Perhaps it was the unexpected pay raise in June or the usual parade of social events meant to dazzle soon-to-be law school graduates, or a combination of the two. Either way, the roughly 4,200 would-be lawyers who responded to The American Lawyer’s annual Summer Associates Survey reported that 2016 was another good year to be a summer associate.
This year’s crop of rising second- and third-year law school students who accepted 10-week posts at law firms started the summer with the news that should they receive a job offer, many would be making $180,000, rather than $160,000, in their first year. That boost was followed by a Beyoncé concert at about half a dozen firms; tickets to the musical “Hamilton” at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and McDermott Will & Emery; a sailing trip in England hosted by Cravath Swaine & Moore; and Scotch night at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, as well as baseball games, wine tastings, karaoke nights and countless lunches and dinners at the 93 law firms that were included in our survey.
