How to hire a summer associate

How to hire a summer associate, step by step

Here's a step-by-step summer associate hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a summer associate job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new summer associate
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a summer associate do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the summer associate you need to hire. Certain summer associate roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect summer associate also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list shows salaries for various types of summer associates.

   Type of Summer Associate	Description	Hourly rate
   Summer Associate	Paralegals and legal assistants do a variety of tasks to support lawyers, including maintaining and organizing files, conducting legal research, and drafting documents.	$10-38
   Contractor-Paralegal	A Contractor-Paralegal works for a law firm or corporate legal department for a specified amount of time, or for a specified task. They can be specialized in the entertainment industry or in providing services to healthcare companies and insurance providers.	$17-47
   Legal Clerk	A legal clerk is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to legal offices and organizations to ensure smooth legal business operations. Legal clerks sort and distribute documents to the appropriate personnel, update information on the database, schedule appointments, respond to clients' inquiries and concerns, and document meeting objectives... Show more	$11-23

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • PowerPoint
   • Litigation
   • Financial Models
   • Due Diligence
   • Legal Memos
   • Private Equity
   • Legal Issues
   • Financial Analysis
   • Intellectual Property
   • Business Development
   • Real Estate Transactions
   • Market Research
   • Discounted Cash Flow
   • Interrogatories

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage client expenses and prepare billing and financial statements using PClaw and reconcile attorney's escrow and general accounts using QuickBooks.
   • Gather and analyze statutes, decisions, legal articles and codes using Lexis Nexis research software.
   • Perform citation checks and proofread supervisor's work before publishing.
   • Proofread, edit, and research various issues relate to a forthcoming law review article submission focusing on animal law
   • Perform firm strategy research and create PowerPoint presentations for management and executive teams.
   • Prepare PowerPoint presentations on regulatory and policy matters affecting the health care industry.

   More summer associate duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the summer associate job description is a good way to get more applicants. A summer associate salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a summer associate in Oklahoma may be lower than in New York, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level summer associate. Additionally, a summer associate with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average summer associate salary

   $42,349yearly

   $20.36 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level summer associate salary

   $22,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 30, 2026

   Average summer associate salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New York	$67,758	$33
   2	New Jersey	$63,714	$31
   3	Connecticut	$61,676	$30
   4	District of Columbia	$60,590	$29
   5	California	$60,104	$29
   6	Washington	$57,554	$28
   7	Pennsylvania	$57,457	$28
   8	Massachusetts	$56,322	$27
   9	Rhode Island	$55,118	$27
   10	Illinois	$47,475	$23
   11	Michigan	$47,364	$23
   12	Utah	$47,124	$23
   13	Arizona	$45,482	$22
   14	Texas	$45,033	$22
   15	Colorado	$44,305	$21
   16	North Carolina	$44,018	$21
   17	Minnesota	$43,713	$21
   18	Virginia	$43,680	$21
   19	Ohio	$43,520	$21
   20	Florida	$41,250	$20

   Average summer associate salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Crowell & Moring	$175,143	$84.20	5
   2	Shearman & Sterling	$169,005	$81.25
   3	McKinsey & Company Inc	$133,626	$64.24
   4	Arnold & Porter	$122,154	$58.73
   5	Benesch	$117,007	$56.25	1
   6	Citi	$111,609	$53.66	36
   7	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$107,510	$51.69	50
   8	Lazard	$106,017	$50.97	14
   9	ChargePoint	$94,397	$45.38
   10	Barnes & Thornburg	$92,712	$44.57	29
   11	Fenwick & West	$84,713	$40.73	24
   12	Grant Thornton	$81,491	$39.18
   13	RSM US	$80,161	$38.54	7
   14	The College of New Jersey	$73,577	$35.37
   15	Gartner	$70,900	$34.09
   16	EmblemHealth	$70,474	$33.88	1
   17	Deloitte	$69,388	$33.36
   18	Nantucket Cottage Hospital	$68,933	$33.14
   19	Williams Parker	$68,710	$33.03	4
   20	Johnson & Johnson	$68,614	$32.99	2

4. Writing a summer associate job description

   A good summer associate job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a summer associate job description:

   Summer associate job description example

   Williams Parker is seeking second year law students (2Ls) for its ten-week summer 2023 associate program. Our Summer Associate Program offers 2L students an opportunity to engage in intellectually stimulating work that is indicative of real associate life. It is designed to meet two goals: (i) to introduce you to life in Sarasota as a Williams Parker attorney, and (ii) to provide you with the experience and tools to ensure your long-term success at our firm or another law firm.
   
   We provide work assignments, client experiences, mentoring, and training that approximate those provided to younger associates. In addition, we provide ample opportunities for you to get to know and be known by firm attorneys in social and professional settings. We believe it is important to know the people with whom you will spend your career and to be comfortable with the decision to practice law with them. We've designed our Summer Associate Program to be an enjoyable, challenging experience which will allow both you and us to determine if you are the right fit for our firm. When we mutually come to that determination, then it is likely that we will have a long and successful working relationship.
   
   As a summer associate at Williams Parker, you'll join a team of experienced lawyers who care about your growth as a successful attorney. We strive to ensure your experience is rich with substantive work that both interests and challenges you and to provide you with invaluable guidance, feedback, and opportunities for networking and development. Our summer program is designed to give students a real sense of what it means to practice at Williams Parker-from legal research to brief writing to the “Big Project,” you'll contribute to real work for real clients and experience all aspects of life at the firm.
   
   Our program attracts qualified candidates from a range of law schools, such as Boston, Cornell, Emory, Florida State, Georgetown, John Marshall, Stetson University, Texas A&M, University of Alabama, University of California-Berkeley, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Texas, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, and Washington and Lee.
   The “Big Project”
   
   At the cornerstone of our summer program is the “Big Project”-an opportunity for our summer associates to gain a realistic sense of law firm life and work. Each of the firm's practice areas prepares several in-depth research assignments, from which students select to focus a significant portion of their clerkship. Each summer associate will work closely with a designated attorney to develop their project, conducting significant research and writing, and receiving valuable feedback and guidance throughout the process. At the culmination of the project, students will make oral presentations of their projects to attorneys from across the firm.
   
   In addition to the “Big Project,” summer associates will have opportunities to handle a number of smaller assignments from attorneys throughout the firm. Our goal is to help you develop and succeed as attorneys. In addition to serving as mentors, our attorneys provide comprehensive feedback regarding each assignment with which students are tasked.
   
   For more FAQ's visit our website:
   
   Requirements
   
   Candidate should have excellent undergraduate academic records, performed successfully in law school, and demonstrated leadership abilities. Strong ties to the Sarasota area are also preferred. We offer a professional and collegial work environment and competitive compensation.
   
   Benefits
   
   Weekly compensation of $2,500.
   
   Many informal and formal social activities planned during the summer.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find summer associates for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your summer associate job on Zippia to find and recruit summer associate candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit summer associates, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new summer associate

   Once you've decided on a perfect summer associate candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a summer associate?