Practice Development

SGR gives associates client contact and individual responsibility as soon as practicable.

Our new associates attend, and young associates frequently conduct, client conferences, closings, negotiations, hearings and depositions from the outset. Of course, varying amounts of supervision and guidance are necessary in order for the associate to gain fundamental knowledge and experience and the training of new attorneys is recognized to be of primary importance.

Although new associates are a front-line resource for the Firm’s legal research needs, especially with respect to large, complex matters, associates work on other substantive matters sooner than they generally are able to in many large firms. Our traditions, size and client-mix promote opportunities for early responsibility and client contact. From a candidate’s viewpoint, this policy of rapid associate development is one of our more distinctive features.

SGR imposes no structured rotation program among its associates, nor does it have a centrally organized system to distribute work to junior attorneys. Instead, consistent with the staffing needs of the Firm, every effort is made to match new associates with the practice area in which they wish to work and newly assigned associates are given the opportunity to do all types of substantive work within that area.

In the event an associate’s interests shift over time, the Firm makes every effort to accommodate requests to change practice areas. Our approach requires self-motivation, discipline and effort from all attorneys and is best adapted to associates and summer clerks who neither require nor desire a heavily structured working environment.