Summer Work Assignments

Work Assignments

During the summer, you can work on assignments from a variety of the firm’s departments or concentrate in a few practice areas. In either case, our goal is to allow you to work with many lawyers and on intellectually stimulating assignments—similar in complexity to those handled by junior associates—thereby giving you an opportunity to demonstrate your writing, analytical and advocacy skills. In addition, you will be given opportunities to learn about our practice by accompanying lawyers to depositions, hearings, trials, client meetings, negotiations and closings. We also encourage you to participate in pro bono work for the firm’s existing clients or in special summer associate programs such as those run in partnership with Greater Boston Legal Services, S.O.M.E. (So Others Might Eat), The Alliance for Children's Rights, and Bay Area Legal Aid.

You will be doing real work for real clients. See below for a sampling of summer associate assignments:

• Conduct legal research for a client who shares responsibility for $10 million worth of environmental clean-up and is concerned that the other involved party will file for bankruptcy to avoid its share of the clean-up costs.
• Prepare for and participate in an interview of an employee-witness in action brought by institutional investors against a large financial firm.
• Organize an overview of current Chinese policies on climate change for a coalition of large EU and US clean technology companies assessing the challenges of getting this country involved in their movement.
• Draft a memorandum suggesting potential forms of compensation or legal action for a man seeking to vacate a murder conviction after 26 years in prison based on newly discovered evidence that proves his innocence.
• Research, draft bylaws and articles of incorporation, and outline a plan of a merger agreement for a business that is considering merging into a newly established Delaware corporation.
• Join a team of attorneys preparing several witnesses to testify at the trial of the former head of a Russian oil company in Moscow. Assist with creating preparation outlines and researching Russian criminal procedure, as well as monitoring the trial, updating attorneys on the proceedings, and modifying preparation plans as appropriate.
• Examine country conditions in Tibet to support an application for asylum. Draft a letter brief based on current country reports and the client’s declaration and application for submission to USCIS.
• Conduct research for a high profile technology client that has been sued for the infringement of three patents.
• Compose a memorandum regarding the legal issues an entrepreneur needs to be mindful of in the early stages of companies. The memo will be given to clients of newly-formed companies in order to provide a simple overview of ongoing legal issues that will arise and may hamper their efforts to obtain venture capital financing.
• Investigate the latest developments in cyber security on Capitol Hill, in the administration and in the industry.
• Attend interviews of employees of a client involved in an IP litigation matter concerning a generic challenge to a drug indicated for treatment of patients with acute coronary syndrome, including patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.