of the economical downturn last year
we, just like all US law firms, have
faced pay cuts and lay-offs.
What are the starting associates
expecting from their career – does
everyone want to become a partner?
Young associates have very different interests after graduating law
school. Some of them have already
decided to pursue a position as a partner and they are looking for a good
position in a law firm as well as professional development. There are also
associates who are not looking at
partnership track and who find a law
firm as a good starting position to pay
debts after the law school. Then they
are after something else in a legal
market such as corporate counsels,
governmental officials, etc. Law is a
jealous mistress and everyone has to
find a balance in their life.
How does SGR takes care of associates personal development?
SGR has established a program
called “SGR academy” which purpose is educational mentoring. We put
a lot of effort to our summer associate program and many of them (60
% - 80 %) will be recruited after their
graduation from law school.
During their six weeks program
summer associates rotate within four
sections in the firm (IP, corporate,
real estate and litigation) and all of
them has their personal mentor. Every single document that they produce in the firm will be graded and in
the end of the summer program their
work will be evaluated as a whole –
this is a basis for a recruitment decision.
Since many of the associates are
hired based on the summer program
they start the SGR academy already
when they are students. After being
appointed as an associate an evaluation will be made every six months
for two years by a special evaluation
committee. After three years of practicing evaluation will be made once
a year.
What are the benefits that SGR
offers?
- Every employee has a good
healthcare coverage paid by the firm.
The employees have also a possibility to include their family members to
the program by their own expense.
The healthcare includes dental insurance and optical care as well.
- Every employee gets 2 weeks of
vacation per year and it is very common to have long weekend off every
once in a while rather than taking the
time off at once.
- CLE (Continuing legal education) requirement is 12 hours in Geor-
gia and the firm supports associates
to participate education. Sometime
the firm may pay the expenses to a
conference etc. abroad or in another
city in the US.
- Compensation bonus: if 1900
billable hours are exceeded an associate gets additional 5000 dollars then
after that every additional 100 hours
will add extra 5000 dollars. Merit
bonus is 15000 dollars and it includes productivity, client work etc.
- Associates do not have a possibility for a company car not there is
no meal benefit available.
- Maternity leave is four months
which is partly paid. After that there
is a possibility to a