Recruitment

Attracting and recruiting the best legal talent requires intentional outreach to law students and lawyers of color and from other underrepresented backgrounds. We continue to invest in the pipeline of future lawyers from diverse backgrounds through active participation in existing external programs, as well as developing our own.

Over the past several years, we have developed strong relationships with a wide range of student organizations that include the Asian Pacific Law Students Association, the Black Law Students Association, Latino Law Students Association, Outlaws (Lambda) and South Asian Law Students Association at a number of the schools at which we recruit. We have also expanded the number of law schools where we seek talent to broaden the depth of our pool of applicants.

Our main objective is to introduce a wider range of law students from underrepresented backgrounds to the Firm and opportunities to join us.

• SEO Law Fellowship Program (SEO): every summer the Firm participates in the SEO Program integrating several Fellows, students going into their first year of law school, into our summer associate program across multiple U.S. offices. Our support and participation in the SEO Program contributes to the infusion of more junior diverse talent at our Firm, as well as other law firms across the U.S.

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• 1L Diversity Associate Program: designed to recruit high potential diverse first-year law students for our summer associate program. The goal of this program is to help diversify the legal pipeline and provide talented candidates the opportunity to gain exposure into law firm culture early in their careers. We augment their summer experience by presenting each of them the opportunity to participate in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) 1L Scholars Program, a 3-day national networking conference with group mentoring opportunities across law firms and corporate legal departments throughout the U.S.

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• STB First Look Law Student Diversity Summit: a new initiative that provides first-year law students the opportunity to visit the Firm to hear from and network with our lawyers, and learn about private practice at a large law firm.

• Conrad Harper 2L Diversity Fellowship: named in honor of the Firm’s first African American partner, the Diversity Fellowship seeks to 1) increase our pipeline of diverse summer associates, and 2) promote the advancement and retention of Simpson Thacher associates from groups historically underrepresented in the legal profession. In addition to the substantive experience, comprehensive legal training and salary associated with the Firm’s 2L summer associate program, the Diversity Fellowship offers $50,000 to help defray the cost of tuition, loans and other law school-related expenses.

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Simpson Thacher also invests resources to grow the pipeline of college bound students from underrepresented backgrounds, including students attending public schools in the New York City urban area.

Established in 2009, the Firm’s Urban Education Initiative (UEI) partners with public schools in New York. UEI aims to enhance the pipeline of students of color who enter college and to expose them to the legal profession. Since its launch, over 500 Simpson Thacher employees—from junior staff to senior partners—have hosted visits by more than 1,800 public high school and middle school students, where they participate in resume writing workshops, panel discussions on college readiness, career development, and mentorship.

The Firm also supports Legal Outreach, an organization that offers legal and educational programs as tools for youth engagement and community building. Junior and high school students from underrepresented and under-resourced communities participate in Legal Outreach programs, such as College Bound and the Summer Law Institute.