Where the hell is Choate?

I know a lot of firms in D.C. are paying summers 2800/week and first years 3100/week. Sounds bush league to me, but I guess that's what separates the tiers now.

Oh boo hoo. Give me a friggin' break you snotty little whiney bitch. Complaining over a lousy $300 when you're making $2,800, but deserve about one tenth of that. Sniveling little punks like you make me want to puke.

In by 9 out by 6.... two hour lunches for free... non-stop happy hours and social events.... and this person is complaining about $2,800 a week?!?!

White & Case is doing the same thing in DC.....

remember, firms hire summers to RECRUIT.

Choate, Hall, & Stewart. Very good reputation Boston-only firm w/ 200+ atty's...and a $160k salary.

methinks the minions doth protest too much.

The commenters above are whinier than the associates. (Jelous much?)

I'm no longer a summer, and I sympathize with those that believe a summer's work may not be worth $2,800 a week (much less $3,100).

However, I think the WilmerHale summers (and those in similar situations) suffer from a different problem. Their contention is not that they deserve $3,100 a week for the work they perform, rather they were promised the salary of an associate who was in her first year at the firm. In this instance that is $300 a week less than what they are making.

In fact, this particular WilmerHale summer acknowleges that the difference seems insubstantial, but would like to voice his concern without directly alerting people at his firm who control whether or not he receives an offer.

Again, the previous commentors are correct in that the work does not justify the salary, but a summer's life is a boondoggle. That's justified as the firm's recruiting effort.

If you use this thought process, it seems a fair question as to whether they receive the same price as a first year associate since that is what they were promised.

Who cares what they do in exchange for their salary?? The only relevant point is that if a Firm wants to be viewed as paying "market," then they should pay market. It's as simple as supply and demand. They presumably want to the top talent of the summer associate pool, so there's no reason to not pay them what they could get at other firms.

The salary they get, as well as junior BigLaw associates (and their billing rates for that matter), are not indicators of intrinsic value; they are the results of the laws of supply and demand.

brown rudnick is also at 3100 a week for summmers

Who cares? This is a non-story. As others have said, the summers should be thankful to get paid as much as they do.

i love how people are angry at the summers for wanting more money. it's not like they're just blowing the cash. i would assume that most have rent, tuition, debt, etc. maybe if law school didn't cost $40,000 a year (for a room and a podium), summers wouldn't be so desperate for cash.

I don't think they were promised a salary equal to what the first years make. I think they were promised $2800/week. Come on people, contracts 101.

Waaaaaa. And your bar card is where? And you are worth what without a license or a degree? Ok, Quit crying and understand your role.

People why all the bitterness? Many of you sound like L2L.

L2L where have you gone? Your bitching was kind of funny.

I heard they're keeping summer pay low to make up for unnecessary new hires in their northeastern office.

get a life

Summers should be paid more than market, for no other reason than they'll probably be forced to make awkward cocktail chatter with anon @ 11:10 a, 11:10 b, 11:25 b, and 11:49 at some point.

Summers to 190!

Bitter? Jelous [sic]?

Please. Yea, I want to be a 24 year old obnoxious idiot. Striving for a career of utter meaninglessness. Not for all the money in the world.

You'll learn.

Go read and outline dick wrinkle.

You probably just have to ask.

Went through a similar deal two summers ago (with summers earning less than the first-year rate). A couple weeks into summer, a rival firm in town raised their summers to the first-year level. My firm did not for a couple weeks. Then another summer asked one of the attorneys in charge of the summer program why that was. They hadn't realized that the other firm had raised m inclined to believe them, actually); we had our (retroactive to start of summer) raise by the close of business. The summer who complained works there now, so obviously it did not affect his status materially.

WilmerHale probably realizes exactly what they are doing, but I would still be surprised if they did not bump you if someone asked them about it directly (what are they going to say, no? When does that ever happen in the summer program?).

Gotta love all the haters who would be all over Lat begging for exposure if they were in these summers' shoes. It's not like a summer associate pay hike in any way affects y'all (unless you're a really juvenile equity partner).

"Envy is the worst of the seven deadly sins because it is the only one you can't enjoy." -Charlie Munger

To the summer who emailed and others in the same position: will you have to think harder about accepting a permanent offer from your firm based on their miserliness over the summer or will it not matter as you will be making 160k as a first-year no matter where you go?

