Advice
- Professionalism Primer
- Dressing for Interviews, Receptions, and Work
- From Student to Associate: Navigating the Transition
- Understand Performance Evaluations
Resources
- Hotshot Legal uses short videos to teach a range of legal and business topics. See Self-Directed Learning with Hotshot for information about signing up. Hotshot’s videos provide simple explanations of complex concepts. Topics include Accounting & Finance, M&A Basics, Excel & Data Analysis, and Venture Financing, and new content is continually added.
- The HotShot’s Professionalism & Communication series will build essential professional skills that will help you succeed in summer positions, clinics, and your career as a lawyer.
- Watch Starting Strong: Core Skills for Summer Associates and enter your summer associate role with confidence and professionalism by focusing on the skills that firms expect from day one.
- Watch Foundations for New Associates: Communication & Professional Skills as you transition from full-time student to full-time attorney and leverage the skills you need to succeed in the professional world.
- Prepare to Practice program by LexisNexis. This tutorial is designed to help students master some of the practical skills you need to arrive practice ready on day one.
- Developing the Professional Lawyer – Student Tip Videos. Created by the National Association for Law Placement, these interactive e-learning modules are a simple way to help you focus on some of the core elements of professionalism.
- Bloomberg Law produces short videos that shed light on the economic models and structures of major law firms.
Podcasts and Videos
| TITLE | FORMAT |
|---|---|
| Managing the First Years of Your Law Firm Career | Video |
| Summer Success in a Remote Setting | Video |
| How a Law Firm is Run and Why it Matters to You Julie Jones, Chair of Ropes and Gray | Video |
| How a Law Firm is Run and Why it Matters to you Kevyn Orr, Partner-in-Charge Washington, Jones Day | Video |
Updates from Hire Ground
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Professional Boundaries
As you get to know your coworkers this summer, you may find yourself growing more comfortable with some of your colleagues. Remember, the people you meet at the firm are colleagues, and you should assume that whatever you say or do in their company will get back to the hiring committee. While it may seem
July 2, 2026
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Track Your Client Matters This Summer
Conflicts checks are a necessary part of legal practice which will one day become second nature. Beginning to track the client matters on which you work this summer will make the conflicts check process easier down the road. While most firms have complex case management systems to track and check for conflicts, you can simplify
July 2, 2026
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Midsummer Reviews
Many employers have mid-summer reviews to check in with their summer associates or interns. Avoid being defensive and take any feedback in stride. If you do not have a formal midsummer review process, now is a good time to seek out feedback from a supervisor. Something as simple as asking, “How could I have improved
June 25, 2026
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Tailor Your Communication
You may have noticed that supervising attorneys often have individual preferences for how they like information to be formatted and communicated to them. For example, some like an email with a few bullets with bold headers, while others might prefer a short summary email with a more comprehensive Word document attached. You can take the
June 25, 2026
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Dealing with Deadlines
Missing deadlines is always unacceptable and could jeopardize your ability to secure an offer or a strong reference. Stay on top of all of your deadlines so that you can turn in every project that has been assigned to you on time. If you are struggling, remember that OCS advisers are available throughout the summer
June 18, 2026