THE RETURN OF THE SUMMER ASSOCIATE.

• Author: Fitzgarrald, Jonathan

According to "The National Law Journal," law firm summer associate programs are on the rise and it's paying off: 95 percent of summer associates who clerked for law firms in the summer of 2015 were offered permanent positions after graduation. This is the highest rate since 2007, and up significantly from the low of 69 percent in 2009.

Prior to 2008, BigLaw was booming and firms kept pace with client demand by hiring law students for summer associate positions. These students were groomed to become associates and many received full-time offers upon graduation. But with the Great Recession came significant changes across the legal landscape: As the economic downturn bled into all sectors, companies drastically cut their legal budgets and, in response, law firms scaled back across the board, including campus recruitment efforts.

Now that the dust has settled and the economy has stabilized, the pendulum appears to be swinging back as the legal field tries to find equilibrium. BigLaw firms are still laying off attorneys, but client acquisition is on the rise. After years of downsized summer associate classes, we are witnessing an upward trend. Why now?

A Growing Generational Gap

Law firms are realizing that by eliminating or reducing summer programs and law grad recruitment for almost a decade, they've widened the generational gap between their attorneys and their clients. Millennials are now the largest generational group in the country and workforce. This is not mirrored in law firms, where most of the attorneys are Baby Boomers and, to a lesser degree, Generation X.

Such a distinct gap can have negative consequences. For instance, a large generational gap between attorneys and clients can lead to a decrease in client satisfaction. Millennials interact with technology differently than previous generations; they are more likely to communicate through text and email than telephone. They may expect their attorney to have a similar relationship with technology. This can be problematic when dealing with Boomer generation lawyers, who may still use phone calls as their primary form of client...