Joel Rothman, managing partner SRIPLAW Boca Raton. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

Large and medium-sized law firms nationwide have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by curtailing or canceling summer associate hiring. Big Law has shortened summer programs or postponed hiring first-year associates indefinitely. No doubt the cutbacks will continue as long as the pandemic depression continues.

As legal work dries up and summer associate offers are rescinded, rising 3L law students are left in the lurch. The reason is a lack of money to pay summer workers, not to mention full-time employees, even though few law students care whether they get paid at this point. The experience is what matters, even if the pay is minimal.

We are a small firm and we see a better way: Our five-lawyer firm has increased its summer associate hiring to give as many students as possible the opportunity for a real-world experience. And we are calling on solos and small firms that have the work and need help to do the same. We are also encouraging legal service providers to support these efforts.

Our five-lawyer intellectual property law firm originally planned to hire one intern for the summer. I am an adjunct professor at Emory Law School. We have hired excellent summer associates from Emory in the past.

When firms began laying off attorneys and cancelling summer programs last week, we decided to take the opposite approach. Our firm is lucky to have a steady caseload of infringement cases for photographers, illustrators, inventors and other creative professionals. In a world where creativity is undervalued, we help level the playing field for our clients against infringers.

And we are not the only ones who have work. Even though we are in the midst of downturn, there are busy lawyers everywhere. Bankruptcy lawyers are busy. Divorce lawyers are busy. SBA loan lawyers are very busy. Employment lawyers are super busy. We are not the only firm with work, that is certain.

So last week, while big firms were calling interns to give them bad news, we posted a new advertisement for summer associates at the Emory Career Center. Soon after, we interviewed three great candidates, all of whom had received bad news from large or midsized law firms that their summer associate programs had been canceled.

We decided to make offers to all three, even though doing so would stretch our budget. Law firm partners Jonah Grossbardt in Los Angeles, Joe Dunne in New York, and I deemed it unfair not to give three bright people the opportunity for a productive summer.

We went a step further and asked case management software vendor Smokeball to provide our firm with free licenses for the summer associates so that their experiences would be optimal while allowing the firm to work within its software budget. The company agreed. It shared our vision that an investment in students today will pay dividends tomorrow.

Ask any practicing lawyer and they will tell you that they did not learn to practice law in law school. Lawyers learn how to practice law on the job, not in classrooms. Summer work during law school makes for better lawyers upon graduation, it's that simple.

Law firms should take this opportunity to demonstrate to future attorneys the right way to respond to a crisis when it affects everyone. The right response will not be found in monthly profit-loss statements, end-of-year bonuses or equity distributions. The right response will be found in the relationships we build now with young and aspiring lawyers who need our help and support.

Hard numbers tell the story in hard times. When the Class of 2021 looks back on these times, how will they remember them? Right now, small firms have the opportunity to create positive memories while getting the assistance they need by opening their practice to aspiring lawyers who crave the experience.

Don't waste this opportunity to help a 2L or 3L. Call or email your alma mater, or law schools near or far. After all, where your summer associate lives no longer matters. We are all using video calls to work remotely. So will your summer associate.

If small firms and solo practitioners hire the summer clerks abandoned by the large and midsize firms, the lawyers of 2021 will learn an important lesson about their chosen profession. They will see first-hand why small firms and solos like us who outnumber Big Law lawyers chose independence and job satisfaction over ridiculous salaries, stifling bureaucracies and crushing workloads.

If every small firm and solo took just one law student under their wing this summer, think of how much more caring, compassionate, professional, practical, strategic and effective the future lawyers of the Class of 2021 will be when they graduate next year. Surely, there must be room in every small law firm's budget for that.

Joel B. Rothman is managing partner of SRIPLAW, a boutique intellectual property firm based in Boca Raton with other offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Nashville. Contact him at [email protected].