Law Students
Most new associates come to us through our summer program, designed for students who have completed two years of law school. Your Schulte summer will show you what it’s like to be at the dynamic intersection of law, finance and dealmaking — an arena that includes everything from helping private funds make investments to advising a new generation of philanthropists focused on addressing society’s biggest challenges.
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Do substantive work. You’ll be given substantive work, typical of that done by a junior associate. You’ll participate in client meetings, depositions, closings, and trials, and you’ll get detailed feedback after each assignment. And you’ll be paired with a partner mentor and two associates who will show you the ropes.
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Learn intensively. At Schulte, associate training starts in the summer program. You’ll take intensive workshops on negotiations and side letters, including mock client meetings, document review and revision and a negotiation session. Future litigators can take a workshop on trial advocacy that include a mock trial. You’ll learn about the history of the firm with founding partner Paul Roth and hear a report on the state of the firm from the Executive Committee.
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Give back. Pro bono work — particularly in the areas of civil rights and racial justice — has been intrinsic to the firm since its inception. That pro bono tradition extends to our summer program, where each summer associate spends one week at a nonprofit legal organization selected from among the firm's regular pro bono clients. Learn more about Schulte’s pro bono efforts.
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Have fun. As a summer associate, you won’t just be at Schulte — you’ll be in New York. That means tickets to Broadway shows, Shakespeare in Central Park, concerts at Madison Square Garden, roller skating in Rockefeller Center and other outings with your Schulte colleagues.
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How to apply. Our summer program is designed for law students who have completed their second year of law school. We encourage you to bid to interview with us on campus.
If we don’t interview at your law school, you can submit a resume and law school transcript to recruiting@srz.com. Writing samples and references are not needed. -
Interview process. If invited for a screening interview, you’ll be meeting with one lawyer for 20 minutes. For call-back interviews, you’ll be meeting with four lawyers back-to-back for 20 minutes each, followed by a brief wrap-up conversation with a member of our recruiting team. Interviews are held remotely with post-offer opportunities to visit our office and meet lawyers in person.
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You’ll hear from us as soon as we decide on your application, usually within about a week of your call-back interview. If you receive an offer, we encourage you to visit us or speak with additional Schulte lawyers to learn more about the firm.
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2024 Weekly Summer Associate Salary. $4,326.92
Our clients deserve the best; so do our lawyers. Schulte’s compensation and benefits are at the top tier among AmLaw 100 firms.
We want you to stay healthy, have fun at work and enjoy your life outside of it. These are a few of the perks of working at Schulte:
- Medical and dental insurance for associates and their families (including domestic partners) which includes vision, infertility and transgender benefits
- Life insurance and disability insurance
- Healthcare and dependent care pre-tax flexible spending accounts
- 401(k) plan participation, including the opportunity to invest in a basket of hedge funds managed by many of our clients
- Five weeks of paid time off
- Primary caregiver childcare leave, for the birth or adoption of a child or acceptance of a child for foster care, and childcare leave for parents who are not the primary caregiver
- Transition back to work program for primary caregivers upon returning from parental leave
- Off-site backup childcare
- Student loan refinancing and free private banking
- Employee assistance and work-life program
- Free legal assistance in connection with the purchase or sale of a home and will preparation
- Business generation bonus opportunity
- Business development allowance
- Technology reimbursement program
- Subsidized health club memberships
- Reimbursement for fitness activities, including virtual classes
- Wellness program, including rewards for meeting health goals
Who should apply?
Schulte's New York-based summer program is designed for students who have completed their second year of law school. We seek to hire candidates with outstanding academic and non-academic achievements, strong interpersonal skills and those who share our values in fostering a diverse and inclusive future.
How can I apply?
We encourage you to bid on and interview with us on campus. In addition, we will also conduct early interviews for interested students beginning in June. Applications must include a resume and your 1L transcript. To apply, please submit your resume and transcript to recruiting@srz.com. If Schulte does not participate in on-campus interviews at your law school, you can apply directly by submitting your resume and transcript to recruiting@srz.com.
How many weeks will your 2024 summer program be?
We plan to host a full 10-week program in 2024.
Was your 2023 summer program in person?
Yes. We were pleased to host a hybrid program during which summer associates had the option to work remotely on Mondays and Fridays.
Can we split our summer?
