Summer Program Stats
No. of Summer Associates (2024): 50 total (40 2Ls; 10 1Ls)
No. of 2L Offers (2023): 35 out of 38
Summer Associate Salary:
$4,327 weekly
Summer Program Length:
10 weeks
Summer Program Contact
Sonya Wilson
Firmwide Director - Associate Recruiting
615-622-3591
sonya.wilson@pillsburylaw.com
1L Summers: Yes
Assigned to Specific Practice Area: No
Split Summer with Another Firm: No
Split Summer with Another Office: No
When Does Firm Begin Accepting Resumes for Summer Program: Applications for summer associate positions will open in May on our firm website. We will also be attending OCI.
Offices with a Summer Program
- Austin
- Houston
- Los Angeles
- McLean
- New York
- Palo Alto
- Sacramento
- San Francisco
- Washington, DC
Schools Firm Visits for OCI
- Berkeley Law
- Brooklyn Law School
- Columbia Law School
- Duke University School of Law
- Fordham University School of Law
- George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
- Georgetown Law
- George Washington University Law School
- Harvard Law School
- Howard University School of Law
- Indiana University Maurer School of Law
- LMU Loyola Law School
- Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
- NYU Law
- Santa Clara Law
- Stanford Law School
- St. John's University School of Law
- Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law
- UC Davis School of Law
- UC Irvine School of Law
- UCLA School of Law
- UC Law SF
- University of Miami School of Law
- University of Michigan Law School
- University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
- University of Texas at Austin School of Law
- University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
- University of Virginia School of Law
- USC Gould School of Law
Career Fairs Attended
- Bay Area Diversity Job Fair
- Cornell Law School New York Job Fair
- Lavender Law Career Fair
- Loyola Patent Law Interview Program
- Northeast BLSA Job Fair
- The Law Consortium: DC Program
- Vanderbilt Job Fair
Our Survey Says
- “I enjoyed the fact that we had the opportunity to choose from a bank of assignments over the summer to gain substantive experience. This allowed us to work with many different senior associates and partners and be exposed to different practice areas.”
- “All the assignments I did were real work for real clients. They were substantive, covered a wide range of topics in corporate law (I was already in the corporate & securities practice group as a summer associate) and varied in forms. I did research assignments, where the research memos were directly sent to clients. I also drafted several ancillary documents for Series A Financings; they were great learning experiences. I also received valuable feedback on the work that I performed. I was able to work directly with partners as well as other associates.”
- “I received varied assignments over the summer in multiple practice areas and with a number of different partners and senior associates. For many of these, I received feedback. I was able to choose, to some extent, which areas I wanted to explore.”
- “I was encouraged to reach out to partners working in areas of interest directly as well as to pull work down from a shared work portal. This allowed me to try various assignments to get to know practice areas and different attorneys at the firm. All of the work that we were provided was substantive (i.e., if we did not do the assignment, another associate or partner would need to as the work that needed to be done). No work was ‘made up’ for the summers (with an exception for assignments given through the program specifically for training like the summer associate writing project).”
- “Social events include lunches, dinners, and group activities such as sporting events, cooking classes, and happy hours.”
- “Very small summer class so we were close. There were lots of interactions with firm associates, which was the main reason I came back.”
- “The firm did a great job at organizing social events such as attending baseball games, office happy hours, a pottery class, and other events. Attorneys from all levels of seniority also made themselves very available for lunch or coffee to talk about their experiences at Pillsbury and for general career advice. We definitely built a strong bond amongst the summer associates in the office and with those in other offices too.”
- “Everyone has a quiet, calm sense of confidence at Pillsbury, and I think the summer events were a reflection of that. Events were fun and unpretentious (i.e., you actually have fun!). And a good mix of attorneys at different levels attended.”
- “Work-life balance is better than I expected. I have been pleasantly surprised by how involved I am with crucial aspects of matters and handling client relationships.”
- “I have been surprised by the variety of work available to me as a first year compared with my summer program. My impression from the summer program was that my work would primarily be legal research and drafting short motions. But as a first year, I have also participated in site visits with clients, many litigation strategy meetings, and more.”
- “I would say that the summer associate program is very good at providing work that one would receive as a first-year associate. Some of the projects I worked on over the summer I was able to pick up again starting as a first year. I worked repeatedly with the associates and partners I work with now and was able to ascertain over the summer everyone's work styles. This was very helpful in starting as a first year.”
- “I think the biggest difference is that the process of getting work as an associate changed from a portal to in-person networking.”
- “I had a blast at our whitewater rafting event!”
- “Just cocktails with the partners, hearing their stories and learning about their professional trajectories.”
- “We had a West Coast conference where we got to meet the summer associates that worked at the other California offices, which was really nice.”
The Firm Says
Pillsbury’s summer associates experience the firm’s collaborative style by working side-by-side with attorneys in a variety of practice areas on industry and client teams and on issue-specific projects. Pillsbury University offers training on everything from legal writing to client service basics to effective networking. Formal reviews supplement the extemporaneous feedback provided to summer associates by our lawyers.