Small is beautiful, at least in the eyes of 2007′s summer associates in the US. While respondents to The American Lawyer‘s Summer Associates Survey liked big firms, they liked life at small to mid-sized firms even better. Students craved juicy assignments, friendly offices and lots of attention; the firms that best satisfied these needs were medium-sized shops with relatively small summer programmes.
Of the top 20 ranked firms, only four had summer programmes with more than 100 clerks, while nine hired 30 or fewer summer associates. Students most commonly cited firm reputation as a factor influencing their clerkship decision, but that does not mean the behemoths of the legal world always have the upper hand in winning over law students.
