Students/Summer Clerk Program

Opportunities for Summer Associate and Law School Students (click here for 2008 timeline)

Sands Anderson Marks & Miller hosts a 12 week Summer Associate Program for a law student following his or her second year of law school. The program, based in our Richmond office, offers opportunities for the student to work on a wide variety of assignments from each of the firm’s seven practice groups. The student selected can also expect work assignments from and the opportunity to travel to each of our offices outside of Richmond.

A project attorney assigns work based on the summer associates’ expressed interests and available workload. A summer associate working on transactional matter might enjoy opportunities to track recent state legislation for a lobbying client, participate in a county Board of Supervisors’ meeting or converse with the State Building Code Supervisor to discuss his/her interpretation of the Code in preparation for a trial. A summer associate assisting on a litigation matter might accompany an attorney to the deposition of an adverse party, visit the scene of an airplane crash or spend a day or more in court observing a complex jury trial. We encourage summer associates to accompany our attorneys to closings, client conferences, hearings, local government meetings, trials, depositions and other opportunities for firsthand experience.

Scheduled and impromptu luncheons with attorneys also provide opportunities for the summer associate to discuss the attorneys’ areas of expertise, particularly timely and interesting cases and details of the firm’s structure, management and marketing. Summer associates are invited and encouraged to participate in the Continuing Legal Education seminars and associate training sessions scheduled during the summer months. Program topics range from "Taking Effective Depositions" to trial tactic seminars and marketing strategies.

In order for the summer associate to grow in his or her professional abilities, we encourage attorneys to provide verbal feedback during and at the completion of the assigned projects. Formal evaluation meetings take place with the Recruiting Chairman and Director of Human Resources at the end of each six-week period.

During the summer we plan a number of social events, designed to provide our summer associate and attorneys, staff and families, opportunities to become better acquainted away from the confines of the office while highlighting Richmond’s central location and diverse cultural opportunities. Popular outings in past years include concerts, tours of the Hollywood Cemetery led by our resident history buff, impromptu golf outings, vineyard tours, dinner in the homes of our attorneys, and Richmond Braves games.

Each summer associate is informally matched with a mentor, a senior attorney who will assist the associate in becoming acclimated to the firm and to whom the associate should feel comfortable addressing questions, soliciting advice or directing concerns.

Working closely with a law student for a twelve week period provides our attorneys with opportunities to recognize promise and initiative and allows them to make more informed choices when selecting prospective future full-time associates. Many of our current associates and shareholders were former summer associates. Moreover, the work assignments of each summer associate are precisely the type and complexity of assignments given to first year full-time associates, so we believe that our summer program accurately reflects the life of an associate with our firm. By this, at the end of the period, the summer associate will know exactly what to expect should they receive and accept an employment offer.

Some of our attorneys who participated in the Summer Associate experience explain:

The program is an all access pass to SAMM's lawyers, each area of SAMM's practice, and the types of services we provide to our clients.  As a summer associate, I completed assignments for clients that expected a quality work product and were depending on the answers I could provide, which I found both challenging and very rewarding. 

W. Ashley Burgess

I found the program to be an invaluable way to gain exposure to half a dozen areas of specialized practice and to get personal contact with the lawyers at Sands Anderson who practice in those areas.  This helped me to determine what areas of the law I wanted to make my focus, both in my last year of law school and for my career.  The social events and outings were great and gave me the opportunity to get to know all the lawyers at Sands Anderson.

Andrew Biondi

Recruiting Chair Henry C. Spalding, III, comments:

At Sands Anderson, we keep our summer associate program small to ensure that our law students will be able to experience a wide range of our practice groups and achieve an understanding of what the daily life of an associate is all about.  We do a good job of exposing our summer associates to such "real world" events as trials, hearings and depositions.  While our law students are expected to perform a good bit of research and writing, we also provide numerous social activities which allow for greater interaction between the lawyers and summer clerks in a less formal setting.

We encourage all interested and eligible 2nd Year Law Students to apply for our 2008 Summer Associate Program. To apply, please submit a cover letter, resume, law school transcript and writing sample to:

Sands Anderson Marks & Miller
Post Office Box 1998
Richmond, VA 23218-1998
Confidential Fax: (804) 783-7295

Janet Broadway
Director of Human Resources
Direct Phone: 804.783.7222

Kelly Woodlief
Human Resources Coordinator
Direct Phone: 804.783.6795

Equal Opportunity Employer

2008 Summer Associate Recruiting Timeline

  • August 18 - Virginia Bar Association Diversity Job Fair
  • September 8 - Mid-Atlantic Black Law Student Association Job Fair
  • September 27 - On Campus Interviews at the University of Richmond Law School
  • September 28 - On Campus Interviews at William and Mary Law School
    September 28 - Resume collection deadline for all interested and eligible 2nd Year Law Students
  • Formal Resume Collection through Career Services Centers at George Mason University, University of Virginia and Washington and Lee Law Schools
  • October 1 - October 12 - In-house Interviews
  • Week of October 15th - Extend Offer to selected 2008 Summer Associate