Attracting and recruiting the best legal talent requires intentional outreach to law students and lawyers from a wide variety of backgrounds and lived experiences. We continue to invest in the pipeline of future lawyers 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 broad range of exceptional law students to the Firm and opportunities to join us.
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.