An Exciting Opportunity For Aspiring Litigators

And an innovative new talent initiative for a leading litigation boutique.

Steven Molo of MoloLamken (courtesy photo by Michael Paras).

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To tweak James Carville’s famous saying, when it comes to having a successful law firm, “It’s the talent, stupid.” Or to quote another popular saying, law firms are businesses where the assets go down the elevator (or log off Zoom) every night. As a result, competition for talent is fierce. How can firms recruit the best young lawyers?

Many Biglaw firms rely on their summer-associate programs. But for litigation boutiques—which often don’t engage in entry-level hiring, instead recruiting lawyers out of clerkships or from larger firms—running a summer program might not make sense (and whether it makes sense even for Biglaw is also open to question).

Elite boutiques—which compete with Biglaw for talent, and match or exceed Biglaw pay—must build a strong brand among the law students and lawyers they’re trying to recruit. This is part of the reason why one leading boutique, MoloLamken, just announced a new program that should definitely raise its profile among the next generation of courtroom stars. It’s called the MoloLamken Advocacy Academy:

The MoloLamken Advocacy Academy is a unique program that gives top law school students from across the country an opportunity to develop practical courtroom skills. Working with leading trial and appellate advocates, 12 carefully selected MoloLamken Scholars will develop real-world skills over an intensive week-long course. 

Scholars will examine and cross-examine witnesses, present trial and appellate court arguments, and learn strategies to succeed in the courtroom. Each Scholar will receive personalized tips and feedback to help them take their advocacy to the next level.

The Academy begins on the evening of Sunday, August 11, and concludes on the afternoon of Friday, August 16, 2024. Since it’s open to students entering their final year of law school in fall 2024—for the most part, rising 3Ls—the dates were selected to accommodate participants in traditional summer programs at law firms. Each MoloLamken Scholar will receive a $4,500 cash award (plus travel expenses and lodging for Scholars not based in New York City, where the Academy will take place).

The Academy is, as far as I know, the first program of its kind (which is why it caught my interest). And its benefits will be enjoyed not just by the individual participants, according to MoloLamken founding partner Steven Molo: “We see it as a service to the profession and ultimately to society. Great advocacy and advocates are important for commerce, individual rights, and our democracy as a whole.”

MoloLamken lawyers have put a great deal of effort into developing the program, and they’ll invest even more time—and money, considering all the billable hours involved—when they host it next summer. What’s in it for the firm?

“The firm begins and ends with the talent we have,” Molo said. “We don’t have a summer associate program, but we believe it’s important to be in touch with what’s going on at law schools and with law students. All the lawyers who work for us were law students at some point in their careers—and the sooner they learn about the firm, the better. It’s in our interest to have MoloLamken—who we are, how we work—known to the people who have the talent and drive to join our firm.”

As Molo explained to me on my podcast earlier this year, MoloLamken requires its associates to have clerked, which is why it recruits primarily out of clerkships instead of hiring straight out of law school. So the Academy could help identify future associates for the firm, as partner Megan Cunniff Church, one of the architects of the Academy, told me: “There’s definitely a possibility that some Academy alums might join the firm someday, since there should be overlap between students interested in advocacy and students interested in clerkships.”

The Academy will require MoloLamken partners to spend a week in the middle of August in Manhattan, teaching law students about advocacy. Isn’t that a lot of work, during a time of year when most partners prefer to be out in the Hamptons?

“Yes, it’s a lot of work, but we hope the participants will find it fun,” Church said. “We love being lawyers, and we want to instill this in the Scholars—who might have seen lawyers during their time as summer associates who weren’t quite as happy.”

If you’re a law student interested in the Academy, you can learn more and apply via MoloLamken’s website. It’s an intriguing new program, which could inspire similar initiatives by peer firms, and I’m interested in seeing how it turns out.

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