"lo, however"? that english major should count his blessings.

obviously summers don't "earn" half of the salaries they get at biglaw firms. as some other posters have noted, i don't think this is the point of the "whining." the point, rather, is that the summer associateship is essentially the first opportunity that law students have to start paying off credit cards and and other quickly escalating loans and debts. it would be stupid for them to not question why their firm doesnt apply the associates' $300 a week raise to the summers, esp. when competing firms are already doing so. but it probably would also be stupid to start marching around the firm demanding the 300 dollars, especially considering the risk that someone they talk to might be a person of the "god, you disgust me for whining about getting a measly 2800 instead of 3100 for doing jack shit" mindset.

more money = paying off more loans;
but
(approaching cranky head honcho about getting more money) x (minute probability of said head honcho seeing the approaching as opportunity to refuse to give offer at end of summer) = might be a bad idea

as a fellow summer here in boston who does not share the wilmer summer's predicament (at goodwin actually - and yes, we get the 3100...ha!) i can at least see how the summers might be a bit hesitant to act.

This summer should be a tad worried that his / her writing style is fairly unique and identifiable.

yea - good call, i bet the big writing style identifier machine wilmer bought with all the money it saved from not paying the summers 3100 is on the job capturing this bastard as we speak

11:28 does have a point. Looking back to the original language:

"Now, for whatever reason, the general consensus among the summers is that we've been led to believe that the salary hike for associates applies to the weekly rate that summers are paid as well (meaning we should be getting 3100 per week)."

I suppose more details about the alleged promise (or whatever conduct "led" the summers to "believe" what their salary would be"). I have to guess that if the summers had to come to a consensus, things are pretty damn ambiguous.

What a dweeb. And this is a horribly fractured construction: "drawn out jumping-of-Boston-firms." ???

The writing style is breezy and fatuous---not particularly unique.

who needs a writing identifier machine? someone should just scan the wilmer summer roster and find the english major from a crappy college. and lo, it will be mission accomplished.

Seyfarth summers in Chicago are getting 2,800 not because the new salary has not yet kicked in, but because the firm refuses to raise. Write about that ATL!

I heard a DC summer brought up the topic with a couple of junior associates and other summers at some event after work. The next morning, all of the summers in attendance were called in to their partner mentors' offices and informed that such questions were inadvisable if they wanted a future with the firm.

1:07, I heard the same story. I believe there is one summer that has repeatedly brought up the issue.

1:07 - DAYYYUUUMMMM!!!!

The process of getting into the law in this country is ridiculous. Summers should only make a THIRD of what they make and first years should only make HALF of what we make and be required to affix "Trainee" to everything. Perhaps that way partners would be reminded that first years know jack shit and should be given the benefit of the doubt once in a while.

Kiss my ass, stupid selfish summers. Sounds like Wilmer hired a bunch of self-involved pricks. Go figure.

Gallion OUT!

Summers are both paranoid and shortsighted. Think: what would be best for the firm and my offer? Would it be better if

a) I discretely approach a partner supervising the summer program to tell her that the summers are wondering about raises ("not me, of course, but I know it's hard to guage how the summers are doing and I thought you might like to know this.") or

b) Send a message to a legal gossip site that gives the firm bad publicity?

If the firm finds out b, you're toast. If it doesn't give you an offer because of a, the place is irrational and you don't want to work there anyway.

>I heard a DC summer brought up the topic with a couple of junior associates and other summers at some event after work. The next morning, all of the summers in attendance were called in to their partner mentors' offices and informed that such questions were inadvisable if they wanted a future with the firm.

Holy Crap! so much for 1:18's comment.

It's laughable that the whiny, money-grubbers who typically read this blog are criticizing summer associates because they want their piece of the pie. However, I think 11:48 is correct that offer letters for summer associates generally only list a per week salary amount. If so, there's nothing misleading about not extending the pay raises to summer associates. Cheap, perhaps, but not misleading.

My firm here is paying the summers the same as first years.

I have pebbles in my shit bigger than most summers, and I pay much more attention to those pebbles than I would ever to 9 out of 10 of our firm's whining, over-entitled, little fucktards.

Hey summer-assholes, you don't like $2800 per week? Go fuck yourselves. Try working for Dick and Fuckstien's Whatever-Walks-In-The-Door shop of horrors, "LLP."

I swear to fucking Christ that we should scrap this ass-backward system. Summers should be begging us to let them spend ten weeks sitting around fucking things up and generally being useless.

FUCK!

What is SV?

