Summer Life – A Gateway To The Future
Potter Anderson & Corroon’s summer associate program plays a primary role in our recruitment of new, full-time associates and is designed to provide summer associates with a realistic view of what life is like as an associate with the firm. Summer associates are assigned projects from ongoing matters, and their work product is typically used in actual cases or transactions. They work closely with assigning attorneys and are encouraged to follow the progress of cases or transactions they work on, whether by attending a court hearing or the closing of a negotiated transaction. Another critical component of the summer program is to expose summer associates to our firm culture and life in Wilmington. To accomplish this goal, the summer program includes numerous social and community activities, which permit summer associates to get to know all of the attorneys at Potter Anderson & Corroon and to learn about the Wilmington area and its many social and cultural attractions.
Mentoring
Each summer associate is paired with a partner and an associate mentor. Mentors provide general guidance and assistance in acclimating each summer associate to firm life. In addition, mentors are available to answer questions that arise during the summer. Although each summer associate is assigned formal mentors, Potter Anderson & Corroon’s open door policy also creates informal mentoring relationships between each summer associate and our attorneys during the course of the summer.
Diversity
We are committed to providing and promoting a diverse and inclusive environment for all, within which each person can succeed professionally regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age or disability. For additional information, please go to Diversity.
Assignments And Training
A primary purpose of our summer program is to give summer associates a realistic experience of the practice of law. We do this by assigning projects to summer associates that are similar in type and quality to those assigned to junior associates. Such projects, for example, may include preparing a complaint, assisting in drafting a brief, assisting in deposition preparation, or reviewing closing documents. Our program is designed to provide our summer associates exposure to a wide variety of assignments throughout the firm’s three functional groups -- business, corporate, and litigation. In addition, for those summer associates with a preferred practice area of concentration, efforts are made to ensure that assignments are received in those areas. The firm strongly encourages its attorneys to provide summer associates with immediate feedback on each 
completed project; however, summer associates also receive a mid-summer and end-of-summer evaluation to provide them with more formal and structured feedback on their performance.
Social Events
Summer associates participate in a number of scheduled and impromptu get-togethers throughout the summer. These events provide summer associates with an opportunity to become better acquainted with the attorneys at the firm, with each other, and with the Wilmington area in general. In the past, these social events have centered around activities such as baseball games, thoroughbred racing, happy hours, crab feasts, and wine tasting events.
Recruitment Procedures
On Campus Recruiting
Potter Anderson & Corroon seeks candidates with excellent academic achievements who demonstrate effective communication skills and professionalism. Students who are invited to interview with Potter Anderson & Corroon on-campus may thereafter be invited for a callback interview at the firm’s offices to meet additional attorneys. Callback invitations are typically extended shortly after an on-campus interview.
Callback Interviews
During a callback interview, students will spend three to four hours meeting partners, associates, and our legal recruiting coordinator, to allow both the candidate and the firm to learn more about each other.
Travel and Accommodations
Prospective summer associates requiring hotel and travel arrangements in connection with callback interviews should contact the firm’s Legal Recruiting Coordinator, Joyce Shtofman (302-984-6050), for assistance. Hotel and travel expenses should be billed directly to the firm; we will arrange to share travel expenses with other firms at which an applicant is interviewing on the same trip.
Summer Associate Program Offers
Offers will be made as soon as possible following callback interviews for summer associate positions with our firm.
Associate Offers
At the conclusion of the summer program, Potter Anderson & Corroon offers successful second-year candidates full-time associate positions with the firm upon their graduation from law school. Summer associates who receive offers for full-time positions who thereafter accept judicial clerkships receive one year of credit for their clerkship. First-year summer associates are not typically eligible to receive an offer for a full-time associate position until they have completed their second year of law school; however, they are eligible to receive an offer to return for a second summer with the firm.
Compensation
Potter Anderson & Corroon is committed to providing the highest level of comprehensive benefits to its associates and its compensation package is consistently competitive with law firms in larger cities. Summer associate salaries are based upon the salaries of our first-year associates. For summer 2008, summer associates will earn $2800 per week.
Split Summers
Summer associates are strongly encouraged to work at Potter Anderson & Corroon for an entire summer. However, the firm will consider requests for geographically split summers with another law firm in another geographical area on a case-by-case basis, provided that seven to eight weeks are spent at Potter Anderson & Corroon.
First-Year Candidates
While the majority of offers for Potter Anderson & Corroon’s summer associate positions are extended to second-year students, each year a few first-year students are considered for summer associate positions. Applications are accepted for first-year law students on or after December 1st. Please send a cover letter, resume and transcript directly to the firm’s Legal Recruiting Coordinator.
How To Apply
To apply for a summer associate position, second-year law students should sign up for an on-campus interview. If we were not able to meet you at your school or if we do not visit your school, please send a cover letter, resume and transcript directly to the firm’s Legal Recruiting Coordinator:
Joyce B. Shtofman
Legal Recruiting Coordinator
Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP
Hercules Plaza
1313 North Market Street, 6th Floor
Wilmington, Delaware 19801
jshtofman@potteranderson.com