If you are a new lawyer joining us directly from law school, your professional development begins with the training you receive as a member of our New Lawyers Group. We might supplement that training by suggesting that you read The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law, written by our own Mark Herrmann. After that, in addition to the training you receive by working extensively with senior lawyers, you will participate in training programs offered Firmwide and within your area of practice. Programs offered to associates on a Firmwide basis have included accounting for lawyers, fact investigation, client interviews, business development, negotiation skills, loss prevention, ethics, and courses on improving oral communications and legal writing. Practice-specific programs offered within the last year included labor and employment developments, executive compensation, arbitration clauses, e-discovery, trial graphics, depositions, expert testimony, trademark infringement, and antitrust basics. Associates in our litigation practices have the opportunity to attend week-long trial advocacy programs approved by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). In addition, the practice groups convene meetings of their associates from time to time to provide the associates with opportunities to participate in group training programs, share best practices, and get to know one another. In jurisdictions with continuing legal education requirements, the Firm provides programs in-house to help associates meet their annual CLE requirements; we also offer free access to CLE programs conducted by outside instructors.
To supplement our training programs, we offer an Associate Development Program, which is designed to promote thoughtful career planning and structured career development. The hallmark of the program is participation by each associate in personalized, one-on-one conferences with practice leaders in which he or she can set long-and short-term goals and develop a plan to achieve them.
The Associate Development Program supplements our annual review process, in which each associate is given detailed feedback on his or her performance throughout the past year by the senior lawyers who have supervised the associate's work. Each supervising lawyer prepares a written evaluation of the associate, focusing on strengths, weaknesses, and suggested areas for improvement. The evaluations are discussed with the associate at the end of the year and are used in determining compensation for the following year.