1:41: Agree completely. Hilarious, too. Whining pricks. Just wait, just wait.

who cares? i don't know why any firm has bothered to include summers in the pay raise this year. none of these wilmer summers is going to go out for 3L interviews and look for new employment because of this, since they'll be getting paid market as soon as they start full-time with wilmer. and no law student is going to avoid wilmer next year because of this, because next year the summers will be getting paid at the market rate (unless, i guess, there's another market raise that falls sometime during next summer--way too speculative to be a decision-maker). i don't know why my firm or any other firm is bothering to include these summers in the pay bump--they're just throwing away money.

1:41 - You may want to consider seeing a therapist over your anger management issues... or maybe you just need to get out and get laid...

As a summer, I find these comments to be mean spirited and unnecessary. Summers do work contrary to what people think. Our work is billed out. All we are saying is we deserve to be paid fair rates, and fair rates are what other comparable firms are paying. If you think that is too much, then you should also think that first years are being paid too much. I dont see any of those complaints; in fact it's the opposite. Sounds like alot of jealousy. You people had your fun as summer associates, now you feel disgruntled because you are not in that situation anymore and will never be. Sour grapes, me thinks.

Did the people who are complaining about summer associates not work as a summer associate when they were in law school? I was a summer associate in 2001, and one could have just as easily argued that we didn't deserve $2400/wk. But, I'm sure that posters like 1:41 and 1:55 think that whatever they complain about on a daily basis is the saddest sob story in the world. If you don't want to hear about petty nonsense, what are you doing on ATL in the first place?

Personally, I avoid summer associates. Most are fine, but the occasional seemingly entitled one ruins them all for me. They get paid way too much for too little in the hopes that they will come back to the firm. I loved it when I was a summer and I won't begrudge those who get to take advantage of it now. But every single person in the firm is aware of the life of a summer associate and if you are going to complain to anybody that you're being underpaid by $300 a week, you must have some pretty big kahones, my friend. Enjoy them. They will be crushed when you return after graduation.

1:41, it's adorable how you reject the equilibrium that the market has chosen. Careful, though -- I doubt you'd want your own salary put up to referendum among American workers.

Summer associate work is not billed. The firm asks you to keep track of your time so you can pretend to be a big lawyer, that's it. I would like to know what firm actually charges clients for summer associate work.

LOL. Wilmer seems to be filled with douchebags like this person.

Haha, 2:08 - often your work is just to see what you can do and associates will do the same thing in parallel (or at least fix all the stuff you messed up). Or you get a research assignment that no one else wants to do, and for which most of the time gets written off.

I agree that you should probably be paid fair rates, but don't try to argue that your work product is incredibly meaningful to the firm, because you're just undercutting your argument.

2:42,

I never suggested that the salaries of summer associates be "put up to referendum among American workers."

Thus, I couldn't give two fucking squirts what "American workers" think an appropriate salary for an experienced litigator at an elite commercial law firm should be paid. However, I care very much what the partners who employ me think my salary should be.

(And, you should know: They HATE parting with every dime they give to EACH of us, but nothing drives them more insane than lining the pockets of FUCKING SUMMERS.)

I am a senior associate at an amlaw 200 firm (in the midwest). I routinely bill portions of summer assignments done for my clients or for clients where I have billing responsibility (or review). I usually cut about 50% for most projects, but have in rare instances billed good work straight through.

2:08 sucks ass. Your work is mostly worthless, you don't get billed out and, if you'll note my comment at 1:12, I also think that it is outrageous that first years get paid as much as $160k to do only marginally better work as basically a "trainee". You should thank your lucky stars that the idiots who set up this back-asswards situation in the US have never gotten around to fixing it.

I'm pretty sure this train de-reailed pretty early, so allow me to try and get things back on track for everyone. This post didn't seem to be arguing what amount they were paid per se, but rather why they weren't being paid at the market rate.

Sure, Summers as a class may be overpaid, but that wasn't the point here. The point was that summers at other firms are MORE-overpaid than those at the OP's firm.

