The firm’s commitment to mentoring and professional development starts early. We provide a range of programs to assist each summer associate in making a smooth transition into life at the firm.
Each summer associate is assigned a partner mentor and an associate liaison to enhance the summer associate’s work and social experience at the firm. On the first day, a summer associate enjoys the first of many lunches with his or her associate liaison. Later in the same week, the partner mentors and newly arrived summer associates also meet over lunch. Partner mentors and associate liaisons are on call to provide guidance and advice to their summer associate at any time throughout the summer.
We encourage our summer associates to attend all of the firm’s many training events. In addition, we provide several customized training programs intended to give our summer associates an understanding of the intellectual and practical challenges of being a lawyer at Davis Polk. We also introduce them to our director of associate development and her full-time staff, who are available to work with each summer associate once they join the firm as an associate.
Feedback is a critical component of one’s professional development. Each summer associate is evaluated mid-way through his or her summer and at the end of the summer. Each lawyer with whom the summer associate has worked completes an online evaluation form of the summer associate’s performance. The comments are compiled and communicated to the summer associate in a meeting with his or her partner mentor or summer committee partner.
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