The firm recruits five categories of personnel: recent graduates of a United States law school; United States law school graduates with previous experience in the private or public sector, experienced lawyers; students in a United States law school, during the summer following their second year; foreign lawyers; paralegals accounting, administrative, and support personnel.
Recent U.S. Graduates
We encourage applications from third year students with outstanding academic qualifications in an accredited United States Law School seeking employment as first year associates.
The firm evaluates all candidates on the basis of their demonstrated evidence of character, leadership qualities, intelligence, legal aptitude, energy and ambition to live greatly in the law. To each successful candidate, the firm assigns a mentor to supervise the newly hired lawyer’s professional development, and to assure that he or she has a broad exposure to various legal specialties. Throughout the associate’s career, regular evaluations are made of his or her performance.
Every newly hired associate is considered to be eligible for partnership. The partners recognize their responsibility to prepare each associate to stand for election to the partnership. Such election is based upon the associate’s demonstrated competence, ability to work without direct supervision, to cooperate with colleagues, to secure the confidence of clients, and to advance the practice and reputation of the firm.
The Firm’s compensation program for partners is based not on their seniority but rather on their respective capacities to secure the satisfaction of the firm’s clientele, and to increase demand for its professional services, in performing challenging assignments.
Experienced Lawyers
The firm accepts applications from lawyers whose service in the public or private sector subsequent to their law school graduation has prepared them for lateral entry as a partner, counsel or senior associate.
Second Year Law Students
The firm accepts applications from students who have successfully completed 2 years of study in a United States law school and who wish to have experience with a law firm during the summer as an aid to finding permanent employment. The firm considers its responsibility to acquaint such students with a full range of our legal practice, and also to introduce them to the firm’s collegial and sporting activities, as well as to activities of the organized bar.
Foreign Lawyers
During most of the firm’s forty years of existence, it has provided an apprenticeship for foreign lawyers who recognize the value of experience in a U.S. law firm before returning to their home countries. Traditionally, these foreign trainees have completed at least one year of study in a United States law school. The firm’s experience indicates that academic and practical training in the common law, and its methods of research and analysis, are an important basis for a productive multinational practice in other countries. At the request of the German government, the firm also accepts applications from referendars who have a high degree of fluency in the English language, even though they have not had a full year of experience in a United States law school.
The apprenticeship for a foreign lawyer is usually from four to six months. Frequently this apprenticeship is sufficient, together with a Bar review course, to permit the foreign lawyer to pass the bar examination and to become a member of the New York Bar before returning to the country of origin.
Administrative, Paralegal and Support Personnel
The firm’s accounting and bookkeeping personnel are employed with respect to the firm’s finances and those of its clients. The firm employs administrative assistants with clerical skills and, preferably, linguistic skills to work with the lawyers in servicing the clients. The firm hires paralegals who are usually college graduates with a particular interest in a legal specialty and who are interested in law firm experience to evaluate the possibility of applying to law school. The firm employs support personnel, including IT professionals, librarians and messengers.