Corrected: Howard Rice Nixes Summer Program

By Tina Peng

Law360, New York (August 25, 2009) -- Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin PC has become the latest firm to shutter its 2010 summer associate program.

(Corrects an article published on 8/21/2009)

“We have seen a substantial increase in business over the last quarter, and we are cautiously optimistic that the economy has improved,” Howard Rice said in a statement Friday. “However, the future is never certain, and we already expect large incoming associate classes in 2010 and 2011.”

“We believe that the best way to ensure that tradition continues is to take a one-year break from our summer program. We continue to value our strong relationships with the schools at which we recruit, and we look forward to going back on campus next fall.”

Pillsbury Winthrop recently announced it would slim down its 2010 summer associate program by more than half in 2009.

“Our recruiting programs are driven by business needs, and as we all know, projecting the number of entry-level attorneys needed 18 to 30 months from now is more art than science,” Pillsbury Senior Public Relations Manager Tom Resau said. “Bearing this challenge in mind, Pillsbury's 2010 summer program will be much smaller than in the past — we expect a class size of 15 to 17 2L students.”

This year’s summer program, in contrast, employed 50 2L students from law schools across the country, and the firm said it was still offering permanent positions to summer workers.

“We were very pleased with the caliber of students this year, and we expect to extend offers by the end of this month,” Resau said.

Earlier this month, McCarter & English LLP confirmed to law blog Above the Law that it would nix its 2010 summer associate program. The blog also reported that McGuireWoods LLP might be not be conducting its 2010 summer program based on reports from law students who said they were told while interviewing with the firm that it would not be running summer programs in any of its offices except Richmond, Va.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Chicago.

Days prior, Dorsey & Whitney LLP and Quarles & Brady LLP announced that they would be trimming their 2010 summer associate programs. Dorsey & Whitney has suspended summer programs in its offices outside Minneapolis, a representative confirmed Tuesday.

“This action is not an expense reduction measure,” the firm said in a statement. “Rather, we plan to meet our clients' needs through the services of our current associates, our new associates starting in the fall and future associates from our summer classes.”

Quarles & Brady announced on its Web site that it had suspended its summer associate program for 2010 “due to the changing economic environment, and our commitment to our 2009 entry-level associates who will be joining the firm in January 2010.”

Seyfarth Shaw LLP confirmed on Aug. 3 that it had canceled its 2010 summer program, and Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP, Thompson Hine LLP, Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP and Morris Manning & Martin LLP have all reportedly nixed their 2010 summer programs.

--Additional reporting by Ryan Davis and Liz McKenzie

Correction: A previously published version of this article reported that Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC also recently canceled its summer associate program. That error has been corrected.