The attorneys at Morris Nichols enjoy a uniquely challenging national corporate practice located in the smaller urban setting of Wilmington, Delaware. Our national practice enables our attorneys to experience the full range of challenging professional matters enjoyed by attorneys in larger cities and, at the same time, enjoy active participation in their community.
The unique professional opportunities available at Morris Nichols are a result of Delaware's prominence in corporate, banking and intellectual property law, and the quality of Delaware's state and federal courts. As you weigh where you might like to start your legal career, consider Delaware. With high-profile, interesting cases, attorneys at the very top of the profession, and legendary courts with experienced judges, Delaware is an accessible place to build a rich and satisfying legal career. Approximately half of the Fortune 500 companies and forty percent of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange are incorporated in Delaware. More than fifteen major banks serve national clients from facilities located in Delaware. The firm represents prominent, well-established corporations as well as emerging technology and internet companies.
The Morris Nichols' summer associate program is an integral part of our recruiting process and is designed to provide summer associates with meaningful exposure to the firm, its attorneys, other professionals and staff, and its clients. Our goal is to give potential associates a realistic view of work at the firm, while also providing a range of activities to introduce them to the opportunities available in Delaware.
We allow our summer associates the freedom to explore various practice areas. Since few law students know with certainty the type of law they would like to practice, our program provides an opportunity for summer associates to interact with different attorneys and to work on assignments from several of the firm's practice groups. Although we encourage summer associates to experience a variety of legal work, if they express an interest in a particular practice area, we make every effort to assign them work in those areas, and to involve them in the day-to-day activities of the attorneys who practice in those areas. Members of the firm's Recruiting Committee are specifically designated to coordinate work assignments for the summer associates. At the beginning of the summer, each summer associate is assigned an associate mentor, although summer associates often establish their own mentoring relationships with other attorneys at the firm.
Summer associates work on the same matters assigned to our full-time associates, including the opportunity to research and write legal memoranda and briefs, prepare motions, discovery and other pleadings, and to prepare documents relating to corporate transactions. In some cases, summer associates travel to client locations and assist our attorneys in addressing client needs. In addition to short term assignments, we seek to give each summer associate one or two "long term" assignments in an area of their preference that will involve significant events over the summer.
Although our program is largely geared toward second-year law students, the firm often hires highly qualified first-year law students to join the summer program. In past years, we have made offers of permanent employment to a high percentage of our summer associates, and most have returned to Morris Nichols upon graduation.
