SUMMER ASSOCIATES

CHRIS SOUSA

My name is Christopher Sousa, and I was a summer associate.

Before I came to the law firm I worked for a public advocacy organization. I worked with The Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and some of those [I’m] pretty proud of. In terms of free time, I’m just a political and current events dork. That’s all I follow. I do a lot of reading.

I went to law school at Georgetown University. It’s right on Capital Hill, so you’re right there in the middle of where all the laws are being made, so going to law school in the midst of all of that was a great experience. My summer associate colleagues they were a… they came from a variety of backgrounds and had a variety of personalities. It was a good group. We got along very well actually.

The most valuable thing I learned during that summer is the difference between what it means to be a good law student and what it means to be a good attorney. Right off the bat, right off my first day as a summer associate I was integrated into one of the bigger litigation teams. We had substantive assignments, deadlines, we were expected to get work done for the partners. We were just like another associate. I was pleasantly surprised and happy that they were making the effort to show us what life was going to be like at the firm and, besides the level of work that they expect you to do, it’s also the interesting and challenging work that you want, that you went to law school to do in the first place.

DEEPA SUBRAMANIAN

My name is Deepa. I was a summer associate at Morrison & Foerster. I’m with the Technology Transactions group here.

I love food. I’m a big foodie. My friends and I are always on some food quest or the other to find the best, I don’t know, burrito, the best bagel, the best ice cream. We’re always eating.

In my former life I was a software engineer and I loved the fact that I could bring that past career to my job here. This is a great practice group. I got such a great experience. Maybe 90% of my assignments came from partners and they gave me feedback. It’s probably why this practice group is so strong. To learn drafting you have to learn from that level. If there’s one thing that’s true about this firm it’s that everybody gets to be themselves. There’s room to be whoever you are as long as you’re an excellent attorney.

My summer class was amazing. It’s great to have good peers because it makes the experience that much more valuable.

I think it’s all about the people. I mean, everyday I’m happy to come in because of who is right there and right there and, right across. It’s all about the people.

JESSICA TIPTON

Hi, I’m Jessica Tipton and I went to Santa Clara law school.

I practice in labor and employment and also intellectual property, so patents, trade secrets, things like that.

I took two months off in between finishing the bar and coming here. I travelled all over with two of my best girlfriends from law school. [Showing a picture.] We’ve got this small elephant from the reserve in Chiang Mai and the bottom photo is a beach off Ko Tao. On the right hand side is myself holding a small baby in Cambodia.

I think my summer experience gave me somewhat of a realistic view of what it would be like to be at MoFo. Not an actual view entirely. The two hour summer lunches don’t actually occur when you’re an associate. But I think in terms of work and working with partners and groups on collaboration it definitely did.

There was one case that I absolutely loved that I actually got put on my first day as a summer at MoFo. They had a weekly conference call for this huge IP case and I asked the partner if I could just stay on for the duration of my summer and attend the conference calls and kind of follow the case and he said yes. So it was nice to actually like part of a team during my summer associate.

One of the things that MoFo does really well is breed a good, friendly culture that’s not competitive. I wish I leaned more on other summers to review my work or bounce questions off. Things like that. You really learn that the other people who are summering with you are going to be who you work with and they’re willing to help you and you might as well get feedback from them at a lower level as opposed to passing something up that you’re not necessarily happy with yet.

LINDSAY LASALLE

My name is Lindsay LaSalle and I summered with Morrison & Foerster after my second year of law school.

I love cooking. I love entertaining. I love throwing dinner parties. My friend recently said I should have a dinner party blog, which I just do not have time for, but I think would be great because I love looking at blogs actually. Any time I can just have a chance to be outside, whether that’s at Fort Mason just playing some lawn games or playing on a co-ed softball team. My number one summer activity for the firm in general I think would be the women’s dinner. It really just allows you an opportunity to see these really strong, powerful women. You get to talk to them about issues that are unique to women. And I think that gave me an opportunity just to understand for myself where my future could possibly be in this firm in terms of tracks for partnership, but also family life. So that for me was nice socially, but was also just great to kind of understand that perspective and have the opportunity to talk to that many women.

I would say actually almost exclusively as a summer for me I interacted with partners. Being able to kind of choose your assignment, contacting the partner directly, taking the initiative. They try to allow you to have a relationship with a partner so that you can understand more what it would be like to work here and work on a team. It was a little intimidating at first, but it’s great. There’s big partners here and it’s exciting to work with them.

MARCUS REESLUND

My name is Marcus Reeslund and I went to Stanford Law School.

It’s hard to get a sense of firms when you’re interviewing. You can get a sense, somewhat, – the people you interview with, do you get along with them or you don’t – but, the process is relatively formal by comparison to when you’re actually working there and you get to interact socially with the attorneys and the staff. And really, once I got here, from day one, I just felt at home. There’s just incredible diversity in personalities. You’re accepted for who you are in the firm, and what’s important is: Can you do the work? And do you fit well with the group? And it’s not like you have to have a certain personality to fit well, the question is just, is this someone I want to work with?

My first project was drafting a response to an office action – it’s a Patent Office correspondence. I remember sitting down with the attorney after having looked at some of the materials and having been given some guidance on how to go about it, and the attorney just looked at me and said, “What would you do?” I was just expecting to be told, you know, “Look at this, write it this way and be done.” You’re guided in what you do, but you get to take the reins and drive. I was really surprised at just how much fun I had at the firm. At least my two summers brought together a good core of summers and we all bonded well and matched really well. And that made the experience what it was.

NEIL PERRY

My name is Neil Perry and I was a summer associate at Morrison & Foerster.

I have a lot of kind of different interests – travelling, hiking, cooking. I actually grew up in England, so I have gone back to Europe, I have a lot of family still back there, gone on to the mainland. I have a brother in New Zealand, so I’ve gone over to that area and travelled. I also like travelling in the U.S. I like to get a flavor of different areas.

I think the summer experience is always surprising. There’s an overwhelming aspect to it. You’re meeting a lot of people, you’re getting to do work that you may not be used to, especially, you know, school isn’t necessarily a good prep for what you’re going to be doing day-to-day at a firm. They don’t give fluff work to summers. I had work that was delivered to clients. I got to work on, during my summer, a portion of a brief that went to the Eighth Circuit. I got to be involved in discussions, meet with clients, get involved with different things. Oftentimes I realize that everything I work on is hard and the reason it’s hard is because we’re working on it. And it’s cutting edge and our clients need us to kind of find new areas or new aspects of the law to investigate and to use to their benefit.

MoFo gives offers to people that are easy to work with – you know, have great personalities – and very diverse personalities. I was really surprised, actually, at the diversity of the personalities that I worked with – people from all areas of the country and all aspects of kind of the range of political opinions, and social opinions, and social experiences. So, I loved my summer class. When you’re spending the hours that you do at law firms, you want to be around people that are easy to get along with and fun, and I’ve definitely found that here.