Clients Could Refuse To Pay For Summer Associate Hours At Law Firms

The New York Law Journal:  A major bank has announced it will not pay for summer associate time.  Is this an omen of things to come and the end of a law firm institution?    Will unbarred pre-graduates at law schools across the country find themselves cocktail, tee time and ridiculously, unimportant-assignment free this summer?

The malaised economy has pierced, once again, the veil that has been cast on the attorney-client fee structure in the last several decades and the results are guaranteed to not be pretty for potential law school students looking for that cushy summer job.  In fact, according to the piece, summer associates should expect an increase in more substantive, time consuming assignments.  Better for your golf handicap?  Nah.  But it will sure get you prepared for the real world of big firms in the 21st century.