LATERAL ASSOCIATES

Our commitment to you

We are committed to inspiring our lawyers to do their best work. Our primary responsibility is to train and prepare our attorneys for the challenging work that lies ahead. We expect that you will take on significant responsibility, including client contact, early in your career. In doing so, you carry our reputation with you.

You probably have found that your best teachers were those who were experts in their area, enjoyed what they did and conveyed their enthusiasm through their teaching. We know that you will find our partners and senior attorneys to be excellent teachers. You will have an opportunity to work closely with more senior attorneys in your practice group on complex matters. They will provide you with the guidance that you will need to develop expertise in your area and build long-lasting client relationships.

In 2001, we formed a special group, the Attorney Development Group, to help provide you with the tools you need to successfully develop your practice. The group creates firmwide programs for evaluations, feedback, training, mentoring and career enhancement. Our partners, senior attorneys and Attorney Development Managers (all of whom are former practicing attorneys) work together to assist and advise attorneys with respect to individual career development matters. We also have a former trial lawyer dedicated full-time to providing training to our litigation professionals.

Always learning

Fostering each attorney's development is one of our fundamental responsibilities. MoFo associates work on cutting-edge deals and disputes from day one. We believe in lean staffing in order to promote efficiency and a steep learning curve for junior lawyers. We do not have a set timetable or hierarchy for associate responsibility. We encourage attorneys to take as much responsibility as they can handle in their assignments, and we encourage supervising attorneys to provide the most challenging and varied assignments.

While an attorney's most important training occurs informally through daily interactions with partners, associates and clients, throughout the year we also offer in-house training sessions. Our training program consists of clinics, seminars and department or practice group meetings. The Attorney Development Group designs our annual new attorney orientation programs with the goal of giving entry-level associates a foundation of information in their relevant practice areas through a series of intensive training sessions, as well as introducing them to the firm's policies and procedures.

We also encourage attorneys at every level to take advantage of outside continuing legal education courses and programs. We have an entire website devoted to professional development, complete with information on how to keep current on continuing legal education requirements, online training programs for "just in time training" and outside continuing legal education programs.

Our Knowledge Management Group uses technology to facilitate knowledge sharing. Attorneys can find a wealth of information in the forms created for our Knowledge Exchange, our online repository of master forms, exemplars and memoranda, and can locate relevant documents and in-house experts on any subject using our proprietary AnswerBase system.

The Odyssey Program

One of the consistent themes we hear in our conversations with attorneys is the desire for additional regular, specific and personal interactions with partners. We have identified proper training and mentoring as crucial to maximizing attorney development and ensuring that we provide our clients with high-quality work on a consistent basis. The Odyssey Program is a formal mentoring program we have designed to improve our attorneys' professional development and the quality of our client service by assigning them a formal mentor for their first year with the firm. Odyssey Mentors meet with their "mentees" to provide professional development guidance and mentoring. In addition, because of our collegial atmosphere, you will have many informal mentoring relationships - from partners to associates and from senior to junior associates.

So . . . how am I doing?

We evaluate attorney performance regularly. We provide candid feedback to assist you in developing your strengths or addressing any areas of concern.

Our Attorney Development Group and senior partners at the firm have developed an Attorney Development Framework that articulates our practice expectations at various levels.

You are assured at least one written evaluation annually. Our formal annual evaluation process is designed to provide a consistent, firmwide process for gathering feedback across our practice areas, while allowing flexibility by department and practice group. Each associate actively participates in the process by providing evaluating partners with information regarding the associate's recent work and contributions.

We also provide informal procedures for checking performance in the spring for first years and new laterals.

The United Committees of MoFo

We like committees. In fact we have a committee for just about everything. We believe that committees are a great way for attorneys to gather together not just to schmooze, but also to work together to build our firm.

The Associate Advisory Committee is a standing committee that provides input to, and acts as a sounding board for, the Attorney Development Group on professional development issues of importance to associates, including training, mentoring and retention.

In addition, Associate Representatives meet with the Attorney Development Group and firm management at least every other month about issues of importance to associates and counsel in their offices. Associates and counsel in each office select Associate Representatives.

Reach for the sky

We begin with the expectation that each associate we hire is capable of becoming a Morrison & Foerster partner. Of course, associates choose different career paths and develop at different speeds, and our partnership track is correspondingly flexible. Associates are considered for partnership when it appears that his or her experience with us and in practice makes it appropriate for consideration, which generally first occurs between the seventh and ninth year following law school graduation. With respect to lateral attorneys, it is our general policy that lawyers practice at the firm for at least two full years before being considered for partnership. These are just guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules. We also recognize that individual careers are unique and personal and not everyone will continue on a path toward partnership. We value our attorneys and are committed to ensuring that all attorneys at the firm have access to the practice tools needed for a successful career at MoFo or beyond.