McDermott Will & Emery

Practice Areas

McDermott Will & Emery practices law in the following areas and works with its clients to provide the best possible legal solutions.

Hiring Criteria

McDermott Will & Emery follows the set of hiring criteria outlined below.

McDermott firmly believes that a law school student today can certainly be groomed and skilled into a successful lawyer at the firm. However, the firm has in place well-structured and logical hiring criteria that it follows meticulously.

McDermott requires from students an excellent academic record along with superior writing skills. Besides, participation in Law Review, Journal and Moot Court along with relevant work experience is preferred. Candidates are also expected to demonstrate a balance of academic and personal success. Careers at the firm include judicial clerks, laterals, trainee solicitors, and openings for European graduate recruits.

For the purpose of recruiting, the firm attends campus interviews at law schools such as Boston College Law School, Boston University School of Law, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, University of New Hampshire School of Law, and Yale Law School. It also attends job fairs such as Boston Lawyers Group Job Fair and the Lavender Law Job Fair.

Pro bono

McDermott's firmly believes that its Pro Bono and Community Service Policy is for the underprivileged and deprived members of society who are in need of legal services but cannot obtain legal services in the market place.

Therefore, the firm provides Pro Bono services to low income individuals and families, non-profit organizations, entrepreneurs, and small business serving low income communities, who cannot afford appropriate legal representation. McDermott has also won several awards and accolades for its Pro Bono work such as:

Honored with the Pro Bono Attorney Award from Lawyers for Children America for dedication to representing abused and neglected children.
Awarded the National Association of Pro Bono Professionals "2011 William Reece Smith Jr. Special Services to Pro Bono Award" with special recognition for its long-standing collaboration with Medical-Legal Partnership and the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership (National Center).
Recognized by the Family Defense Center for its dedication to FDC's mission by advocating for justice for families in the child welfare system.
McDermott partners and associates were honored by the Illinois Legal Aid Online as Pro Bono Volunteers of the Month for securing asylum for a victim of sex trafficking.

The firm encourages its lawyers to work on pro bono matters after screening the matters and allotting them to concerned legal team. Some of the areas which it has provided pro bono activities are:

Asylum & Immigration
Disability Rights
Gay
Lesbian and Transgender Rights
Homelessness and Hunger
Prisoner's Rights
Racial & Ethnic Discrimination
Foster Care & Government Custody
Civil & Human Rights
Environmental Law
Labor & Employment
Consumer Rights
Mergers & Acquisitions
Tax Preparation & Counseling
Tax Disputes
Death Penalty
Habeas Corpus
Domestic Violence
Affordable Housing
Habitability
Landlord/Tenant
Social Security Benefits
Intellectual Property

The firm also considers the lawyer's personal interests and expertise before allocating the case. McDermott allocated 3.24% of billable hours to pro bono activities last year. This translated into a 53 average hours per attorney last year.

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Notable cases

McDermott is ranked as a leading blue chip legal entity on both sides of the Atlantic and has been consistently recognized for its contribution to the legal field. It has won global recognition for being the top performer in its field. Its work spans 70 countries across six continents which has won several accolades, awards, and honors internationally. Some of these include the following:

The firm has been recognized one of the top 15 defense litigation law firms in the United States by the National Law Journal.

It is also ranked as among the top law firms that drive the market through innovative change.

McDermott is also amongst the top 10 law firms that represent the interests of the healthcare industry.

Several of McDermott's lawyers are recognized as leaders and innovators in their own fields.

In August 2012, McDermott Boston Trial Partner Minahan was selected to receive one of five 2012 ABA pro Bono Awards for outstanding pro bono work.

In December 2011, McDermott Partner Michael Nadel received the prestigious B'nai B'rith Youth Organization Community Service Award.

In Nov 2010, McDermott was ranked among the nation's leading litigation practices in Benchmark Litigation for the 4th consecutive year.

McDermott is also the 32nd largest law firm globally according to AmLaw Global 100.

The firm has also received the ABA 2012 National Public Service Award and has been consistently named as the best place to work for LGBT employees by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) since 2006.

McDermott not only values diversity, but also goes a long way to implement this concept and philosophy across the organization. The organization believes in maintaining an environment that is conducive for maintaining and including a diverse and varied workforce. The policies that are implemented firm wide actually promote a diverse workforce that has helped the company to become a recognized leader in workplace diversity. In a nutshell, McDermott's work staff includes 13% minorities and 33% women.

The company also has a unified Diversity and Inclusion Committee that has aligned under it the various sub-committees such as the Gender, LGBT, and Racial & Ethnic sub-committees. In 2011, the company promoted their most diverse class in the firm's history - of which 50% were women. The various subcommittees work tirelessly to ensure that diversity across the firm is maintained and promoted as well. McDermott also has in place a leave liaison program for those companies who are beginning or returning from leave.

McDermott also supports all its employees regardless of gender differences or sexual orientation. Since 2002, the firm has offered domestic partner benefits to same-sex partners. Various benefits such as health, dental, and vision insurance, FMLA/FMLA - like benefits, bereavement leave, COBRA/COBRA - like benefits, are also provided to opposite sex spouses and same-sex partners equally. The firm also provides a $ 15,000 LGBT scholarship to qualifying participants in their summer program.

Likewise, the firm also has developed a range of initiatives to ensure the recruitment, retention, as well as promotion of their racial as well as ethnic minority lawyers. The firm also offers $ 15,000 scholarships to two second year minority law students from law schools that are accredited by the American Bar Association.

McDermott also has in place the Women of Color subcommittee that promotes and encourages the retention of women of color at the firm. It is also a member of the leadership council on legal diversity, which is an organization of legal entities and law firm managing partners that works to promote diversity within member firms and the wider legal community.

Summer associate program

McDermott views its summer program as an important and vital aspect of its hiring efforts. It takes great pride in providing a brilliant and significant experience to law school students seeking opportunities as summer associates at the firm.

At McDermott, the summer associate program is seen as a sensible, practical, and pragmatic introduction to the legal profession. The firm follows a conservative hiring approach that helps students to fully integrate themselves with the various practice groups they are attached to.

Students are provided training programs, mentoring opportunities, as well as work assignments. Students also receive a formal feedback through an evaluation that is done in the mid summer and then a final review that is in addition to the informal feedback.

The firm also offers their students a comprehensive pro bono and community service program so that students can participate in providing pro bono legal services to disadvantaged members of the country's communities.

Working for the McDermott Will & Emery

McDermott values itself as a company wherein it can offer an equal opportunity to all candidates. The firm feels proud to be known as a place where there is challenging work and employees can develop their own legal and client service skills. The firm is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Affirmative Action Employer. (Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran).

It is the firm's policy to provide an equal opportunity to all individuals regardless of their race, color, religion, gender, ethnicity, marital status or sexual orientation. Opportunities exist for US law students, laterals, judicial clerks, trainee solicitors, graduate recruits, and support staff.

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References

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