It's startling that such elite lawyers have failed to spot the issues...

here's what i don't get: what's the point of raising associate salaries in general if you don't hope or expect that it will have a positive effect on recruiting? and if some firms raise associate salaries to stay competitive but then don't match that raise for the summers while other firms do - wouldn't this negate, to some extent, the point of raising salaries in the first place?

because if, as some of the commenters have argued, the raise has nothing to do with summers and fuck em all for feeling entitled to it, then why do the majority of firms apply that raise to their summers? wouldnt they just be throwing money away? that hardly seems to make much sense. and if we assume that there is a valid reason for applying the associate raise to weekly summer associate pay, then why would some firms opt not to without explanation?

as a summer at a wilmer office and i think the general sense is not that anyone is feeling self-entitled to the $300 or "disgruntled" for not getting it, but its really just more a lack of understanding the reason why the raise didn't happen, esp. when it did for those summers working at other firms.

but i think the greatest humor of all in these angry posts is how frivolous some posters think it is to "whine" about the elusive $300. you may be rolling in the dough, but you may recall that second year law student summers are not. we are poor. many of us worked for free last summer and all of us have been in school for close to 7 years straight, just piling up the bills. if $300 was chump change, we probably would have given that cozy boutique law firm with the "collegial and comfortable work environment" and the actual (non-propaganda kind) "work-life balance" a closer look during OCI.

all i know is that $300 gets me half of my books for next semester. $600 pays my credit card bills for a month. $900 pays for my rent. if you think that inquiring into why our friends working at similar firms are enjoying an extra $300 per week while we're not is some great display of sad state of disgusting self-entitled summer associate attitudes today - then congratulations for you.

for now, we can only dream of being so financially blessed that we'd have both the time and energy to troll message boards and shit all over those god damn greedy law students bitching about a measly extra 300 bucks. i hope that i too can one day scoff at ungrateful brats whining about what i consider to be paltry sums of money. what a blessed existence indeed.

Lots of bitter small and mid-sized firm attorneys on this thread. Or at least people not smart enough to get summer jobs when they were in law school.

Summer associate work is in many cases superfluous and unhelpful because there is a drive to create appropriate projects for summers. But you can bet that if it can be billed with a straight face it will be.

Why the animosity toward summers? What, suddenly equity partners read ATL? Who the fuck CARES if they want more money? We ALL want more money. Everyone in the WORLD wants more money. The fact that they have a sweet deal means they don't get to want more money? That's retarded. Fucking Donald TRUMP wants more money. If you wanna get pissed about people who don't need money whining about not getting enough money, talk to Trump's accountant, who is almost certainly underpaid for whatever illegal things he's done to keep Trump from paying whatever he rightfully owes in taxes (come on, no way he pays what he owes).

I mean, FUCK. You people live in the richest fucking country in the world. By virtue of BEING A U.S. CITIZEN you are already better off than 90% of the universe. You wanna fucking criticize someone for whining, criticize yourself. Go do something useful instead of reading a fucking legal gossip blog.

Chrissakes. People are here to whine. Everyone gets their chance. Summers get to whine too. Everybody just whine and let whine.

Oh, boo hoo, everyone shed a tear for 3:10. We were all in the same debt-laden boat, you snide lil' thing you. As I said in earlier comments, you should routinely thank your lucky stars that you're not getting paid what you're worth (guess what that figure would be). Just because you (and me and everyone else) gets socked in the balls with $100k+ in student loans doesn't mean you deserve the ridiculous largesse that gets heaped upon you. The whole system is fucked up -- summers should be paid less and so should first years.

"shed a tear for 3:10?" "thank your lucky stars that you're not getting paid what you're worth?" "the whole system is fucked up -- summers should be paid less and so should first years?"

do us all a favor, 3:23, and issue spot. no one on here is giving a dissertation about summers deserving what they are paid or how the "whole system" is fantastic and infallable. its all about equity. its about signing on to work at a firm which purports to pay all its summers market rates and then finding out that you are not receiving the market rate, and discussing what the reasons might be for that.

your arguments aren't even coherent - they read like temper tantrums. here's an idea - if you want to bitch about changing the system, go start your own thread for insecure, disillusioned third year associates at Crybaby & Angry Fist-Shaking Old Man, LLP.

OK, 3:23, make your SAs into unpaid interns and see how long your firm exists.

To all the non-summers writing here, I'm confused. Do you get to bill each post you write as a half-hour, or do you need to keep more accurate time?

Uh oh, lil' law student 3:34 is having an issue spotting moment. Why not try fact-checking on for size? Your offer letter gave you a figure that you would be paid and did NOT commit the firm to pay you whatever the market comes up with for first years. It would be nice to get a little extra fat on the whopping 75 lb steak you already get served. I really hope you go crying to a partner about this BS -- don't let the door hit you on the way out.

