Logo

Educational Programming

We offer substantive and professional skills programs on an ongoing basis with an additional focus on transition points in an attorney’s career path. We hold comprehensive orientation programs for summer and new associates. First-year associates receive foundational training throughout their first year. Mid-level and senior associates attend multi-day programs to develop skills to serve clients at their next career level successfully. In addition, we offer firmwide cross-departmental programs for attorneys of all levels to improve essential professional skills and department-specific training programs focused on substantive practice skills. We also provide a variety of practice-specific and professional skills programs in an e-learning format that can be accessed whenever and wherever needed. 

 

Mentoring and Coaching

Mentoring and coaching are key elements of our attorney development programming. Open to all associates at the firm, the Fried Frank Partner Advisor Program provides a formal mentoring structure whereby partners can offer associates support and guidance to maximize their potential.  Shortly after starting at the firm, first-year associates participate in partner-led mentoring circles where they meet monthly to discuss chapters of books assigned by practice area. We also offer an Associate Advisor Program through which associates mentor other associates. In addition to external coaching, we also have an internal advisor to assist with career development and planning.

 

Feedback

Associates receive formal feedback through the firm’s comprehensive annual review process and informal feedback through the firm’s interim and real-time review processes. Partners also receive formal feedback regularly from their peers and those they supervise.

 

Fellowship/Externship Opportunities

Fried Frank litigation associates have the opportunity to extern at Her Justice as staff attorneys in its New York headquarters. Her Justice is dedicated to providing legal services to low-income women and victims of domestic violence and other crimes and inequities in marital, family, and immigration law. During the externship, participants can expect to garner significant litigation experience, including motion practice and trial practice.

Fried Frank also offers two unique fellowship opportunities for select junior-level attorneys. Fellows spend two years working in Fried Frank’s litigation department, followed by two years with either the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. or the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Fried Frank fellows may have the opportunity to return to Fried Frank after their fellowships. All of our Fellows have pursued interesting and exciting legal careers, and several of our prior fellows can be found in high-level positions at LDF and MALDEF.

 

Secondments

Fried Frank regularly makes secondment arrangements with clients under which associates are assigned to work in-house with a firm client for anywhere from 4 to 12 months. This arrangement offers lawyers a great platform to improve their legal skills, enhance client relationships and gain a new perspective on legal practice. Fried Frank associates have been seconded to various institutions, from premier investment banks to Fortune 100 companies.

 

Wellness at Fried Frank

A centerpiece of our benefits program, Living Well offers broad support to encourage healthy lifestyles for all . It’s organized around three key aspects of wellness—mind (mental health), body (fitness and nutrition), and self (work-life integration).

Available to every member of the Fried Frank community, Living Well provides access to a range of services, events, and programs, including our annual Health Fair, and wellness that promote mental wellbeing, physical health, and work/life integration. We continue to add new initiatives, including mindfulness and mental health workshops.