NEW YORK – April 15, 2020 – Taking into account the current uncertainty in the world due to COVID-19, and in order to respect the needs of each individual member of Greenberg Traurig’s 2020 Summer Associate Class, we feel it would be inappropriate to conduct a traditional Summer Associate program this year. Following are the details on what we believe to be a thoughtful approach as we continue to focus on our clients and our business.
- Greenberg Traurig, LLP will provide all incoming 2L Summer Associates an offer to join the law firm as a first-year associate in either September 2021 or January 2022. In July 2020 these students will receive a $10,000 advance against their starting First Year Associate salary. As first-year associates, these professionals will join in the office where they were originally hired as a Summer Associate and the firm will assign them each a practice area.
- All 1L Summer Associates holding a Greenberg Traurig offer will receive an offer to join the firm as a Summer Associate for the program we expect to run in Summer of 2021 and will receive a $5,000 advance in July 2020 against their salary for Summer 2021.
- As our offices that were planning a 2020 Summer Associate program physically reopen for business and are deemed a healthy environment in which to work and train, they will have the opportunity to hire one or more of these students who are scheduled for the program as hourly interns over the course of the year. We fully expect some offices and law students to take advantage of this opportunity to physically work at a reopened office on either client billable or firm-selected pro bono matters as and when possible and convenient over the course of the year. This will provide some of the missed "real world" experience and financial benefits to those who participate and be done at a time and in a manner that will be healthier for all involved, and more realistic and respectful to, and make more business sense for, our clients and our current lawyers, whose interests are of course crucial to us.
“As is now clear, the Coronavirus pandemic has made a dramatic impact on many of our clients, their businesses, world markets, societies and our own people and their families. Greenberg Traurig has always been an independent thinker, putting its clients and its people first, while also being financially disciplined, realistic and always looking ahead to prepare for both challenges and opportunities in change. We look to these considerations and our own value system to make strategic and other decisions, and sometimes doing what makes business sense and what is ‘right’ is not necessarily the same as doing what is ‘popular’,” said Richard A. Rosenbaum, Executive Chairman of Greenberg Traurig.
- Based on the same health, training, and business-related concerns, as well as uncertainty for new bar exam dates, our incoming first-year associates that were scheduled to start in September 2020 may have their start dates delayed until January 2021. This will be determined on an office-by office basis after careful consideration.
“Our priority is to serve clients by delivering excellent, constant and consistent legal services worldwide. Our goal is to attract sophisticated law students who are looking at their options in a thoughtful way and want to be in a firm that is run as an intelligent business ready for today and tomorrow's world and worries more about adapting to change than following the herd,” said Brad Kaufman, Co-President of Greenberg Traurig. “We are proud of all of our lawyers and business staff who are so dedicated to the success of all of our associates and our Summer and other professional development programs.”
About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2100 attorneys in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.