We created Reed Smith’s Associate Life initiative to provide our associates with meaningful opportunities to maximize their potential, fully develop their legal and business skills, and enjoy the practice of law,” said Sandy Thomas, Reed Smith’s Global Managing Partner. “It’s a game-changer in terms of providing the integrated opportunities, resources and support that our associates have requested to achieve their personal and professional aspirations.
The Associate Life initiative includes Reed Smith’s competency-based CareeRS program and is driven by Reed Smith’s commitment to ensuring that its lawyers know what is expected of them at each stage of their development, and what is required for them to advance to the next level. Its nine competencies include not only legal skills, but also the citizenship, business and client skills and personal qualities needed to progress from junior associate to partner.
One of the new enhancements of the Associate Life initiative is an online and mobile app that allows for continuous detailed feedback from every lawyer with whom an associate works. The new process, which supplements the annual review, involves agreed-upon goals, options to regularly request and/or provide constructive feedback, and the ability to routinely schedule check-in meetings.
Programming to support legal and skills development includes the Reed Smith Trial Training Program, Deposition Skills Workshop, Brief-Writing Boot Camp, and Deal Clinic; business and workplace skills training in the New Associates, Mid-Level and Senior-Level Academies; and informal mentoring and formal mentoring by CareeRS Advisors.
The Associate Life initiative incorporates Reed Smith’s new billable hours crediting policy, which provides associates credit for up to 140 hours of non-billable work, including pro bono legal service hours, innovation hours, and substantive training hours such as deposition shadowing and attending court proceedings.
The firm has also announced a new ramp-up policy, which will reduce the expected hours of attorneys returning from covered leaves of absence for the four months following their return, with no reduction in pay. This will reduce the stress and billable hour pressures, and make the transition back to work an easier one.
Another of its most exciting features is the Reed Smith inter-office secondment opportunity, where associates will have the opportunity to spend one or two weeks or more in one of the firm’s 28 offices worldwide. To ensure the lawyer, the firm and clients obtain maximum benefit from the relationship, the firm has developed a formal training program to enhance the secondment experience.
To broaden experience, first-year associates will be placed in a New Associates Pool and take assignments from across industry and practice groups at Reed Smith, before being matched to a specific practice or industry area beginning in their second year.
Reverse mentoring is another new facet of associate development. This program matches diverse associates and counsel with leaders of the firm, with a twist – the junior lawyers are in the role of mentor and senior lawyers are the protégés. The goal of the program is to further educate and sensitize the ‘senior mentee’ to the experiences of a more junior and diverse lawyer, and for the ‘junior mentor’ to build relationships with senior members of the firm.
“Reed Smith’s global platform provides associates with extensive exposure to clients and legal issues, and our presence around the world enables them to gain experience solving problems at the highest levels in the most important industries,” said Casey Ryan, the firm’s Global Head of Legal Personnel. “The Associate Life initiative engages associates wherever they are and allows them to develop their skills, increase their connections, and strengthen their capabilities as they assume increasingly complex client projects and professional responsibilities.”
Reed Smith Associate Life includes opportunities for associates to play key roles in the firm’s litigation, transactional and regulatory matters; overall firm life including leadership, learning and development programming; wellness initiatives; flexibility programs; and a compensation approach that incentivizes and rewards performance.
The firm also launched Wellness Works earlier this year, which is a comprehensive program focused on providing resources and support to achieve and sustain stress reduction, work/life balance, nutrition and healthy habits, and mindfulness designed to address associates’ overall physical and emotional well-being.
Bolstering this holistic development approach is Reed Smith’s firmwide commitment to diversity and inclusion, such as opportunities to participate in one or more of the firm’s 10 networks and affinity groups, among them PRISM (LGBT+ network); UNIDOS (Hispanic/Latino Network); Asian American network; African American network; Multicultural Network in Europe and the Middle East; Veterans network; and Looking for Excellence and Advancement of Attorneys with Disabilities (LEADRS) network.
The firm also maintains its award-wining Women’s Initiative Network of Reed Smith (WINRS) that promotes the career advancement of female attorneys firmwide. Among the benefits provided by the firm to its women attorneys is Milk Stork, a firm-paid service that allows attorneys to ship breast milk from business travel locations back to their homes. The firm has also installed hospital grade breast pumps and nursing rooms in each office. Additionally, returning lawyers have access to Mindful Return, a four-week online e-course designed by a working mother, specifically for new mothers to take while on leave, to prepare for returning to their careers.
“We intend for the associate experience to be enjoyable and beneficial for our newest lawyers as they transition from law school to increasingly responsible roles in our global law firm,” said Ryan. “This initiative and focus will make a significant, positive difference for our associates, our firm, and our current and future clients.”
About Reed Smith
Reed Smith is a dynamic international law firm, dedicated to helping clients move their businesses forward. Its long-standing relationships, international outlook and collaborative structure make it a go-to partner for speedy resolution of complex disputes, transactions, and regulatory matters.
For further information, please visit reedsmith.com.
