The paychecks still top $3,000 per week, and most summer associates are still expecting an invitation to come aboard their firms at six-figure salaries. But this year, worries about the rotten economy are likely to infiltrate small talk around the open bar at summer associate events.

"Everybody, I think, is at least psychologically affected," says Georgetown University Law Center's assistant dean of career services, Gihan Fernando, adding that his first- and second-year law students are "more thoughtful, more alert" about the job market.

In Washington, D.C., firms are reporting that -- at best -- they hired about the same number of summers as last year. Summer associates there may be the lucky ones. Some large New York-based firms slashed the size of their classes -- one by nearly 50 percent.

It may not get much better. This year's summers didn't get the full blast of the downturn, since recruiting happened months ago. In fact, nationwide, firms extended more offers of summer positions to second-year law students than at any time since before 2001, according to data from the National Association for Law Placement.

Carole Montgomery, who heads up career development at George Washington University Law School, says that chatter among her colleagues indicates that the full effect may be felt in the next two years. She's hopeful, however, that firms will be "more cautious" about cutting entry-level hiring than they've been during past recessions, when they've "slashed and burned" their starting ranks.

Still, the legal profession is already feeling the shock waves of the downturn, and, clearly, this just isn't a great time for students entering the job market. Last week, Chicago-based Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal announced layoffs of 37 lawyers and 87 staff across the firm. This spring, Atlanta's Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan relocated one attorney and laid off 13 others, including four in Washington. In January, New York's Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft nixed 35 lawyers. And legal blogs and discussion boards are filled with talk of firms trimming their payrolls by ones and twos.

Montgomery says, "All those 'I can only go to a large law firm' people" are starting to consider other options. She says her students are increasingly considering jobs in government or at smaller firms. "It's just a matter of them understanding that the entry-level job isn't the end-all, be-all."

STAGNANT SUMMER

Many D.C. firms were frugal with their hiring. Dickstein Shapiro's Washington office has 23 summer associates this year. Last year, the office had 24. Covington & Burling's D.C. class also barely budged from 63 to 64. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr's Washington class inched from 47 to 51. Hogan & Hartson saw its Washington summer class drop, from 85 to 76. Latham & Watkins has 38 Washington summer associates, down from last year's 49. And Patton Boggs has 13 D.C. summer associates, compared with 18 in 2007.

Another firm that bucked the trend was Arnold & Porter, whose D.C. class is up to 67 summer associates from 40 last year. "We had a very good acceptance rate this year. We were happy with it," says the firm's hiring committee co-chairman, D.C. partner Justin Antonipillai.

McDermott Will & Emery had a smaller firmwide summer class -- down 30 percent, from 129 to 90 -- but saw some growth in D.C. There, the firm's class increased from 22 to 28. Co-chair of McDermott Will's national recruiting committee, Chicago partner Lydia Kelley, says the firm reduced recruiting partially because of a high number of returning court clerks expected to join soon as first-year associates. However, she says, McDermott Will is "very mindful of wanting to keep our summer associates as busy as possible. ... In this economy, we know that that may be a challenge this summer."

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has 272 summer associates firmwide, compared with 321 last year. In D.C., the firm's class remained at 34 -- the same size as last year. At its New York headquarters, however, Skadden's summer class fell from 160 to 114 -- on par with the trend at other Manhattan firms.

Cadwalader, for one, chopped its firmwide summer class nearly in half, from 101 last year to 58 this year. The New York class is down from 75 to 47, and the Washington class was cut from 12 to six.

Despite Sutherland's recent layoffs in D.C., the firm's Washington summer class is up, from 16 to 22. Director of firmwide legal recruiting Melissa Wilson says the firm extended fewer offers, but had more students accept. Still, she says, Sutherland is prepared to make full-time offers to everyone.

THE FUN CONTINUES

While all this economic uncertainty certainly puts a damper on things, there is still plenty of playtime scheduled for this year's summers.

Cadwalader's New York summer class had a private Q&A session with Laurence Fishburne two weeks ago, after attending his Broadway show "Thurgood," a one-man play about the late Justice Thurgood Marshall. Weil, Gotshal & Manges is renting out an entire Nintendo store for its New York class to hold a Wii competition. In D.C., Crowell & Moring's summer associates took a tour of the city while riding on Segways, and the firm will host its annual black-tie-optional summer associate casino night at a Washington hotel. Patton Boggs' D.C. office will host a wine and cheese event where an artist will teach summer associates how to paint.

But many law students are well aware that the wine may one day stop flowing so freely. "I think the economy is something that we're all thinking about," says Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker summer associate Maria Tennyson. "You hear a lot of people talking about it at school."

Firms are already looking ahead to recruiting for next year's classes, since most law schools hold on-campus interviews in the summer and early fall.

Director of the office of career and professional development at American University Washington College of Law, Traci Jenkins, says there has not been a drop in the number of firms registered to conduct on-campus recruiting for 2009. The same is true at George Washington and Georgetown.

Though he says he expects a healthy fall recruiting season, Georgetown Law's Fernando says, "We have to wait and see what happens this coming year."