Summer Associate Program
Our Summer Associate Program is an important source of new lawyers. In fact, the vast majority of our associates were participants in our Summer Associate Program. For that reason, we maintain high standards in the selection process. We recognize that the program should give each summer associate a realistic impression of what the people and practice of Johnston Barton are all about. To that end, our program is designed to help us learn as much about you, and to help you learn as much about us as possible.
Our Summer Program begins by early July and lasts 6 weeks. It includes first-year and second-year law students. Our summer associates represent a variety of law schools throughout the United States. The 2007 Summer Program consisted of 12 Summer Associates from 8 different schools, including the University of Alabama, Cumberland School of Law, University of North Carolina, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, The University of Virginia and the University of Texas and Howard University.
There Is Plenty Of Real Work To Do
We have no formal "rotation" among our Legal Practice Areas. We purposely do not assign or rotate summer associates to a particular department; rather, we coordinate work assignments so that each summer associate is exposed to numerous attorneys and practice areas. When practicable, we attempt to involve summer associates directly in client contact, not merely the performance of specific, isolated tasks. If a summer associate has a particular area of interest, extra effort is made to provide exposure to that practice group.
A summer with us provides experiences as a new lawyer. Summer associates are involved in significant research, writing and analysis, because those skills are the tools we use in our profession. We also involve our summer associates in trials, pretrial preparation, transactional closings, document preparation, client consultation, site visits and much more. These observation assignments are invaluable, as they show summer associates how practicing attorneys represent and advocate for their client's interests in real life settings.
Work projects are evaluated and discussed with summer associates by the assigning attorney. Summer associates also critique us. We also take into account the constructive input of our summer associates in designing our summer program.
Johnston Barton also provides summer associates more formal training through in-office seminars on a variety of legal and non-legal topics designed to add to their legal educational experience.
Mentoring
Each summer associate is assigned a mentor who is a partner in the firm and at least one associate mentor. Many mentors and summer associates build both professional and personal ties throughout the program while attending firm and private social events, as well as lunches with members of the firm. Our mentors help to guide summer associates through the program by offering assistance and advice, and facilitating feedback.
It’s Not All Work
A number of social activities are planned for our summer associates, such as athletic and cultural events, firm-wide parties, and informal after-work gatherings to help acquaint our summer associates with both Johnston Barton and the Birmingham Metropolitan Area. The social calendar also serves to help our summer associates get to know each other better as they progress through the program. Some of our past activities have included Atlanta Braves and Birmingham Baron’s baseball games, museum tours, tours of local television stations, tours of the Birmingham News, wine-tasting parties, dinners at the homes of some of our lawyers to name only a few.
Compensation for Summer Associates
2008 summer associates who have completed their first year in law school will be paid $1,100 per week. Summer associates who have completed their second year in law school will be paid $1,300 per week.
If you are interested in our summer associate program, please send your cover letter and résumé, with current GPA and class rank, if available, to:
no representation is made that the quality of the legal services
to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. ARPC 7.2(e)