A new associate can expect his initial experience to include working with more senior attorneys, which provides an opportunity to learn by observation and association. On less complex legal matters, new associates shoulder or share primary responsibility. Subsequent work will include the assumption of more independent responsibility under the supervision of a senior attorney and, ultimately, the assumption of primary responsibility for increasingly more significant matters. The firm maintains starting salaries competitive with other firms throughout the country. Associates receive life insurance, vacation and other benefits.
Performance is evaluated annually and salary increases are based upon individual progress.
The generosity of the late James Seymour annually provides for six associates and their spouses to travel anywhere in Europe. The round-trip air fares of the associate and spouse to their farthest destination in Europe are paid for under the program. Attorneys in the firm may either concentrate in a particular area of practice, engage in a general practice, or be involved in both. Consequently, every effort is made to give each new associate a broad experience so that the firm and the associate may determine the field or fields in which he or she has the greatest aptitude and interest, and so that the associate may receive a significant opportunity to work with each of the partners at one time or another. To achieve these goals, each new associate becomes a member of an informal group of first-year associates under the guidance of a group of partners who insure that each new associate has the opportunity to work on a variety of legal matters encompassing the broad range of practice in which the firm is engaged and to get an exposure to certain fundamental areas of practice.