Yvette Ostolaza, managing partner of the Dallas office of Sidley Austin, spent the weekend calling 18 summer recruits to let them know that the law firm is starting its summer clerkship program two weeks later than planned due to COVID-19 and that all recruits will be paid in full. Partners in Sidley’s Houston office contacted the 16 students scheduled to report the third week of May to give them the same news.
“The primary purpose of my call was to make sure that they were OK and healthy, to let them know that we are OK and to relieve any fear or stress they had about our commitment to them,” said Ostolaza, who is a member of Sidley’s global executive committee. “The key was to provide them assurance and stability.”
Corporate law firm leaders across Texas are scrambling to figure out what to tell the hundreds of increasingly nervous law students scheduled to participate in summer associate programs scheduled to start in about six weeks.
More than 700 first- and second-year law students from more than two-dozen law schools across the country accepted offers from about 50 law firms in Texas to spend eight to 12 weeks this summer with their likely future employer.
But COVID-19 and the stay-at-home orders have complicated those plans.
“Summer programs are all about getting people together,” Ostolaza said. “The partners want to get to know the summer associates to make sure they are a good fit for the firm, and the law students want to experience firsthand the daily operations and feel of the law firm.”
The Texas Lawbook surveyed more than a dozen law firm leaders in Texas. All said they plan to move forward as planned, but all said they recognize the need for adjustments to their summer associate programs.
“We are considering a whole array of possibilities for our summer program,” Vinson & Elkins chairman Mark Kelly said. “First, we are not sure if our lawyers will be back to work by the middle to end of May. We are not sure if the students will be able to travel to our offices. Decisions are being made in real time because things are changing so fast.”
V&E has 100 summer associates scheduled to report to their various offices.
“I really want to see the summer associates and interact with them,” Kelly said. “We could end up going to a six-week summer program instead of 10 weeks. I think we can get a good feel for them in six weeks. But no decision has been made.”
Haynes and Boone managing partner Tim Powers said the firm has told the 60 students scheduled to show up in May that the summer program is still a go.
“We know summer associates are having a lot of anxiety about what is happening now and worried about their future, but these folks are the future life blood of our law firm,” Powers said. “We will have a summer program. It may be modified a little, or it may look radically different. But we end up making offers to more than 90% of our summer associates anyway.”
Tom Melsheimer, managing partner of the Dallas office of Winston & Strawn, said the plan at this point is to start the summer program as scheduled, “though I recognize that is highly optimistic.”
“No law students should be worried about their jobs or getting paid,” he said. “No one at our firm is talking about cutting back. Because of COVID-19, law students already have a lot on their minds. It is highly likely that even under the worst scenario that we would just make offers to them anyway.”
“Back in the old days, law firms made offers to 60% or 70% of their summer associates,” he said. “Now, firms brag about making offers to 95% or 100% of their summer clerks.”
Melsheimer said the firm could look at various options, including delaying the start of the summer program “by two or three weeks or maybe a little more” or having some of the summer associates work remotely.
Kirkland & Ellis partner Andy Calder said that the firm has contacted all 60 of its summer associates scheduled to work at the firm’s Dallas and Houston offices to tell them nothing has changed.
“We wanted to give them the comfort they need and to let them know that we still want them at Kirkland,” he said.
Mike Stenglein, managing partner of King & Spalding’s Austin operation, said that it is “too early to tell what is going to happen or how we will have to adjust,” though he added that the summer associates should know that they are a priority for the law firm.
“Summer programs are about building relationships, and they are very important,” Stenglein said. “These students are the future.”