Venable LLP

Training & Assignments

• “The summer associate program provides excellent substantive work experience that can be customized to your practice area interests. The majority of matters I worked on were billable, which I appreciated tremendously. Our assignment coordinators assisted in workload management, and helped find projects in our interest areas, to ensure we had a range of experiences.” 
• “The firm values input from its summer associates. The work is well coordinated, and provides options from which the summers can choose. This system allows summers to get a feel for the work and people in different practice groups, before designating their practice group preferences.  It is centralized and overseen by senior associates, who monitor the summer workloads, and put the summers in a position to succeed; these senior associates also offer candid and helpful advice via weekly meetings. But the system itself isn't too rigid, and summers are also encouraged to seek out work directly from lawyers in practice groups in which the summers are interested.” 
• “I got to try a variety of work across different practice areas, and established relationships with attorneys that I am now working with today. It never felt like busywork, and the attorneys, time permitting, were always happy to chat about what we were doing, why we were doing it, and any questions we had.”

Social Opportunities

• “Our summer associate program was in hybrid format, and the firm did an exceptional job arranging thoughtful in-person and online activities. These activities created a deep sense of camaraderie among our summer associate class. Largely due to the pandemic, firm attorneys did not attend as many in-person events as I hoped, but were available for online meetings.”
• “The summer class is smaller, so you really form meaningful relationships with the other summer associates. I consider most in my class to be friends, and even formed a book club with a few!”
• “The firm has many social events to allow summer associates to get to know firm attorneys, but it is not overwhelming. My best guess would be about one to two firm-planned events per week. Some events are organized to allow the summer associates to network and connect with different groups, such as junior attorneys or partners.”

Associate Experience vs. Summer Expectations

• “I received a lot of responsibility fairly quickly. Depending on the group, if partners can see that you can handle the work being given to you, they will give you more responsibility earlier on. I also had client interaction as early as week three when I was a first year, which I was very surprised but happy about.”
• “I'm not sure anything can wholly prepare you for the demands and eccentricities of life as a first-year associate, but I thought the summer program provided us meaningful experience in interacting with partners, managing workload, and producing high-quality deliverables. I have been pleased that the majority of partners and associates in my practice group are accessible, friendly, and eager to work together. I do feel that my experience practicing has been different from the expectations I had as a summer associate, in that it sometimes takes more effort to get work than I expected it would.”
• “I really thought the camaraderie among attorneys at Venable was an act for recruiting and the summer program. I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that people at Venable really do enjoy working together and collaborating. I also feel like the ‘lifestyle factors’ that Venable prides itself on (i.e., humane hours) have also borne out in practice.”

Favorite Summer Events

• “We were able to visit the office in person during the final week of the summer. That week was the highlight of the events schedule (e.g., Orioles game, happy hours, just being able to meet in person).”
• “Cooking and mixology classes with partners, virtual ghost tour of DC, and in-person farewell reception on our office rooftop.”
• “My favorite summer events were the wine- and cheese-tasting night, and the mozzarella-making event.”

Venable provides summer associates with challenging and rewarding work in a collaborative and professional environment. We hold summer associate programs in six of our offices: Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Tysons, and Washington, DC. Our summer program is designed to give summer associates a realistic depiction of what life is like as a junior associate. An extensive orientation program, a broad selection of professional training workshops, and one-to-one mentoring from our exceptional lawyers makes Venable an incomparable place to launch your career. Beyond the benefits of training and mentoring, our program strives to promote a balance between meaningful work and engaging social events.