Our 10-week program gives students completing their second year of law school a sense of life as an Associate. The culture of our program allows Summer Associates to complete challenging work that supports both Calfee’s success and your professional goals.
The Summer Experience
The Calfee summer experience combines meaningful work, regular feedback, professional relationships, and learning opportunities. Summer Associates work with a variety of attorneys and practice areas across the firm.
In the spring, we survey our incoming Summer Associates to get a sense of their practice area interests. We try to match Summer Associates with an Associate advisor in their area of interest and over the course of the summer our Summer Associates develop relationships with several attorneys who offer valuable guidance as well.
Assigning attorneys will complete evaluations after Summer Associates finish their individual projects. Each attorney is encouraged to provide feedback to Summer Associates to help them grow in the practice of law. The best feedback often comes informally, through one’s advisor, the Legal Recruiting & Professional Development team, and other relationships developed throughout the program. A review of each Summer Associate’s work happens midway through the summer program.
We also prioritize opportunities for our Summer Associates to get to know Calfee’s greatest asset – our people. Summer Associates participate in a comprehensive Orientation and Welcome in our Cleveland office, as well as practice group meetings and social activities throughout the summer. At our annual Welcome Reception, through coffee or lunch meetings with our attorneys, and at other carefully cultivated opportunities, our Summer Associates get to know their colleagues, develop their skills, and learn about the firm.
While Calfee's goals for our Summer Associate Program are to provide interesting, meaningful work experiences and enjoyable social interactions, our attorneys inevitably benefit from the summer experience as well. We have enjoyed meeting so many exceptional students from across the country whose talents, personalities, and contributions have made a positive and memorable impact on the firm. Our attorneys are committed to maintaining this mutually rewarding tradition.
Selecting Our Summer Associates
In addition to collaborating with law schools to take part in campus recruiting programs, we post our Summer Associate position on our Careers page to accept direct applications from talented students. In reviewing candidates, we evaluate academic achievement, previous employment experience, extracurricular involvement in schools, interpersonal skills and genuine interest in practicing law within our community and at Calfee in particular.
Calfee's goals for our Summer Associate Program are to provide interesting, meaningful work experiences and enjoyable social interactions. Summer Associates complete meaningful work that is directly or indirectly needed to serve our clients while learning what it means to be a part of the Calfee team.
Since joining Calfee, my legal knowledge has grown immensely thanks to support from my colleagues. However, my favorite distinguishing factor about Calfee is they not only care about you as a lawyer, but they also care about you as a person. Calfee is building great lawyers because it is made up of individuals with good character.