{"id":120978,"date":"2025-05-30T00:02:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/30\/summer-associates-rate-their-dream-biglaw-firms-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T00:02:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:02:41","slug":"summer-associates-rate-their-dream-biglaw-firms-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/30\/summer-associates-rate-their-dream-biglaw-firms-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Associates Rate Their \u2018Dream\u2019 Biglaw Firms (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memorial Day has come and gone, and in the legal profession, that means that summer associate season is nearly upon us. Soon, scores of law students will descend upon the largest firms across the country to experience the best of what Biglaw has to offer. These firms spare no expense to impress their would-be associates with fun times \u2014 and fun work, too.<\/p>\n

But what matters most to summer associates, and which firms did they like best heading into the summer?<\/p>\n

The 2025 Summer Associates Survey, conducted by Law360 Pulse, includes a number of insights into the summer associate world,\u00a0and what seems to be at the top of law students\u2019 minds is job security. Just like last year, summer associates remain highly concerned about not receiving an offer, with 28% of survey respondents reporting that as their biggest worry. On the bright side, that\u2019s down from 37%, which was the concern level on being no-offered Law360 logged in 2024. <\/p>\n

Students are also quite worried about their ability to connect with colleagues and receive appropriate mentoring (23%), as well as their ability to manage their workload (23%). While we know it\u2019s easier said than done, law students do not need to be this anxious \u2014 you will be okay, and we\u2019re fairly confident that the vast majority of you will exit your summer associate programs with a job offer in hand.<\/p>\n

Now, before we get to the \u201cdream\u201d firm rankings, let\u2019s discuss the methodology used by Law360 Pulse. Law student survey respondents \u2014 made up of 55% 1Ls, 42% 2Ls, and about 3% 3Ls, part-time, or evening students \u2014 ranked firms by geography, diversity of practice areas, firm reputation, culture, personal fit, billable hour expectations, partnership prospects, and alumni networks.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, here are the top firms on the Top 25 \u201cDream\u201d Firm list:<\/p>\n

\n

1. Kirkland: 76 mentions<\/p>\n

2. Latham: 52 mentions<\/p>\n

3. Sidley: 26 mentions<\/p>\n

4. Holland & Knight: 24 mentions<\/p>\n

5. Jones Day: 23 mentions<\/p>\n

6. Morrison Foerster: 22 mentions<\/p>\n

7. Skadden: 21 mentions<\/p>\n

8. White & Case: 20 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Gibson Dunn: 19 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Greenberg Traurig: 19 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Norton Rose: 19 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Vinson & Elkins: 19 mentions<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to see the full list.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to all of the firms that earned the respect and appreciation of this season\u2019s summer associates. Best of luck to these law students as they take the first steps into their budding careers. <\/p>\n

What Do Summer Associates Want? These Firms<\/a> [Law360]<\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Summer Associates Rate Their \u2018Dream\u2019 Biglaw Firms (2025)<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Memorial Day has come and gone, and in the legal profession, that means that summer associate season is nearly upon us. Soon, scores of law students will descend upon the largest firms across the country to experience the best of what Biglaw has to offer. These firms spare no expense to impress their would-be associates with fun times \u2014 and fun work, too.<\/p>\n

But what matters most to summer associates, and which firms did they like best heading into the summer?<\/p>\n

The 2025 Summer Associates Survey, conducted by Law360 Pulse, includes a number of insights into the summer associate world,\u00a0and what seems to be at the top of law students\u2019 minds is job security. Just like last year, summer associates remain highly concerned about not receiving an offer, with 28% of survey respondents reporting that as their biggest worry. On the bright side, that\u2019s down from 37%, which was the concern level on being no-offered Law360 logged in 2024. <\/p>\n

Students are also quite worried about their ability to connect with colleagues and receive appropriate mentoring (23%), as well as their ability to manage their workload (23%). While we know it\u2019s easier said than done, law students do not need to be this anxious \u2014 you will be okay, and we\u2019re fairly confident that the vast majority of you will exit your summer associate programs with a job offer in hand.<\/p>\n

Now, before we get to the \u201cdream\u201d firm rankings, let\u2019s discuss the methodology used by Law360 Pulse. Law student survey respondents \u2014 made up of 55% 1Ls, 42% 2Ls, and about 3% 3Ls, part-time, or evening students \u2014 ranked firms by geography, diversity of practice areas, firm reputation, culture, personal fit, billable hour expectations, partnership prospects, and alumni networks.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, here are the top firms on the Top 25 \u201cDream\u201d Firm list:<\/p>\n

\n

1. Kirkland: 76 mentions<\/p>\n

2. Latham: 52 mentions<\/p>\n

3. Sidley: 26 mentions<\/p>\n

4. Holland & Knight: 24 mentions<\/p>\n

5. Jones Day: 23 mentions<\/p>\n

6. Morrison Foerster: 22 mentions<\/p>\n

7. Skadden: 21 mentions<\/p>\n

8. White & Case: 20 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Gibson Dunn: 19 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Greenberg Traurig: 19 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Norton Rose: 19 mentions<\/p>\n

9. Vinson & Elkins: 19 mentions<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to see the full list.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to all of the firms that earned the respect and appreciation of this season\u2019s summer associates. Best of luck to these law students as they take the first steps into their budding careers. <\/p>\n

What Do Summer Associates Want? These Firms<\/a> [Law360]<\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memorial Day has come and gone, and in the legal profession, that means that summer associate season is nearly upon us. Soon, scores of law students will descend upon the largest firms across the country to experience the best of what Biglaw has to offer. These firms spare no expense to impress their would-be associates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Staci-Zaretsky-r86BWe.jpeg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}