Law Students

Each summer associate is assigned a mentor who provides guidance to the summer associate as he or she moves through the program. Mentors answer questions, provide guidance, and support our summer associates’ integration within the firm.

As a summer associate, you’ll rotate through the firm’s practice groups and become an integral part of real-life client matters. All summer associates do one rotation with our Business Law Practice Group and our Litigation Practice Group, but we allow summer associates to choose their remaining 2-week rotations based on their personal interests. You will do research and writing projects related to real issues that face our clients in real time. Each practice group you work with will have a workflow coordinator responsible for making sure that your assignments are engaging and designed to contribute to your professional development. You may observe or assist with:

• Real estate closings
• Trials
• Mediations and arbitrations
• Hearings
• Depositions
• Negotiations
• Client meetings

Thoughtful, constructive feedback is an integral part of career growth—so we provide a lot of it. As a summer associate, you’ll receive substantive one-on-one feedback from our summer program coordinator, who oversees the entire program. You’ll also receive direct feedback from the attorneys who generate assignments. Additionally, the chair of the program will provide a comprehensive mid- and end-of- summer formal evaluation.

From sailing adventures, visits to Casco Bay’s islands, and attendance at Portland, Maine’s and Manchester, New Hampshire’s Triple-A baseball team games to museum visits and informal barbeques, summer associates have many opportunities to unwind, connect with colleagues, and get to know our communities in an informal setting.

We take pride in our community roots and seek out attorneys who are socially engaged and civic-minded. In addition to donating over 2,000 hours a year to pro bono causes, we’ve made a commitment to inspire up-and-coming attorneys to incorporate regular pro bono work into their practices. The Bernstein Shur Pro Bono Fellowship extends the standard 10-week summer associate program by two weeks to create a 12-week program, three weeks of which are spent working in-house with a legal-service provider of the student’s choice.

We can help place you with a non-profit organization at one of the providers we usually work with such as Pine Tree Legal Assistance Program, ILAP, ACLU of Maine or the Conservation Law Foundation.

While in your three-week pro bono rotation you will still participate in firm events and will continue to be paid by the firm during your rotation.

The program, which is the only of its kind in New England, was created to enhance our summer associate program and expand our pro bono work in the community. At Bernstein Shur, pro bono work is about more than civic responsibility or a sense of duty. It is a way of life and a fundamental part of the firm’s culture.