Think of Your Career – We Do
Latham offers a carefully designed professional development program that is targeted to an associate’s stage in their career, skill sets and interests.
Participation in Firm Management
To support a collegial relationship between Latham & Watkins’ partners and associates, associates participate in firm-wide committees that make decisions that determine the firm’s future. In addition, a dedicated Associates Committee ensures that each associate received individualized career counseling by their senior counterparts. Such measures strengthen the link between the firm’s success and their own.
Learn more about associate participation in firm management at Latham.
Defined and Transparent Career Paths
Latham employs comprehensive in-person feedback and ongoing career guidance, in combination with formal, biannual one-on-one evaluations, so that associates always know where they stand and that they are given the tools to succeed at the firm.
Learn more about feedback and career guidance at Latham.
Learning Never Stops
Because Latham is a global law firm, we have designed a training curriculum with both an international component (e.g., our multi-day academies for associates all over the world and in various places in the United States) and a national component for every career stage, which is in addition to on-the-job training and our Training and Career Enhancement (TACE) program. Each new associate is also assigned a personal mentor to help successfully guide their first steps.
Learn more about training and development and what Latham offers.
Balance is Key
To facilitate the compatibility of family and work, Latham is committed to a healthy work-life balance that suits each individual, including parental leave, part-time possibilities and the use of state-of-the-art technology.
Learn more about flexibility at Latham.
Four to Six Week Internship
Participants in Latham’s internship program gain experience in international legal work and immediately jump into conducting research on demanding legal transactional aspects and shadowing its lawyers to learn about a career at Latham. In addition, Latham offers a series of sessions in which various departments provide an overview of their practice and introduce the type of work that they do.
Referendariat
In addition to training on the job, Referendare participate in Latham’s internal Referendare curriculum, which includes complimentary access to Kaiserseminare, the renowned legal studies review service. These activities cover what Referendare need to know from litigation to civil law for both the oral and written parts of the 2nd State Exam. In addition, Latham awards a fellowship for the Jura Intensiv Repetitorium (small group exam preparation).
Once an individual has successfully completed their Anwaltsstation in Germany with the firm, there is the potential opportunity to spend the Wahlstation at one of our foreign Latham offices.
If you are looking for additional experience while working on your doctoral thesis, or even alongside regular Referendariat duties, Latham offers the opportunity to work for the firm for two to three days a week on a month-by-month basis, which also involves all regular training opportunities.
Associates
New associates and lateral hires may choose from a multitude of training and career options. Our international program has been augmented with training appropriate to the specific requirements of the German market, including technical training, accounting and negotiation skills. Corporate Practice Group associates are invited to our regular German Corporate Training Retreat, which offers comprehensive coverage of general corporate law, M&A and capital markets transactions, as well as accounting skills.
English
Lawyers across Latham speak more than 60 languages. However, because much of our work is international, we are interested in lawyers with an excellent command of English. Latham also provides its Legal English Training program, which allows firm lawyers to refine their written and oral skills using topic-specific source material relevant to individual needs and practice areas.