Law Firm Apprenticeship Programs

Law.com recently profiled the growing implementation of apprenticeship programs for first-year attorneys.

Notable firms across the country embracing the apprenticeship model include Howrey; Philadelphia's Drinker Biddle & Reath; labor firm Ford & Harrison; Ohio/Kentucky firm Frost Brown Todd; and Dallas' Strasburger & Price.

"Firms are putting new recruits through additional apprenticeship programs that they say will better train their attorneys for life at a law firm and for handling clients. Think of it as the equivalent of a medical residency, only with suits instead of scrubs."

"The latest -- and so far largest -- firm to move to an apprenticeship model, 659-lawyer Howrey, announced its program last week. Starting next year, first-years at the firm will get a pay cut -- from $160,000 to $100,000 in base pay plus a $25,000 bonus to pay down law school loans -- and they'll spend a good portion of their time attending classes with partners and shadowing them on client matters. The apprenticeship period will last two years.

"Robert Ruyak, Howrey's managing partner, said associates will be doing far less client work, and when they do work on client matters it won't necessarily be billed to clients. "We really want them to focus on learning the skill they need to be first-rate litigators," Ruyak said."

"The old model is broken," Ruyak said. "You're bringing on these extremely bright individuals and letting them waste their careers buried in documents where they aren't really learning the practical skills it takes to be a lawyer."

Ah, yes. Here we see -- yet again -- another real-world distinction between the two separate job functions that have been each historically covered by the umbrella term attorney. On the one hand, there is the redundant, commoditizable, associate level work, and on the other hand we have the role of adviser, counselor, manager, and/or litigator.

As we discussed previously, while the future of the legal profession is changing, the need for the experience, insight, and perspective of a seasoned attorney will always be in demand.

These apprenticeship programs seem to acknowledge that, and then take it a step further by explicitly separating the training of litigators/advisers/counselors from the redundant, high volume work that can be executed at a more cost-efficient level, either by in-house staff attorneys or -- with even more cost-efficiency -- by highly trained attorneys at an LPO.