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In ordinary times, just about every Atlanta summer associate takes in a Braves game or two—but this summer, the Braves haven't been playing, and firms are hosting law students virtually. 

Coordinators of this year's summer associate programs said they pressed forward with virtual programs, despite the challenges, because they hope today's summer associates are their firms' future partners. Along the way, they made some innovations—such as a virtual ticketing system for assignments, finding safe ways to still meet in the office and creative team-building exercises.

Drew Eckl & Farnham's summer program leaders, Taylor Poncz and Stephen Graham, said they lobbied to keep their program, despite the complications of making it virtual, because they view summer associates as future partners. 

"People who come out of our summer program generally have a long-term investment in their future here," Poncz said, noting that she and Graham both started at Drew Eckl as summer associates themselves. "A large percentage of us partners came out of the program." 

Like other firms, Alston & Bird initially considered starting its program remotely and then having law students come into the office, but "all-virtual turned out to be the safer way to go," said the firm's chief legal talent partner, Liz Price. "We don't have a whole lot of lawyers in the office anyway."

Alston & Bird, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, Drew Eckl & Farnham and Eversheds Sutherland started their virtual programs June 22 but shortened them from the usual 10 weeks to six. Swift Currie McGhee & Hiers is hosting a rare in-office program, also for six weeks.

But King & Spalding opted to compress its program to two weeks for its 23 Atlanta summer associates (out of 70 firmwide), who started Monday. At the other extreme, Barnes & Thornburg stuck to its full 10-week summer schedule, starting May 22, including two law students in Atlanta out of 35 total.

Several firms canceled their programs, due to the complications of hosting one virtually, including Troutman Pepper, Smith Gambrell & Russell, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, FordHarrison and Seyfarth Shaw. Troutman and Smith Gambrell instead made job offers to the second-year law students accepted for their programs.

Tech Innovation

The biggest hurdle for a virtual program at Drew Eckl was figuring out a better way to assign and keep track of work for its six summer associates, Poncz said.

Until this summer, partners assigned work through the summer associates' mentors (an associate and a partner for each), which created a plethora of back-and-forth emails and placed the burden on the mentors to route the assignments to the summers, she explained, which would have become even more unwieldy virtually.

"But necessity is the mother of innovation," Poncz said.

Drew Eckl's IT department devised a ticketing system that allows partners to more efficiently assign work. The system also makes it easier to provide feedback and ensure the law students are exposed to all practice areas.

Now a partner submits a ticket for the desired task (labeling the area of law), which goes directly to the summer associates in an email alert. After choosing an assignment, the associate can use the system to set up a Microsoft Teams call with the partner for further discussion. When the summer associate submits the completed assignment, the system alerts the partner via email, so they can review and enter feedback.

This gives the summers more autonomy and control, and their mentors can quickly see assignments' status in real time "instead of emails flying back and forth," Graham said.

"There's no substitute for a face-to-face program, and we hope we're back to that next summer, but a lot of the tech innovations we've made from having to conduct a virtual program are here to stay," he added.

Virtual and In-Office

In a rare departure, Swift Currie has actually brought its six summer associates into its Midtown office at 1355 Peachtree Street. 

"We felt it was important for our clerks to be in the office a little bit so they'd understand our culture and how the firm works," said Jim Johnson, who co-heads Swift Currie's summer program with another partner, Beth Wilson. 

Even so, Johnson and Wilson said, most of their summer associates' interactions with each other and the firm's lawyers have been virtual. 

Swift Currie is well ahead of other Atlanta firms on reopening, but to ensure safe social distancing, it has divided its four floors into 15 zones, each with entry points and restrooms. Lawyers and staff are required to stay within their zones, so even when people are in the office, a lot of their interactions are still remote.

The firm paired summer associates in zones, so they'd each have a buddy, Wilson said. Like their new colleagues, they work in an office with the door shut and wear masks when they're in their zone's common areas. Break rooms are closed, and everyone brings their own lunch.

Swift Currie's summers arrived June 15 to coincide with phase three, where people started coming in for a half-day, three days a week. Earlier in July, that expanded to at least three full days per week for phase four.

On their first day at Swift Currie, all six of the law students met in person with Wilson and Johnson in the firm's largest training room, which holds 200, but everyone sat at separate tables. They've also had an in-person meeting with several partners and convene every Friday for lunch—all in the training room at separate tables. "We talk really loud," Wilson said.

Otherwise, Wilson said, their interactions with partners have been via Zoom, even in the office. One of the summers asked to meet with Wilson and Johnson to learn about their practices, but the three are in separate zones, Johnson said, so that, too, will be by Zoom.

Swift Currie canceled in-person social events that are ordinarily an important part of the program because of safety concerns. "We've encouraged them to bond with each other over their research assignments instead," Johnson said, adding that they've been Zooming and texting among themselves.

Zoom Depos and Cooking Classes

Alston & Bird, like other firms, wants its 54 summer associates (with 23 in Atlanta) to do "meaningful, substantive work, but we wanted to have things to do, so they're not just doing research at their computer," Price said.

At Alston & Bird, Swift Currie, Drew Eckl and other firms, the law students are sitting in on virtual court hearings, mediations and depositions. Alston & Bird is also having them attend client meetings via Zoom, as well as the firm's monthly virtual meeting. 

Unsurprisingly, firms are relying heavily on video conferencing to connect the summer associates with each other and the firms' lawyers. 

"Based on my own experience, so much of the success of the program depends on the cohesiveness of these summers as a group," said Poncz at Drew Eckl, adding that summers have told her they've been having their own virtual lunches together. 

Besides training sessions and informational meetings with partners, firms have put some effort into virtual fun, gamely turning a lime of a situation into margaritas, as Poncz put it.

Drew Eckl, Alston, Kilpatrick, King & Spalding and Barnes & Thornburg are having trivia nights and cooking classes, and Drew Eckl's associates will participate in a night of improv comedy at Dad's Garage Theatre Company—all via Zoom. 

Alston & Bird and Barnes & Thornburg summer associates will be doing some team bonding through a virtual escape room. For Alston's, which has an Arctic survival theme, the six participants on each escape team via Zoom will tell a person serving as their avatar in the actual room what actions to take to try and solve the puzzle that unlocks the door.

Kilpatrick even coordinated a virtual service project. It sent each of its 39 summer associates (13 in Atlanta) a mural section to paint, which will be assembled and donated to a VA hospital in New Jersey that has been especially hard-hit by the pandemic, according to its summer program head, Michael Turton. 

One unexpected benefit to the virtual program, said coordinators at multioffice firms such as Alston & Bird and Kilpatrick, is that summer associates are meeting each other and firms' partners across offices, albeit virtually. What's more, summers not resident in Atlanta could participate from anywhere without having to make housing arrangements.

"Is this ideal? No. Are we making it work? Yes," Poncz said.