Mock Courtroom -- training, mock jury and witness preparation
Professional development goes well beyond continuing legal education and is something Alston & Bird takes very seriously. Whether it is training our new associates in various areas of substantive legal skills, a mentor assisting a junior lawyer with his/her individual development plan or providing diversity training to all of our staff and lawyers, the firm’s commitment to training supports our philosophy that we are a learning organization. As an associate at Alston & Bird you will have numerous opportunities to develop into an excellent lawyer in whatever area of law practice that you choose, including, in particular, the training that will aid you in building your toolbox of leadership and client relations skills.
Lawyers joining Alston & Bird have an extensive orientation experience. The great majority of our entry-level associates join the firm in early September and participate in a week-long orientation in Atlanta. Formal orientation sessions include information about the firm’s history, culture, clients and practice areas, and they provide information about the firm expectations for new lawyers. In addition to the initial orientation program, new lawyers participate in follow-up orientation programs regularly scheduled throughout the fall. More experienced attorneys joining Alston & Bird go through a personalized one-on-one orientation program until they become fully integrated into the firm.
The firm supplies each new lawyer with a skills checklist specific to his/her practice group for use as a guide through each level of professional development. The firm hosts an annual Associates Retreat for all associates. The retreat provides opportunities for team building with other lawyers as well as substantive training. (Our 2007 Associates Weekend program will showcase a nationally recognized speaker who will address the topic of "Charting Your Own Professional Development Course.") We also provide our mid-level associates with a special retreat during which we have an open dialogue about the criteria for partnership and what an Alston & Bird lawyer can expect as his/her career progresses from associate to non-equity partner to equity partner at the firm.
Our mentoring program matches each junior associate with a partner or counsel in his/her practice group who has the responsibility for shepherding the associate through the first few years of practice. The formal mentor program is designed to complement, rather than replace, the many informal mentoring relationships which naturally develop for most junior lawyers. Lawyers participating in this program are encouraged to have significant contact with one another through day-to-day interactions at work and through social and professional activities. Having learned through experience that young lawyers who are "brought along" by their seniors tend to progress more rapidly, the firm has assigned high priority to the mentoring function.
Our training partner, Bill Humphreys, was an Alston & Bird litigator for many years and now serves as head of the firm’s attorney legal education. Bill leads the firm’s efforts in the area of substantive skills training. Associates at Alston & Bird can also take advantage of a wide array of topics in addition to intensive substantive training, including client relations and counseling, file management, statutory interpretation, designing and contract draftsmanship, problem analysis, and presentation and public speaking skills. Aside from firm-sponsored programming, practice groups provide more informal training to their lawyers through regularly scheduled group presentations, meetings and lunches.
Alston & Bird is committed to hiring, training, mentoring, and retaining the finest lawyers in the country, and providing those individuals with opportunities for personal and professional growth. We recognize that individuals learn in a variety of ways, and, accordingly, we have developed an array of learning opportunities and programs to assist our lawyers in achieving their personal professional goals.