Los Angeles
For over 25 years, the Los Angeles office of Sidley Austin LLP has distinguished itself as a significant legal presence in
California and throughout the West Coast. Our lawyers serve as counsel on a broad range of matters for local, regional, national and international clients. We
regularly handle important high-profile matters for some of the world’s most prominent corporations, entrepreneurial businesses, associations, partnerships,
government agencies and individuals.
The lawyers in our Los Angeles office represent clients on a wide range of complex litigation, and domestic and international business
transactions. Our practice includes constitutional and appellate litigation, complex civil litigation (including some of the largest class actions pending in
the country), bankruptcy, corporate and finance, securities litigation, environmental, healthcare, intellectual property & technology counseling and
litigation, labor and employment counseling and litigation, media and First Amendment litigation, public finance, real estate, securitization, and tax. Our
lawyers work closely with one another and, where appropriate, with lawyers from the firm’s other offices in order to take advantage of the different
areas of experience throughout the firm. As a result, the Los Angeles office, with more than 170 lawyers, offers both the collegial atmosphere of a mid-size
office and the unparalleled resources and sophisticated practice of one of the world’s largest and most preeminent law firms.
The Los Angeles office also serves as a focal point of the firm’s Pacific Rim and international practice. Lawyers in Los Angeles often collaborate with lawyers in our five Asian offices (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo), and in our London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva and Sydney offices to provide a fully-integrated practice dedicated to serving our clients’ needs, including international arbitrations and business transactions.
We have long been firmly committed to the professional development of each lawyer in our offices. To assist you in making the transition
from law student to lawyer, we give our new associates a broad range of practical, hands-on experience, and we have established extensive formal in-house training
programs. We also have a mentoring program in which each new associate is paired with a partner mentor and associate advisor to help ease the transition and promote each associate's professional growth and development at the firm.
We are especially proud of the dedication that our lawyers have demonstrated to the community. The Los Angeles office participates in
extensive pro bono activities and has created two significant Public Interest Fellowship programs with prestigious local law schools. Also, we recently implemented
a new Pro Bono Fellowship Program for incoming associates. In that program, new associates may spend the summer or fall following their graduation or judicial
clerkship working with a public interest organization in the Los Angeles area while receiving a first-year associate salary from the firm. Through these and other
efforts, the Los Angeles office continues to provide needed resources to low-income individuals and nonprofit organizations in our community.
Summer Program
The goal of the Los Angeles office’s Summer Program is to provide summer associates with a realistic preview of what it is like to be an
associate in our offices, while also providing them with social opportunities to get to know our lawyers on a more informal basis. We hire only those summer
associates whom we believe will be successful as associates and, as a result, we hope and expect that our summer associates will join us as associates and one
day develop into future partners of the firm.
Summer associate work assignments are real projects for clients of the firm that would otherwise be performed by junior associates. We give
our summer associates substantial flexibility to choose assignments that reflect their own individual and professional interests. Many summer associates choose to
explore projects from a variety of our work groups, while others choose to emphasize one or two particular practice areas. Summer associates will also have
opportunities for significient client contact by attending, and often times participating in, activities such as client conferences, court hearings, depositions,
interviews, negotiations, due diligence and closings.
We believe that an essential component of our summer program is the opportunity that we provide summer associates to learn and develop
their professional skills. Our hands-on training includes detailed reviews of each summer associate’s work product, as well as more formal training programs
such as writing seminars, a mock trial, and a mock negotiation exercise. We assign senior associates and partners to provide guidance to our summer associates,
and each participant receives a formal review at the midpoint of the summer program.
In addition to the interesting and challenging legal work, our summer program offers a wide range of opportunities to experience life in Los Angeles.
In recent years, our summer events have included outdoor concerts, plays, cooking classes, surfing, exhibitions at museums, sporting events, and other recreational and
cultural activities unique to the Los Angeles area.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SUMMER PROGRAM INCLUDE:
- Personal and professional development, support, and guidance provided by mentoring relationships with both associates and partners.
- The freedom and flexibility to select many of your own assignments and manage your workload, combined with a supportive network to assist you as you explore areas based on your interests.
- Exposure to interesting and challenging projects in a wide variety of practice areas.
- Practical training opportunities, such as a mock trial skills program, a negotiation skills seminar and presentations by partners and associates on an array of issues.
- A vast selection of events showcasing the finest of Southern California, from sporting events and theater to a day on Catalina Island.
EXPERIENCE Los Angeles:
- Who Needs A Car? Frank Gehry's world famous Walt Disney Concert Hall; the Museum of Contemporary Art; the Music Center, our seven-acre performing arts complex; the LA Public Library; Jose Rafael Moneo's acclaimed jewel are all just steps away from where you'll be working.
- Music Under the Stars. Grab a picnic basket with goodies from the Farmer's Market and visit the Hollywood Bowl, one of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world. Listen to jazz, classical, world or even rock music.
- Get some sun. Stroll down the famous Venice Boardwalk or visit Santa Monica where you can shop and view some contemporary art at the Bergamot Station.
- Eat a Dodger Dog. Visit Dodger Stadium, considered to be one of baseball's best parks, with it's breath-taking view of the San Gabriel Mountains.
- Experience Disneyland, Universal Studios, LA Zoo, Aquarium of the Pacific, Raging Waters, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor, Knotts Berry Farm, Speedzone, La Brea Tar Pits, the Getty Center, Hollywood Park, Queen Mary. And the list goes on.
- Take a stroll through the gardens. Desert Garden. Herb Garden. Rose Garden. Shakespeare Garden. Japanese Garden. Jungle Garden. All can be found at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.
For more information contact:
Susan M. McGrady
Legal Personnel Manager Sidley Austin LLP 555 W. Fifth Street, Suite 4000 Los Angeles, CA 90013 |
