The first week at Bilzin Sumberg began with orientation and meet-and-greets, but in-between all of the events, we were secretly looking forward to our first assignments. The summer associate program has been amazing, and one of the best parts is how Jessica, Jenny, Marshall, and Jay structure our assignment distribution. Attorneys from each of the six main practice areas upload assignments to an online portal and each of us chooses which assignment we want to work on. The assignment requests include brief descriptions, estimated hours it may take to complete, and the names of attorneys who are working on the larger-scale case for which our assignment will be used.

On the second day of summer associate program, five assignments were uploaded online. We met in Brendan and Anthony’s office to discuss the details about each assignment posted. Two of the five assignments immediately appealed to two of the summers; Brendan was interested in real estate so an assignment involving local condos was a natural choice, and Camille wanted to explore corporate law. For the remaining three assignments, Jennifer, Anthony, and I each selected one and eagerly began working.

I selected an assignment relating to antitrust opt-out litigation techniques. My primary interest is litigation, but I had little experience with antitrust during my first two years of law school. I began conducting some preliminary research about the type of litigation and scheduled a meeting with the supervising attorney on my assignment, litigation partner, Scott Wagner. We met and discussed federal antitrust versus state antitrust laws, recent antitrust litigation that the firm has been involved in, and much more. Scott explained everything in such great detail, and was receptive to my questions and ideas for the assignment. I was sent off with a list of three broad research topics, and much more to learn.

I am definitely looking forward to gaining experience in each practice group during this summer!