Venable, New York Law School Offer ‘Virtual’ Summer Firm Program

New York Law School and Venable have teamed up to create a simulated summer associate experience at a “virtual” law firm, an antidote to dwindling job and internship prospects for students caused by Covid-19.

“The Venable-NYLS Summer Associate Simulation Program” is an eight-week training program starting May 27 for academic credit offered to any NYLS student not graduating this year.

The new training program is separate from Venable’s own annual summer associate program, which will be a shortened virtual program in 2020 due to Covid-19.

Students will be divided into three practice groups: corporate law, government affairs and policy, and litigation. Attorneys from Venable, along with others, will provide training and supervision to the students as they navigate simulated legal work and projects rooted in real legal issues faced by clients and law firms.

It’s unusual for law students to get an opportunity to work with Big Law attorneys outside of conventional summer associate programs, but Covid-19 has changed plenty about the way both schools and firms operate.

“For us we’re trying to do two things, give them an opportunity, but also make that opportunity resonate with the marketplace and make our students that much more marketable for a more limited pool of jobs that will likely be available in the next few years,” said Anthony Crowell, dean and president of NYLS.

The idea for the program from NYLS and Venable germinated in mid-March as businesses, law firms, and schools shut their doors across New York and shifted to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic.

NYLS, based in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, is one of the many schools that has been conducting remote classes. Many firms, nonprofits, and businesses that would normally welcome interns or summer employees have had to change their plans as shutdowns continue.

It became clear that this summer would be a very difficult one for students to either be able to take the jobs they had been offered and were relying on, or those they had not yet found, Crowell said.

New Summer Plan

Crowell kicked off the effort by convening a group of colleagues. He said his intent was to create something that was scalable and would create a meaningful experience for law students, allowing them to gain practical experience that could go on a resume.

“We viewed this as an opportunity to teach them to be ready to join the front lines in the Covid-19 response as lawyers,” Crowell said.

Crowell was formerly counselor to Michael Bloomberg when he was New York City’s mayor. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.

As NYLS worked to develop the simulated law firm, the law school reached out to alumni Michael Volpe, co-chair of Venable’s labor and employment practice group, to help scale the program.

“We see this as an extremely valuable learning exercise for these students to well prepare them to finish out the second and or third year of law school and have on their resume a very valuable experience having worked through and lived through this simulated exercise over eight weeks,” he said.

Volpe, who will co-chair the program’s simulated litigation practice group, said it will be “just like being a summer associate in a law firm.”

Howard Meyers, an NYLS professor and director of the summer program said the work will certainly be similar. It could range from producing legal memos to writing legislation to doling out advice to clients on issues surrounding the pandemic, he said.

“That kind of hands-on, small-scale continuous feedback from expert practitioners really makes this an ideal learning experience in a way that’s unusual in a law school context, except say in certain clinics” said Matt Gewolb, associate dean and general counsel at NYLS.

The program will also feature a series of lectures from leaders in the legal industry who will speak to leadership in times of crisis.

The law school originally anticipated demand for the program to be at 120 students, but so far it has had over 200 applicants. The school hopes to be able to accommodate each student, who will receive a scholarship to participate in the program.

To build out what is essentially a law firm in short order, and perhaps the first of its kind, Crowell said the school tapped its alumni network for volunteers who wanted to help make it a reality.

“I think people recognize what this summer means to a large group of law students who otherwise will lose their summer and will lose out on tremendous opportunities,” Crowell said.