Our expectation is for summer associates to participate in our 10-week program.
Will I be able to rotate through the London or Washington, DC, office?
At this time, our summer program is limited to the New York office. Because our lawyers often work together across offices, summer associates may have the opportunity to do some work with our other offices, especially Washington, DC.
Will I have to select one practice area to work in over the summer?
We encourage our summer associates to experience multiple practice areas during the course of the summer to better enable them to select the practice area in which they would like to work when they return after graduation. The summer program is structured around two assigning periods, at least one of which will be spent taking assignments from across our corporate and transactional practice groups. Summer associates can focus on transactional work for both assigning periods, or can choose to spend the other assigning period in litigation, tax, employment & employee benefits or individual client services. All summer associates have the option to try assignments from additional practice areas as they become available. We are very flexible and allow changes mid-stream if a summer associate wants to explore new areas of interest.
How are assignments given out during the summer?
Senior lawyers in each practice area coordinate all work assignments. In addition, the professional development team maintains the list of available projects, so that interested summer associates can try work from other practice areas if they would like.
Will I receive feedback?
The lawyers with whom our summer associates work complete evaluations for each assignment. At mid-summer and at the end of the program, all summer associates have feedback meetings with the chairs of the summer program during which they receive formal feedback on their work. We also encourage lawyers to provide ongoing informal feedback to summer associates throughout the course of the program.
What kind of training do you offer during the summer?
Our summer associates all start on the same day and go through an orientation together. Throughout the summer, we feature training programs on various topics, including legal writing, the business of law, effective client counseling and confident communication. We also have informal discussions about functioning as a summer associate, law firm economics, the history of the firm as told by founding partner Paul Roth and programs with the various departments to learn about our practice areas.
In addition, we host three workshops during the course of the summer program, all of which receive outstanding reviews from our summer associates:
- All summer associates participate in a mock negotiation workshop, during which they receive instruction in leveraged buyouts, term sheets, financing and due diligence. The program involves mock client meetings, document review, revision of an acquisition agreement and a negotiation session.
- All summer associates also participate in a side letter negotiation workshop run by our market-leading Investment Management Group.
- Summer associates also have the option to participate in a trial advocacy workshop, during which they receive instruction in direct and cross-examinations, opening and closing arguments, and developing case strategy. The program culminates in a mock jury trial, after which the summer associates watch the jury deliberate.
Will I have a summer mentor assigned by the firm?
Yes, each summer associate is assigned two associate mentors as well as a partner adviser. Each summer associate is also matched with a member of our recruiting and professional development team to serve as a resource leading up to and throughout the summer. Summer associates also have the support of members of our Associate Committee and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, as well as the entire Schulte community of lawyers and business staff.
Can I do pro bono work?
Absolutely — our Pro Bono Week is a hallmark of the Schulte summer program. Each of our summer associates spends one week during the summer program working in the offices of a public interest organization with which Schulte has a relationship. In recent years, our summer associates have worked at organizations such as Riverkeeper, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Legal Services for the Elderly in Queens and Human Rights First. Summer associates also have other opportunities to work on pro bono matters throughout the course of their summer at Schulte.
What distinguishes your summer program from those at other large firms?
- We make certain that the assignments given to our summer associates are challenging and interesting, similar to what they would be asked to do as junior associates.
- We make every effort to ensure that the summer associates get a complete picture of what life at the firm is like, so that they know what to expect when they return as full-time associates.
- We offer our summer associates the opportunity to participate in many of the more interactive areas of the practice of law, such as trials, hearings, depositions and negotiation sessions.
- Our summer associates participate in our intensive M&A negotiation, investment management and trial advocacy workshops, in addition to spending a week at a public interest organization during our Pro Bono Week.
- We carefully oversee the work of each summer associate and follow each summer associate’s progress throughout the course of the summer.
- We believe it is very important for the members of the summer class to bond with each other. We make every effort to have an active, but not overwhelming, social calendar for our summer associates. Our planned events are meant for summer associates to get a sense of what our lawyers are like outside of the office, meet lawyers from all of our practice areas, and to experience all that NYC has to offer!
Does Schulte allow lawyers to work remotely?
Yes, the firm has adopted a hybrid model that allows lawyers to work remotely two days each week, with flexibility for which days they choose.
What type of training will I receive as a junior associate?
