Our summer associate program provides a hands-on experience and snapshot into life and work at McGlinchey.
McGlinchey’s Summer Associate program offers both an enriching and enjoyable experience, with a balance of collaborative, challenging projects, firmwide trainings, and social events designed to give a feel for our culture and atmosphere. Summer associates work closely with our attorneys to tackle challenging legal assignments and work on projects of importance to our clients while gaining insight into the practice of law and experiencing the life and culture of our firm.
From legal research projects to drafting memos, summer associates receive stimulating and substantive work assignments, as well as opportunities to attend depositions and court hearings, trials, client meetings, and more.
To help summer associates see the business side of law, we also offer programming designed to help law students succeed as a lawyer, such as how to use social media to market yourself, legal writing, and associate panels.
“I knew that if I joined McGlinchey, this firm would be fully invested in my development as an attorney.”
Andrew Albritton > Associate, New Orleans
2019 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) 1L Diversity Scholar
Dedicated Mentor
Summer associates are assigned one partner mentor and one associate mentor who offer feedback, advice, and answers. Formal and informal mentoring easily occurs in our flexible but structured program. Planned lunches and gatherings after work are further opportunities for mentors and summer associates to interact, learn, and develop.
Valuable Feedback
Once a summer associate finishes a project, the assigning attorney reviews and evaluates his or her work. The feedback summer associates receive is an important resource for their success and becomes part of their review file upon completion of the program.
Social Activities
Because summer is an ideal season for socializing outside of the office, summer associates can expect ample opportunities to enjoy themselves and become better acquainted with the firm. Bowling, hatchet throwing, trivia, happy hours, baseball games, lunches, and cocktail parties are among the many informal events that regularly occur during our summer associate program. Planned social activities help increase the exposure of summer associates across the firm.
Diversity Scholarship
Since 2008, McGlinchey Stafford has participated in the 1L LCLD Scholars Program. The program includes a Summer Associate position in one of our offices, a $5,000 scholarship, an opportunity to attend the 1L LCLD Scholars Summit, and valuable mentoring from our attorneys. Additional details can be found here.
“When I first was applying to be a summer law clerk, I had it in my mind that I wanted to be a litigator. But after working with McGlinchey’s consumer financial services section, I was opened up to this whole new idea of what the law is and what it can mean. And I’ve fallen in love with it. And I’ve fallen in love with the firm as well.”
Taylor Bennington > Associate, Cleveland
2020 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) 1L Diversity Scholar
Hear from our Summer Associates
“I think the top three things that made me choose McGlinchey were the size of the firm, the timing of recruiting, and the people. I did a lot of research about the firm before my interview, and I was really excited about working at a mid-sized firm. I had some pre-law school experience at a really tiny firm and a really big firm, and I wanted to see what it was like in the middle. And I really love that McGlinchey has the resources of a really, really big firm, but the collegiality and culture of a much smaller operation. And I also really appreciated that McGlinchey was recruiting during on-campus interviews (OCI) in the fall. That helped my 2L year. It helped me really focus on school work and not have to worry about the job search.”
Georgia Bauer, University of Houston Law Center
2022 Summer Associate, Houston
“One thing that I really hoped to get out of this experience, that I did, was improving my legal writing and research skills and getting exposure from different practice areas. A lot of the projects we were given involved areas of law that I hadn’t even taken a class in. It was really exciting for me to be able to dive into these different areas that I wasn’t familiar with and to be able to reach out to anybody at the firm with questions, and everyone was more than happy to help. One of the best things that I’ve gotten out of this clerkship so far is mentors, which I feel like everyone at this firm has been.”
Jessica Bozell, LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center
2022 Summer Associate, Houston
“I wanted to see how a firm with a national presence operated. Being here in New Orleans and it being predominantly civil law, I was interested to see what it would be like to interact with attorneys from all over the nation. And I found out firsthand, I worked with attorneys in the DC office and the Seattle office, and it was a really enriching experience.”
Gabriel Guajardo, III, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
2022 Summer Associate, New Orleans
“When I began my search for where I wanted to clerk over the summer, I started on websites. I’d never heard of McGlinchey Stafford beforehand, but I started to do a deep dive into the website and really liked what I saw in terms of their summer associate program. I really liked all the practice areas that are offered by the firm and thought that it would present a good opportunity to be able to get to see the litigation side, get to see the transactional side, and really figure out where I want to go as I progress in my legal education.”
Ian Joseph, Washington & Lee School of Law
2022 Summer Associate, Baton Rouge
“I was really pleasantly surprised to learn that the firm culture really is what it seemed to be during my interview. What I mean by that is a lot of firms talk a big talk about work-life balance or supportive culture, but from discussions I’ve had with law students and Associates, it’s sometimes just talk. But what I’ve found here at McGlinchey is that people are truly supportive and pleasant to work with. And there’s an understanding that while we want to work hard for our clients and do good work, we also have other commitments in our lives. So that’s a really appealing quality when I’m thinking about a long-term career as well.”
Julia Berry Lopez, Albany Law School of Union University
2022 Summer Associate, Albany
“When I was looking for a summer experience, the main thing for me was exposure to different practice areas. I’ve always been interested in business litigation, and that can mean a lot of different things. And I didn’t necessarily want to commit to a job that was just going to be labor and employment, or just going to be consumer finance, because a lot of times when you’re in a summer program, they put you in a specific area. But from my interview on, they made it very clear that at McGlinchey, they want us to see everything. I had projects in labor and employment, white-collar crime, and general litigation. I like the variety, and I appreciate McGlinchey’s push for us to have a diverse experience here.”
Gillian Miculek, LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center
2021 Summer Associate, New Orleans
“It was really diverse, just all kinds of people. And they also had a lot of different practice areas. So that interested me as well, and I knew that I would be able to get all kinds of experience.”
Erica Powell, Tulane University School of Law
2021 Summer Associate, New Orleans
Podcasts
In this episode of the More with McGlinchey podcast, attorney Andrew Albritton (New Orleans) talks with 2022 Summer Associates Gabriel Guajardo, Ian Joseph, Alexis Minor, Jennifer Nguyen, and Thomas Taylor about what sets McGlinchey’s Summer program apart.
In this episode of the More with McGlinchey podcast, attorney Taylor Bennington (Cleveland) and Director of Talent Acquisition Margeaux Roush (New Orleans) discuss the firm’s clerkship program with five of our 2022 Summer Associates, Georgia Bauer, Jessica Bozell, Keke Heneghan, Julia Berry Lopez, and KayLeigh Nader.
In this episode of More with McGlinchey, attorneys Zelma Frederick and Amanda Stout (Baton Rouge) were joined by four of our 2021 Summer Associates, Taylor Bennington, Sara Grasch, Gillian Miculek, and Erica Powell, discuss their goals for the summer associate experience, what they’ve enjoyed about working at McGlinchey, and their advice for current and future law students.