Law Students

Our summer associate program is designed to provide law students with insight into what life is like as an associate at Potter Anderson. Our summer associates receive challenging assignments from real matters, and work closely with and learn from our lawyers and staff.

If you’re interested in practicing sophisticated legal work in a market with a great quality of life, we encourage you to click on the links below to learn more about the summer program and our hiring process.

We are currently accepting applications from first-year law students to join our 2025 summer associate program. If you are interested in applying, click here.

Our direct application for the 2026 summer associate program will open in spring 2025.

Interview Process

LAW SCHOOL Recruiting

Our summer program is key to the firm’s growth. The program is mainly comprised of students who have just completed their 2nd year of law school, but we do consider a limited number of first-year students for the program.

We conduct virtual screening interviews and participate in resume collections during the summer at a number of law schools. If your school is listed below, we encourage to you to submit an application for Potter Anderson through your Career Services Office.

2024 ON-CAMPUS INTERVIEWS & JOB FAIRS

2024 Resume Collections

CALLBACK INTERVIEWS AND SUMMER ASSOCIATE PROGRAM OFFERS

Callback invitations are typically extended shortly after an initial screening interview. The firm also conducts interviews for students who submit exceptional resumes outside of law schools' interview processes. During a callback interview, students will spend time meeting with partners and associates to allow both the candidate and the firm to learn more about each other. Offers will be made as soon as possible following callback interviews for summer associate positions with our firm.

COMPENSATION

Potter Anderson 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. For summer 2025, summer associates will earn at least $4,038 per week. To see our complete benefit package, click here to view our NALP Employer Information form.

ASSOCIATE OFFERS

At the conclusion of the summer program, Potter Anderson offers successful second-year candidates full-time associate positions with the firm upon their graduation from law school. First-year summer associates are not typically eligible to receive offers for full-time associate positions until they have completed their second year of law school; however, they are eligible to receive offers to return for a second summer with the firm.

FIRST-YEAR CANDIDATES

While the majority of offers for Potter Anderson’s summer associate positions are extended to second-year students, each year a few first-year students may be considered for summer associate positions.

Summer Program

At Potter Anderson, we recognize that law students face a difficult choice in determining where to spend their second-year summer. Our summer program focuses on you. Our goal is to provide you with a summer experience that exposes you to our practice areas, our attorneys, and Wilmington and the surrounding area. You will be immersed in assignments from all corners of our firm in a challenging but supportive environment. Our summer associates are able to develop their legal skills throughout the summer because they work closely with us on sophisticated matters across the spectrum of our practice. You likely will work on a project relating to a complex litigation matter, a bankruptcy case, a corporate merger, a shareholder dispute or an intellectual property matter. You will also have the benefit of getting to know our attorneys at training programs and social events that are scheduled throughout the summer. You can be assured that by the end of your summer, you will have a strong sense of our firm and its people.

Mentoring

Each summer associate is paired with a partner and an associate mentor. Mentors provide guidance and assistance in acclimating to firm life. Mentors are available to answer questions that arise during the summer. Although each summer associate is assigned formal mentors, the firm’s open-door policy also creates informal mentoring relationships between summer associates and attorneys during the course of the summer.

Assignments and Training 

QUALITY ASSIGNMENTS

A primary purpose of our summer program is to give summer associates a realistic experience in 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 may include preparing a complaint, researching a novel legal issue, assisting in drafting a brief, assisting in deposition preparation, or reviewing closing documents. Our program is designed to give our summer associates exposure to all aspects of the firm’s practice. At the same time, for those summer associates with a preferred practice area of concentration, efforts are made to ensure that assignments are received in those areas.

INTERACTION WITH EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS

Summer associates are assigned projects from ongoing firm 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. Moreover, the firm strongly encourages its attorneys to provide summer associates with immediate feedback on each completed project. 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 an on-site food truck picnic lunch, Philadelphia Phillies and Wilmington Blue Rocks baseball games, dinners at partners’ homes, fireworks at the Hagley Museum, community volunteering, and wellness activities.