Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s 2021 summer associate program, featuring a highly talented, diverse group of law students, recently commenced. Law students from top schools across the U.S. began their mostly virtual, 10-week assignments with the firm’s offices in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Richmond and Washington, D.C.

As a reflection of the firm’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, 62.5% of this year’s summer associates are women and 47.9% are diverse. Eight are participants in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s 1L Scholars Program, through which Hunton Andrews Kurth partners with corporate clients to offer diverse summer associates the opportunity to experience the legal profession in both the law firm and in-house environments.

Summer associates receive mentorship and work hand-in-hand with firm attorneys on a range of client projects to gain practical experience throughout the course of the program. They also participate in social activities and initiatives designed to innovate and improve the law firm experience for the next generation of lawyers, such as Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Diversity Hackathon, which is aimed at developing strategies for successfully recruiting and retaining attorneys from diverse backgrounds.

This summer, Hunton Andrews Kurth is thrilled to offer an optional one-week, in-person experience during the last week of July. “Summers in July” provides a great opportunity for summer associates to solidify relationships with their cohorts and lawyers in their assigned firm offices.

“This is an outstanding group of aspiring lawyers who we are excited to have join us for the summer,” said firm wide hiring partner Rudene Mercer Haynes. “These untapped resources of potential are the faces of the future of the legal profession. It is our goal to prepare them for the practice of law so they can hit the ground running when they graduate.”