McGrath North Recruiting
McGrath North is the second largest law firm in Nebraska and continually strives to provide the highest possible level of legal representation for its clients. To achieve this goal, the firm must recruit and develop highly motivated law students and lateral candidates who possess the strong academic background and desire to meet the needs of McGrath North and its clients.
McGrath North’s Recruiting Committee annually conducts fall and spring on-campus interviews at law school campuses, including Creighton University, the University of Nebraska and the University of Iowa. We also continually conduct office interviews with interested and qualified candidates. By offering compensation at the top of the market and the opportunity for an intensive, broad-range national practice, McGrath North is able to attract and retain top-quality candidates. We evaluate and compensate our attorneys based on effectiveness and contribution to serving McGrath North clients which allows us to have a three-year shareholder track as compared to the common multi-year, lock-step approach utilized by many law firms. Our success in recruiting and in the firm’s law clerk program is illustrated by the fact that many of the firm’s attorneys started at McGrath North as first-year law clerks.
McGrath North’s Summer Program
The goal of McGrath North’s summer program is for the summer associates to experience first-hand, high-quality substantive legal work in the areas of the law that most appeal to them. If the summer associate’s interests change during the summer, the firm’s program has the built-in flexibility to adjust, unlike the forced rotation policy that some firms utilize. By exposing the summer associates to the breadth of the firm’s national practice and its varied clients, the law clerks can better understand our multiple practice areas and the culture of the firm.
During the summer program, summer associates are matched up with a small workgroup of attorneys in the summer associates’ primary areas of interest. Doing so allows the summer associates to experience a very high caliber of interesting and challenging hands-on work in an environment that encourages responsibility and individuality. Attorneys within the workgroups provide constructive feedback to the summer associate and are primarily responsible for the summer associate’s development.
Each summer associate receives feedback from the attorneys in his or her workgroup, and formal evaluations are held at the middle and end of the summer. During these evaluations, the summer associate receives input on their overall progression and performance at the firm. McGrath North’s "open door" policy means attorneys are available to respond to questions from the summer associates about the firm or give suggestions to the summer associates about the program.
Our summer associate program serves as a significant method of identifying new associate hires. Because the size of the summer program is based on anticipated future associate needs at the firm, the summer associates join together, building camaraderie among them as a group, instead of competing against each other for a limited number of associate spots at the firm. In addition to delivering a solid hands-on work experience, McGrath North also holds several social events throughout the summer to give the summer associates an opportunity to interact with the attorneys in the firm.
If you are interested in joining McGrath North as a law clerk or summer associate, please send a cover letter and resume to:
Kristopher J. Covi
McGrath North Mullin & Kratz, PC LLO
First National Tower, Suite 3700
1601 Dodge Street
Omaha, NE 68102-1627
kcovi@mcgrathnorth.com |
