Summer Associate Program

SUMMER ASSOCIATE PROGRAM

As a summer associate at Shartsis Friese you will work closely with our attorneys on complex matters in areas such as corporate law, litigation, investment management, securities enforcement defense and real estate. Shartsis Friese is one of the few firms in San Francisco that offers the opportunity of working with top lawyers on important matters in a collegial, small-firm setting. As one of three or four summer associates, you won’t be lost in the crowd and will be counted on as a valuable member of the team. You will often work directly with senior partners.

The firm’s primary goal in bringing law students into the summer program is to find new attorneys to join our practice when they finish law school. To that end, we limit our summer program to the number of attorneys we are able to hire for the next year. We have had remarkable success in recruiting summer associates: in the past five years, we have made twelve summer offers, ten of which have been accepted.

Flexibility is a hallmark of our program. While we prefer that you join us for ten to twelve weeks, we only require a minimum of eight, and you can start whenever during the summer that you want. While you are here, our summer program coordinators will provide work for you from all areas of the firm’s practice, but they will tailor the assignments to your particular areas of interest. You will also be assigned a mentor, who will help you get started and keep in close touch with you throughout the summer to ensure that you enjoy your work and that the summer goes smoothly. This firm is not a formal place; you will quickly meet many other attorneys and staff members who can answer your questions and make your summer more valuable.

With our lean staffing, Shartsis Friese needs and expects more than research and memos from our summer associates (although there will be plenty of that, too). As a summer associate here, you might draft motions, write letters to clients and opposing counsel, prepare discovery pleadings, and draft contracts, all with one-on-one training and supervision. You will also participate in strategy sessions, client meetings, mediations and depositions. In addition to direct feedback from the attorneys with whom you are working, our summer associate coordinators and hiring partner will meet with you midway through the summer, to provide feedback, solicit your comments on the program and address any questions or concerns you may have.

While you will do important work here, we have no minimum billable hour expectation for our summer associates. We keep the assignments manageable so that there is time for you to attend depositions, oral arguments, meetings, negotiations and trials. You will also attend department meetings, firm meetings and practice group training sessions. Of course, you will have many opportunities to socialize with the attorneys and staff here, over lunch, at several special events and at softball games. In addition, to some standard summer associate events, you will also be treated to:

A home cooked meal at one of the Partner’s homes that revolves each year around the delicacies and wines of a different country
A trivia contest pitting the current year’s summer associate class against a prior year’s summer associate class.
PIG Dinners/Events-All attorneys are divided into several Personal Interaction Groups (“PIGS”) and each group meets quarterly for dinner or some other social event developed by the individual PIG. Summer associates are invited to attend all PIGS during their stay.

By the end of your summer, you will have had the opportunity to meet almost every person in the firm, and hopefully will have developed a realistic and reliable view of who we are, what we do, and what it will be like to have a career here.

Salary and benefits are competitive with those offered by other San Francisco Bay Area law firms. For more information, contact Jason White, at (415) 421-6500 or jwhite@sflaw.com.

During the fall we conduct on-campus interviews at ten law schools and though we hire most of our summer associates from these schools, we welcome the students of other schools to submit their resumes to us for the coming summer.

Please see Attorney Recruiting for more information.

SUMMER ASSOCIATE PROGRAM

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