a few have made these the areas of their principal concentration.

Like our regular associates, our visiting lawyers do not work solely with one or a few designated partners. Over the course of their stay with S&C, they work with many different partners and other associates. Visiting lawyers receive their assignments through the same assignments system as regular associates, although the administrators of the program, particularly at the beginning of the year, make a special effort to ensure that all the members of the program are receiving the sorts of assignments that they desire.