3:10 -- You should really be blaming Congress. The more Congress debases the education marketplace by offering more federal loans and grants the easier it is for Universities to raise tuition and costs bc the student isn't responsible for having to pay these upfront and can "afford" more expensive tuition rates. But when it comes time to pay back these loans students realize they can't do it on a government or average firm's salary. Top firms want top students and the salary wars begin as they try to land the top students and pay them enough to cover their loans and living expenses and still do ok. Thus hourly requirements go up, as do hourly billing rates to cover the higher salaries. The promise of higher salaries alleviates any guilt the Law Schools had about charging higher tuitions since they figure it's no big deal to repay the loans at such salaries. Clients get overcharged for unqualified associate's work and all of a sudden the law school education and legal markets are entirely over-inflated and no one can afford to work anywhere but BigLaw and very few people are happy, thus leading summer associates to grovel for $300 more per week to pay their credit card bills, which consist mainly of bar tabs (see the bit about not being happy).

See, as with most things it's the government's fault.

Summers to $90k!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Shut up you freaking baby.

Amen 3:44 -- well thought-out.

Also, I'm not sure how a poster above construed the disgruntled summer's phrasing--"led to believe" summer pay tracked 1st year pay--to mean "promised" 1st year pay.

Update: WilmerHale moved all their summers to 3100, including retroactive pay, as of 10 minutes ago.

I guess the moral of the story is they are serious about being a market leader. Good show.

Summers to $15k!

Sounds like everybody's got a case of the Mondays.

well, when an AMLaw 250 firm is paying more than an AMLaw 100 firm, something is wrong with the recruiting system in place. I have never even heard of Choate or Foley (unless you mean Lardner).

ATL has quickly become the... ombudsman? collective negotiator? pimp? for SAs and junior associates. bravo!

I wonder if the low morale among Wilmer summers will affect the result of the Goodwin Procter v. Wilmer softball game next week?

I wonder if the low morale among Wilmer summers will influence the result of the Goodwin Procter v. Wilmer softball game next week?

4:09 wins.

Did WilmerHale really raise in response to this thread?

3:44 is right. it's the government's fault. just like it's the government's fault in all of those other pesky wealthy, westernized countries in which the cost of secondary education is fully or mostly subsidized and these "unique" america-only problems don't exist.

if you make that much you better understand the principles of breach of contract and promissory estoppel.

3:36, you are no doubt the self-important asshole associate who I avoid like the plague at my firm, as much as I enjoy conversations that revolve around how many hours you billed last month, what time you arrive in the morning and/or leave at night, and the fact that you don't have time for the activities engaged in by less devoted associates. May I reply to your question with the question of how you found time to read and respond to these posts if you are so busy and important (or such an accurate timekeeper)?

4:09 definitely wins. Kudos for making me laugh.

Outrageous. Willmer caved?

UN-BE-FUCKING-LEEEEEVABLE!

That email was way too long -- very obviously written by a summer.

To everyone who thinks summers aren't worth $3100/week, you should lobby your firms to stop paying it, or STFU. If a summer isn't worth $3100, don't pay it. Obviously, firms think it's "worth" it. Remember, today's summer is tomorrow's overworked associate who drives PPP into seven figures. The midlevel associates who complain about what summers get paid should stop to consider "who is going to be lining my pockets when I make partner?" Those summers you hate.

These "summers aren't worth shit" associates seem to lack an understanding of supply and demand, and the concept of spending money on something of little value today because it will have far greater value in the future.

I know it's hard to think long term when you see money flying out the door, but this is the system that will make us rich, so suck it up. By spending $30,000 some odd dolalrs to recruit a summer we make that back more than 10-fold (per year) during that summer's prime mid-level associate years. And some summers do billable work, I know summers who are break-even for the firm in terms of salary. Even if the investment on some (or even most) summers goes bad, the good "investments" make up for it.

I see summers as having "value" from day one, I just don't define value as "current and/or immediate income generating potential." The minute a top firm fell behind in summer pay, its recruiting would suffer, and all of a sudden, all these soon-to-be-partner "fuck the summer" mentality associates would be SCREAMING for market.

That's just a long way of saying, if summers weren't worth it, we wouldn't be paying it. As soon as a firm is "overpaying" its summers, the other firms won't match, because it will be to our strategic advantage to not match.

Amazing how simple your thinking can be, 7:35. BigLaw firms don't pay summers such exorbitant rates because summers are "worth it", they pay them such ludicrous rates because they HAVE TO in order to keep up with the Joneses. Some stupid mucky-mucks created this silly idea a long time ago that it's cute to pay summers the same rate as first years. Of course the system will never change but look to the UK for a shining example of how it should be done, i.e., people who don't know jack: (1) aren't paid like they do; (2) have to affix "trainee" to their title; and (3) generally know their place.

