Wilson Sonsini

Training & Assignments

• “The work was substantive and helped prepare me to be an associate. There was clear communication from senior associates and partners as to what was expected and an open door policy with partners to help in the training process.”
• “I was given substantive work and clear directions to follow. I was able to attend client meetings via a shadowing program and was able to work on actual agreements. There were client research assignments, but they did not take up too much of my time over the summer.”
• “There was training for at least the first three weeks on various topics. My work assignments were directly from the group I would be joining and ranged from legal research to assisting in preparing drafts of short motions or documents, as well as reviewing larger documents.”
• “Attorneys attempted to give summer [associates] engaging assignments, which helped shape expectations of the work we would do as full time associates.”

Social Opportunities

• “We had awesome social events with a ton of attendance from attorneys, including happy hours, a Giants game, a sailing event on the Bay, a cake decorating contest at the office, and a food truck dinner. We had a great summer associate class and are still close as associates, often getting together outside of the office.”
• “The firm held numerous social events which helped summer [associates] form relationships with firm attorneys.”
• “Several social events at a variety of venues, including dinners, lunches, baseball games, team bonding and networking activities, and volunteer involvement with the community.”
• “The social interaction was great—I felt it was easy to connect with the other attorneys and there was a lot of camaraderie among the summer associates that made them easy to reach out to as support during my first and second year as an associate.”

Associate Experience vs. Summer Expectations

• “No promises or impressions were made that didn’t comport with reality. They were clear that the summer was supposed to be an enjoyable time when we could get to know the firm and its attorneys, along with doing assignments that would be representative of our future work as associates. It was clear that the work would ramp up as an actual associate, which it did.”
• “It’s pretty similar to my summer. I work with the same team and even on some of the same matters I was on as a summer [associate]. My work as a summer [associate] was mostly substantive and my work is even more substantive now.”
• “My experience has been very similar to that of summer associate life. The work is similar, and the attorneys are all equally welcoming to summer associates and first-year associates alike. Summer associates more often have work assigned to them, while associates need to look for work.”
• “The experience is the same, just with a heavier workload. The summer experience gave an honest preview of associate life.”

Favorite Summer Events

• “We did an escape room, which was especially fun as a group activity to get to know people’s problem-solving skills and personalities.”
• “A weekend getaway to Santa Cruz.”
• “The Giants baseball game.”
• “The talent show at the end of the summer!”

Our summer program offers a unique opportunity to work with the leading provider of legal services to technology, life sciences, and other growth enterprises worldwide. Summer at our firm incorporates many things important to our culture: challenging and varied assignments, direct working relationships with our innovative clients, training on key legal and professional skills, meeting a wide range of attorneys, a comprehensive training program, and exciting social activities that take advantage of our locations in technology centers around the country. With our innovative culture, the transition to a virtual program was seamless. Our third Annual Build-A-Bot challenge afforded summers the opportunity to work with a legal tech start-up to construct document automation workflows. We provided opportunities to give back by incorporating a Juneteenth Day of Service, as well as The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Project. In addition to an already robust program of training, work and shadowing opportunities, we hosted many networking, social and activity-based events.