Our first-year associates begin their careers with an orientation program designed to give them the tools they need to begin work at the firm. Shortly after their arrival, associates participate in a series of training programs, including legal research programs and substantive seminars from our different practice areas. Thereafter, each department hosts its own programs to keep the junior lawyers up to speed on new developments in their practice areas. Because the firm is an accredited provider of continuing legal education in New York, most of these in-house programs will qualify for CLE credit. Associates may also take outside courses offered by CLE providers and bar associations. We inform our associates of the availability of these programs and assist in their registration and attendance where applicable.
Will I receive feedback? What types of formal feedback are junior associates given?
Associates participate in our annual feedback process at the end of each year. Our first-year associates receive a mid-year check-in to provide additional support and prepare them for the annual process. We also encourage all of our lawyers to give real-time feedback to our junior associates with whom they work and recently rolled out new technology to facilitate this contemporaneous feedback. All associates have the option of using Schulte’s personal career development guides to assist in their career development conversations with senior lawyers, mentors, coaches and members of our professional development team.
Will I have a mentor when I am an associate?
Yes. Through the Schulte Mentor Network, every first-year associate is assigned an associate mentor and partner adviser who can assist them in acclimating to the firm. Starting in their second year, associates may request to add additional mentors from varying levels of seniority and practice areas to create their own personalized mentor network. In addition to attending other firm-sponsored activities together, mentors regularly go for lunch, coffee or frozen yogurt together at the firm’s expense. We also encourage and sponsor informal mentoring relationships and activities.
What type of responsibility will I be given early in my career?
As much as you can handle. We do not limit the types of tasks associates can do based on their class year. Rather, our associates progress at their own pace. If an associate demonstrates the ability to do work beyond his or her class year, that associate will be given opportunities for greater responsibility.
How are your matters and cases staffed?
Each of our practice areas has a partner responsible for assignment distribution for our junior associates. We tend to staff cases and deals with fewer lawyers than most large firms. This is one reason why our junior associates get responsibility and broad experience early.
As a junior associate, will I have client contact?
Because our matters are staffed leanly, our junior associates have the opportunity to meet and work directly with clients at an earlier stage than at most large firms.
Are associates involved with firm committees?
The Associate Committee was created to serve as a forum to ensure ongoing dialogue and facilitate communication between partners and associates on matters concerning associate life and of general importance to the firm. It includes associates who represent our different departments and offices and has several subcommittees. Associates also actively participate on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and Women’s Steering Committee.
Will I have an opportunity as a junior associate to meet and socialize with lawyers from other departments?
The firm provides a number of opportunities that allow lawyers to spend time together and help grow the culture of the firm. These are also great integration tools for new lawyers. We have many different types of informal functions that enable people to become acquainted. For example, the Associate Committee hosts monthly lunches for all associates and special counsel. We also have firmwide bagel breakfasts each Tuesday, frequent lawyer cocktail and mocktail parties, a speaker series and pre-release movie nights, all designed to bring our community together. Additionally, our cafeteria provides a casual space to catch up with colleagues. We have firm tennis, softball and basketball teams, weekly yoga and firmwide seasonal celebrations each year. Practice groups often host their own social events and lawyers from across the firm are encouraged to attend all of our summer program events.
Are incoming associates given credit for judicial clerkships?
Lawyers hired immediately after completion of a clerkship at a US federal or state court typically receive class credit and a clerkship bonus.
If you are applying for a position as a lawyer or summer associate, please submit your cover letter, resume and law school transcript to recruiting@srz.com. Inquiries regarding other positions should be sent to humanresources@srz.com.
Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
919 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
recruiting@srz.com
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Hiring Partners
Kara A. Kuchar
Julian M. Wise
Heather N. Wyckoff
Co-Chairs of the Summer Program
Seth R. Henslovitz
Laura Angel-Lalanne
Director of Recruiting
Lateral Recruiting Manager
Senior Legal Recruiting Consultant
It is the Firm's policy to offer equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees in the conduct of all of the Firm's business activities without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, age, sex (self-identified or perceived), sexual orientation, sexual and reproductive health decisions, gender identity, gender expression, the status of being transgender, marital status, familial status, caregiver status, actual or perceived domestic violence victim status, disability, veteran status, military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.
Notice for California Job Applicants
2023 Weekly Summer Associate Salary: $4,134.62