“Pro bono work gives you an opportunity to have a direct impact on someone’s life—that’s why we all became lawyers.”
–– 1st Year Litigation Associate
Associate Perspectives
Our associates and summer associates are strongly encouraged to take on pro bono clients and, in doing so, have the opportunity to hone their legal skills while making a meaningful difference in the lives of others.
“This is part of why I wanted to become a lawyer, and I feel even more strongly about it now. There is so much work to be done in countless areas. To do even a small part feels good.”
– 1st Year Litigation Associate
“Being the first point of contact with the client and advising her face‑to‑face and on the phone helped me develop important communication skills. It required synthesizing complex issues into digestible messaging to the client, and I have palpably felt how that has benefitted my corporate practice.”
– 2nd Year Corporate Associate
“It was an opportunity to do things I otherwise wouldn’t have done—that’s the only way to learn and develop those skills. It was also rewarding to help an interesting cause that benefits society.”
– 1st Year Corporate Associate
“With a pro bono client, you sometimes experience the client’s awe that you are doing this for them—‘This is too good to be true!’ It’s really rewarding to make such an impact on someone’s life.”
– 3rd Year Corporate Associate
“[We] handled a mini‑trial over two or three afternoons, providing us both with unbelievable professional experience and ultimately providing our client with a great outcome to an issue that has plagued her and her family for years. That is immensely gratifying.”
– 6th Year Litigation Associate
“I think signing up for that first project can be the most difficult step, oddly enough, because there is concern about competing time demands. But once you do one and realize how manageable it is, and how rewarding, then the ball is rolling.”
– 2nd Year Corporate Associate
“We not only provided advice on the dispassionate financial and property‑management issues, but also on strategic considerations involving personal and family dynamics.”
– 4th Year Trusts and Estate Associate
“Nonprofit organizations aren’t something we handle on a daily basis in our department, so it’s really neat to learn a new area of the law. It’s also nice to take a lead role on a project.”
– 2nd Year Tax Associate
“The client took a team approach, saying ‘We are thinking of going in this direction. What do you think?’ They are new and growing, and I’m a younger associate so it felt like everyone was in it together. I found that experience really rewarding.”
– 2nd Year Corporate Associate
“Non‑lawyers often have very good intuitions about why they should win, but they don’t express themselves using legal principles.”
– 5th Year Litigation Associate
“It can be overwhelming for the client to dig through the record on her own and pull out specific language from hundreds of pages of records and reports, so it’s very helpful to have advocates on your side.”
– 1st Year Litigation Associate
“These are great opportunities to work with more of the amazingly talented people at this Firm.”
– 2nd Year Corporate Associate
“The underlying substantive law was different from the kind I’m used to dealing with on a daily basis, but I was also able to leverage a lot of the skills I use from day to day, in terms of researching and analyzing the elements of the claim.”
– 3rd Year Litigation Associate
“In my rotation, I look at a lot of credit agreements that are precedent‑heavy. With this project, there were no precedents to work from, so it was the first time that I sat down and drafted something from scratch.”
– 2nd Year Corporate Associate
“It was really rewarding to know someone who was wronged actually did get justice in the end.”
–– 7th Year Litigation Associate
“We have great relationships with extremely knowledgeable [mentor] attorneys, who are always available for advice.”
– 6th Year Litigation Associate
“It can be a little daunting to take on a case on your own when you’re still a junior person at the Firm. One of my takeaways is that we were fully equipped and enabled to do this work. It was manageable with the rest of our work, and it provided us with the opportunity to do very meaningful work for a client who really needed it.”
– 1st Year Litigation Associate
