Law Students

Come. Stay.

What are you doing this summer and beyond?

Are you looking for an action-packed, real-life taste of practicing law while meeting new colleagues and getting involved in the communities we serve? Welcome to Quarles and what comes next.

We hire summer associates carefully, with the expectation that they can become partners at our firm. While the threshold is high for offers to join us as a summer associate, the vast majority of our second-year summer associates receive offers to return as entry-level associates.

Our 10-week summer program is designed to show you what the practice of law is really like and allows you to meet our people. Our program is also designed to show you that we are the place for you. By happy coincidence (or maybe it’s no coincidence!), once you see what practicing law as a Quarles lawyer is like, and once you meet our wonderful people, you may never need to look elsewhere.

Learn more about our current opportunities.

Summer Associate Program

Let's just tell it like it is: Our summer program is awesome! The 10-week program is designed to give you an idea of what it is like to be a Quarles lawyer (plus a lot of free lunches). Through our summer program, you will be given a healthy variety of real work assignments for real clients. We offer the opportunity to explore a variety of practice areas alongside our experienced attorneys. This way, you will get to know more about the people you will be working with and a flavor for the type of work you will be doing when you join our team. 

We know that if you are one of our summer associates, you will be a better legal writer by the time your summer ends. We have many ways to make you a better writer, including a writing seminar taught by experts in the field.

An important part of your summer experience will be practical training opportunities. You'll accompany firm lawyers to hearings, depositions, closings, client meetings or trials. This will help you get a feel for many aspects of the practice of law and give you the chance to learn through observation and participation.

Our goal is for you to have a successful summer and then join us as an associate after you graduate from law school. To that end, we will provide you with the opportunities, tools and feedback you need to efficiently research, effectively analyze and clearly communicate your conclusions. In evaluating your performance, the summer committee will consider evaluations from your assigning attorneys and your reader, as well as your ability to tackle different tasks, problem solve, relate to clients and co-workers, and be an effective team player.

Real Work Experience

It's not as easy as it looks to answer a legal question, at least assuming you want to give the best advice, and we always do. Your summer assignment will not be to copy a case at the law library or to digest all of the Environmental Protection Agency decisions issued since 1975 involving tub mold. Instead, you will have real projects for real clients designed to teach you the process of analyzing a legal problem and coming up with practical and useful answers resulting in sound, helpful legal advice.

Our commitment to your learning and development starts as soon as you become a summer associate and continues throughout your career with us. You will be assigned a reader — a lawyer who will review your assignments and meet with you several times during the summer to give you feedback and guidelines for improvement. You will also have a liaison — a lawyer who will not evaluate you but who will provide support, answer questions and act as a resource on issues ranging from the best way to tackle a tough research assignment to what to wear to a given social event.

During the summer, you will receive formal evaluations and informal feedback from the assigning attorneys. It's important that you know where you stand and how you are progressing as the summer goes on. Our doors are literally and figuratively open — if you want more feedback than you are getting, just speak up and you shall receive.

NALP Forms

Click here.

Recruiting Timeline and Current Openings

We will begin accepting applications for our 1L Summer Associate Program starting November 14, 2025. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Click here to view our current openings.