Get to Know Us

At Dickinson Wright, a crucial element in our strategic growth is identifying, attracting and training the most highly qualified law students to begin and continue their career progression with us from summer associate to associate to partner.

This process begins with our recruitment efforts. We:

• conduct on-campus interviews at nearly 17 law schools and job fairs;
• screen hundreds of mailed-in resumes from a wide range of law schools across the country; and
• host many office "call back" interviews during which qualified candidates spend a day meeting with our attorneys.
• We are pleased that these efforts have resulted in historically high rates of acceptance to join our Summer Program. (2L recruitment takes place from August to November and 1L recruitment, begins December 1).

The Dickinson Wright Summer Program combines high quality client work with professional activities outside the office and fun, sometimes out of the ordinary, social activities. Our Summer Associates fully participate in our sophisticated and diverse legal practice while gaining realistic insight into life at our law firm. Our Summer Program is not just an important first step toward a rewarding legal career at Dickinson Wright, but it also provides law students with exposure to the practice of law generally and to the diverse group of people that comprise our firm. Overall, we strive to provide Summer Associates with a realistic view of life as a practicing attorney and ample opportunities to get to know one another and our attorneys in informal settings.

This year, our 2008 Summer Program has a total of 21 summer associates firm wide (15 2L and 6 1L summer associates), including 14 in Detroit/Bloomfield Hills, 2 in Ann Arbor, 3 in Grand Rapids, and 2 in Lansing. Dickinson Wright enjoys a national reputation for its long-standing commitment to diversity; over the last four years, we have enjoyed, on average, minority representation of over 40% in our summer associate class. That's part of the reason the Firm was honored in 2007 by being named among the nation's Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity by MultiCultural Law Magazine

For additional statistical and other information, check out our current NALP forms. (300K, Adobe Acrobat Reader required) Bloomfield, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor and Washington DC.

Structure

We want every Summer Associate to earn and accept an offer to become a Dickinson Wright Associate. Our program is carefully structured and administered to provide a supportive environment of success so that goal can be achieved.

Our Summer Program Director garners high quality assignments from every corner of the law firm (from commercial, appellate and labor litigation to corporate finance, school law and intellectual property), facilitates lawyers and summer associates working together on those assignments, monitors progression and completion of the assignments and ensures that the assigning lawyers provide timely and constructive feedback and evaluation. Additionally, we have a mid-summer "sit down" review session with each Summer Associate after he/she has completed a few projects.

Each Summer Associate also has two mentors, a Partner and an Associate, to assist in professional growth and matriculation at the Firm.

In Southeastern Michigan, our Summer Associates typically work for some period in both the Detroit and Bloomfield Hills offices. Our Lansing, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids offices each recruit law students specifically for that particular office. We do not anticipate summer associates working in our Washington, D.C. office in 2008.

Balance

At Dickinson Wright, we strive for balance between our professional and personal lives. While we work hard, we also jealously guard our time for family and other personal priorities. On average, Summer Associates work approximately 35 hours a week and over the course of the summer complete 10 to 15 substantive assignments.

This level of substantive work provides a body of legal work product necessary for professional growth and qualitative evaluation, but leaves time to pursue other professional and educational activities such as preparation for and attendance at deal closings, participation in strategic meetings with lawyers and clients and attendance at depositions, trials and arbitrations. This is what practicing lawyers do. It is important to us, and you, that these experiences are widely available during the course of our Summer Program. In fact, we provide more real life experience than you would receive almost anywhere else.

Our Summer Associate classes, which substantially feed our Associate ranks, reflect our Firm culture of camaraderie and lateral support.

Technology

Because our firm's practice is greatly enhanced by our cutting edge technology (for which we are rated as a national leader among major law firms), on their first day of work Summer Associates receive an IBM ThinkPad and extensive training in the high speed web access and email capabilities we possess and the wide variety of computer applications we offer.

Fun

Summer is also an opportunity for our summer associates to get to know our attorneys, the City of Detroit and the region. In 2008, we have several events planned for our summer associates and attorneys, including:

• A concert at DTE Energy Music Theatre
• Private cocktail parties at The Whitney in Detroit and Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills
• Motion call and lunch with Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly of the Wayne County Circuit Court, a former partner at Dickinson Wright
• In-house lunch presentation with Chief Justice Clifford W. Taylor and Justice Robert P. Young, Jr of the Michigan Supreme Court
• "Summer associates only" lunch with former Detroit Mayor, past President of the American Bar Association and current Dickinson Wright Chairman, Dennis Archer
• Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park
• A number of other lunches, dinners and outings throughout the summer

Several other events will take shape throughout the summer!

And before Spring even arrived, in January, we hosted an introductory cocktail party and dinner for our incoming Summer Class. It was the perfect opportunity for the summer Associates to get to know one another, thus making those first few days of Summer easier.

While this overview is only that, hopefully we have conveyed that Dickinson Wright invests a tremendous amount of planning, resources, effort and energy to provide a Summer Program that is successful both for the law firm and for the outstanding law students who have chosen to pursue their careers here.

I’m In; What’s Next?

Check with your placement office to see if and when we are interviewing on campus at your law school and sign up for an interview.

If we are not coming to you, then send a resume and law school transcript together with a cover letter and at least one writing sample to:

Christine Scurto
Recruitment Coordinator
Dickinson Wright PLLC
500 Woodward Avenue, Suite 4000
Detroit, Michigan 48226
cscurto(at)dickinsonwright.com