Overview
McDermott is one of the nation’s great law firms – and it’s a great place to start your legal career. We are committed to helping each new member of the team make the best professional choices possible. We work with you to choose an area of practice that meets your interests and aptitudes, create meaningful work/life balance, and learn what it takes to deliver high-quality counsel to clients.
As a top law firm, it’s no secret that McDermott expects the best from every member of the team. But we’ll also give you the resources, the tools and the training to make that happen. We offer cutting-edge, sophisticated legal work and direct contact with clients and senior partners. Early career lawyers are assigned mentors from their chosen practice areas who can help them develop and implement a plan for professional development.
Speaking of professional development, our career-progression program is one of the most unique in the industry, featuring integrated on-boarding, training, career advising, and a transparent evaluation and advancement system. We want you to know exactly where you are, where you’re going, and how to get where you want to be.
Entry Level Associates
Highly qualified early career associates come to McDermott from many directions: some are hired directly from law school, while others have started their professional lives at other firms. No matter their backgrounds, our new associates share many qualities: Intelligence. Drive. Passion. A commitment to doing their best in every aspect of professional life.
We help you develop these attributes even further, by providing you with substantive client work, professional development opportunities and a welcoming environment that helps unique, diverse individuals achieve success as part of client-focused teams.
Are you ready to make the leap to a new level professional experience? Consider joining McDermott.
Judicial Clerks
More than 110 of our lawyers – approximately one in ten – have served as judicial clerks in federal and state courts. Our litigation team has built its reputation on the fact that so many of our lawyers have firsthand trial and courtroom experience, starting while in law school and continuing throughout their careers.
Our Firm leadership team notes, “We find that young lawyers who have served in judicial clerkships bring many advantages with them. Not only have they had an intense apprenticeship in legal writing and research, they have had a unique opportunity to witness…and evaluate…effective advocacy. They are better equipped to become powerful and convincing advocates as a result.”
To help summer associates with an interest in this area qualify for and obtain a judicial clerkship, we have created the McDermott Judicial Clerkship Mentoring Program. We match summer associates to McDermott lawyers who have served as judicial clerks and can provide you with counsel and guidance on available clerkships and the clerkship application process.
Are you currently serving a judicial clerkship and looking to join the McDermott team? We offer a competitive judicial clerkship bonus to associates who join the Firm directly from most US federal courts or the highest courts in any state or the District of Columbia.
Explore Openings & Apply
McDermott’s US position opportunities:
McDermott Will & Emery LLP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and an Affirmative Action Employer (Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran). It is our policy to provide an equal opportunity to all individuals without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, gender expression and identity, national origin, ancestry, disability, transgender or sexual orientation, marital status, type of discharge from the military (other than dishonorable) or any other classification protected by law. This policy applies to all aspects of the relationship between the Firm and an employee.