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Klinedinst Associate Experiences The firm's medium size and focus on growth create significant opportunities for ambitious law students. Many of our attorneys were once clerks or summer law clerks at large, national law firms. These attorneys quickly learned that professional growth is faster and more rewarding with a firm that lets its attorneys immediately develop and practice law, rather than at a firm with more than 100 lawyers where the focus is on library research. Klinedinst was recently selected as one of America's Greatest Places To Work With A Law Degree by Kimm Alayne Walton, J.D., author of Guerilla Tactics For Getting The Legal Job Of Your Dreams, and the National Law Journal's "Dear Job Goddess" columnist. We believe an individual can only become an effective litigator by actually doing everything a litigator must be able to do. We believe that associates who spend their first few years writing research memoranda and briefs, reviewing documents, answering written discovery requests and - if they are lucky - deposing minor witnesses, learn little about litigation and thus, cannot represent clients effectively. We believe the same is true of associates who only work with a team of lawyers on massive, multi-million dollar cases. Accordingly, from their first day at work, we strive to provide our first-year associates with several cases they can handle with limited supervision. Our first-year associates conduct initial client interviews and develop strategies for handling each of their cases. They must decide what information they need to obtain through discovery and how to obtain it. They must then take the depositions, propound the written discovery requests and subpoena the business records they believe are necessary. They prepare and argue their own dispositive motions and represent their clients at settlement conferences. Finally, they negotiate settlements and, if necessary, take the case to trial. Although our young associates take on a significant amount of responsibility and independence, our shareholders and senior associates supervise their work. We believe that associates will only become top litigators if their work is critiqued and reviewed by shareholders and senior associates. Our associates meet frequently with the shareholders with whom they work to discuss strategy and tactics. We also have monthly training sessions at which a senior attorney or an outside expert speaks on a particular area of litigation practice. Most important, our firm has an open-door policy: senior attorneys are always available if an associate needs instruction, guidance or an answer to a question. As our associates gain litigation experience and expertise, they handle more and more complex matters. By their third or fourth year, our associates are typically the lead attorney on complicated litigation matters involving hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and, in some cases, dozens of parties. Our firm and our clients give our third and fourth year associates this level of responsibility because our third and fourth year associates, unlike their peers at other firms, have had the experience necessary to handle such matters intelligently, efficiently and creatively.
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Your Legal Career Begins Here Fall 2008 On-Campus Interview Dates Klinedinst Associate Experiences Questions
You Must Ask & Client Development
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