8.16,

whatever reason big firms pay summers exorbitant salaries, the effect is that it whets the appetite of law students and makes the willing to undergo the misery of associate life. In essence, firms get the associates before they seriously think about other choices before big law.

NYC to 190!

NYC to 190!

NYC to 190!

"The salary they get, as well as junior BigLaw associates (and their billing rates for that matter), are not indicators of intrinsic value; they are the results of the laws of supply and demand."

Would FreeMarketeer please care to define the difference between "intrinsic value" and "supply and demand"?

NYC to 190!

"Of course the system will never change but look to the UK for a shining example of how it should be done, i.e., people who don't know jack: (1) aren't paid like they do; (2) have to affix "trainee" to their title; and (3) generally know their place."

U.K. trainees also don't have need an advanced professional degree to practice law, and in some cases they don't have a law degree, but merely have taken a conversion course. I've worked at firms in the U.K., and I assure you that new U.S. associates are far more professionally competent than new U.K. trainees.

NYC to 190!

NYC to 190!

I have a friend at Fish and Richardson. Now the summer salary there is pitiful. Its 2600 for whats supposed to be the top IP firm. Its gotten so much good publicity for having all offices at 160..... its time some of the negative truth came out too.

DC Vault of Shame(still at 145,000)

only 15 firms left + Squire

40. Baker Botts
50. Fulbright & Jaworski
58. Vinson & Elkins
59. Alston & Bird
64. Holland & Knight
70. Hunton & Williams
71. Patton Boggs
74. Kirkpatrick Lockhart
75. Nixon Peabody
77. Bryan Cave
86. McGuire Woods
88. Arent Fox
93. Kilpatrick Stockton
95. Dickstein
96. Venable

Vault of Extreme Shame(still at 135,000)

87. Squire Sanders

11.55,

How are MoFo and Fish & Neave of Ropes & Gray paying?

Does anyone have the scoop on Fish & Neave? Is that whole F&N of R&G just a marketing ploy or is there some difference for the IP guys?

While we are at it, Lat, how about a pay thread, discussion on firm life for IP attorneys, especially patent attorneys.

So many poor sucka's stuck at boutiques, but may be they are truly raking it in?

3:34 and 3:35, did you even READ my comment??????

Fucking retards. I was yelling at the people who are ANTI summer. You guys could use some reading comprehension classes.

Quiet as its kept, Wilmer has a record of shafting its summer associates...I think the idea is that the prestige alone should make up the difference.

My friends from several offices mentioned that WH denied the summer advance many other firms offer, and also denied requests to help with summer relocation fees. These are all expenses that occurred before the summers were rolling in dough so it did cause some hardship for a few folks. I don't know if they're being miserly or just not up on their competition, but it really made the firm look bad in the law school gossip pool.

NY to 160,001, although these firms have chosen so far not to raise:

Commenters have reported that Greenberg Traurig and Baker & McKenzie raised. No one appears to have confirmed this (as for Schiff and maybe some others), but we'll go with it.

The California List of Shame:

1) Bryan Cave
2) Holland & Knight
3) Nixon Peabody

Permanent All City List of Shame
1) Seyfarth Shaw for planning not to raise.

This summer should not get an offer.

that no one's really raised: part of the point of the high summer salaries is precisely the temptation to go into firm practice. "See how it feels to make this much money? Nice, isn't it?"

While I see this guy's point b/c of the discrepancy, there is no reason to complain. The curse of doing well in law school is being sucked into being a complete slave for years after you pass the bar, during which you work 14 hours/day and have NO LIFE. I (fortunately) have not done so well in law school, and am quite content making $600/week working for a very helpful and encouraging solo lawyer. The Wilmer summer associates should count their blessings and be glad they're not yet actual associates b/c right now they have a pretty damn good life.

One of the things those summers at WilmerHale need to realize is that Wilmer, like some of the other bigger firms are actually trying to cut back on the number of associates they'll be taking in the future - too many associates are leaving around the 3 year mark, before they actually become profitable to the firm. Instead, they're cutting back on the number of associates they hire, and instead are trying to hire more staff attorneys (and set up a whole system so that it's actually an attractive position). I'm guessing that Wilmer doesn't really care if the SAs get annoyed.