Our goal is to develop well-trained, successful attorneys with the highest degree of career satisfaction. How do we achieve this goal? We focus on providing our lawyers with hands-on opportunities and experiences, core training in the skills that make lawyers excel and practice-specific training to give our lawyers the tools to become outstanding practitioners in their chosen field. Professional development requires more than training, however. We have a culture of mentoring our associates and providing feedback on both an informal and formal basis. One of our associates summed it up best, “It is embedded in the firm culture to have partners and senior associates give constant feedback to associates and mentorship opportunities aboard.”

Learning by Doing

Akin Gump’s professional development program is premised on the notion that the very best training is imparted through actual experiences and matters that our lawyers handle. Learning strategies for success from our more senior lawyers and having the opportunity to apply the skills developed is the surest way to professional development. We work to make sure that our lawyers are allowed to stretch in their assignments — take depositions, negotiate transaction points, attend client meetings — as early as possible. We feel so strongly about learning from our outstanding legal professionals that we have implemented a “shadowing program” where associates can arrange to watch our most skilled lawyers in action in the courtroom, in meetings with regulators or in the boardroom, even when they are not assigned to the particular matter. Our lawyers are committed to sharing their insights and strategies, because they know that our young lawyers represent the future of the firm.

Formal Training

We offer a comprehensive formal training program carefully calibrated to each associate’s stage of development and area of practice. This formal training occurs at regularly scheduled events and at our summer associate, first-year, mid-level and counsel retreats. Our formal training includes a core curriculum of skills and practice-specific training all lawyers need for success.

Summer Associate Orientation

The firm’s summer associates participate in a firmwide orientation which provides information about the firm and also offers training designed to begin the transition from student to practitioner. In addition, we provide a full curriculum of training in each office that offers insight into different practices. Whether summer associates participate in a mock financial restructuring negotiation, a deposition or corporate deal, they will learn by doing and by watching our skilled practitioners.

Counsel Program

Our counsel program combines formal training with a specific framework for developing and growing senior associates into future leaders of the firm. We are proud to be among the first firms to establish a counsel position for senior associates on track for partnership consideration, a position eligible for enhanced compensation, additional training opportunities and increased client and supervisory responsibility. Associates with 5½ years of practice experience are eligible for promotion to the counsel position, as are lateral associates with over two years of experience at Akin Gump. Promotions are based on overall performance, productivity and contributions to the firm's core values. Criteria include: sustained excellence of work product; teamwork; involvement in training, recruiting, client development and firm committees; supervision and mentoring of other associates; professional involvement; and community service.

Every year after associates are promoted to counsel, we offer a firmwide New Counsel Orientation created to prepare them for their new role, through programs offered to enhance management, leadership, delegation, feedback, business development and networking skills. The programs provides new counsel with the skills necessary to grow into future leaders of the firm.

Department Training

Each practice has responsibility for the education of its lawyers. Practices plan and implement programs geared to the specific needs of their practices.

Advocacy Training

Our firmwide advocacy curriculum is designed for associates and counsel in litigation, labor and intellectual property practice groups. Training covers the mechanics of advocacy practice at federal and local levels and covers all aspects of a controversy, from initial complaint through trial. Many programs are delivered via videoconference, often supplemented by workshops in individual offices, which allow associates to practice skills covered in the program with partners in their own offices. Akin Gump also partners with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) to offer in-depth workshops that provide a true learning-by-doing experience in depositions, expert testimony and trial skills.

Business Transactions Training

Our firmwide corporate curriculum is designed for associates and counsel in all of our transactional practices. Training covers all aspects of our transactional work, including negotiation and drafting skills. Programs are delivered firmwide via videoconference, and by partner faculty in specific offices.

Specialized Training

We also offer practice specific training programs for the lawyers in several of our specialized practice areas, including financial restructuring, tax, investment funds, international trade, global projects, intellectual property and energy, land use and environment. This provides even further guidance on the substantive issues faced by practitioners in these fields.

Evaluation and Feedback

Each fall, associates and counsel receive a comprehensive evaluation. The process consists of a written development assessment, which includes evaluations by every partner who worked with the associate and an in-person evaluation and feedback meeting where accomplishments and goals are discussed. We do not expect feedback to be limited to an annual event and strongly encourage ongoing feedback by lawyers as projects are completed.

Beyond Training

At Akin Gump, many formal programs converge and work together to help us develop lawyers who add value to the firm and for our clients. The following components help to foster a learning environment at the firm in different and important ways.

• Committee Participation. Associate participation in the management of the firm and firm committees provide opportunities for our associates to develop relationships and leadership skills. Associates participate in firm committees in each of our offices including Associates Committees, Diversity Committees, Hiring Committees and Pro Bono Committees. In addition, a group of associates and counsel representative of all associate class years, offices and diverse backgrounds serve on the firmwide Chairman's Committee. The group meets on a quarterly basis with the firm's Chairman to discuss relevant issues and participate in setting firm policies.
• Coaching. We offer one-on-one coaching with outside experts to enhance associates' legal writing, research, communications and presentation skills, among others. Coaching is provided on an as-needed basis through the sponsorship of the attorney's practice group.
• Mentoring. Mentoring relationships often develop naturally between associates and partners. In addition, a formal mentoring program in many of our offices and for specific groups, such as our Women's Mentoring program, extends our commitment to learning through experience. To strengthen integration into the firm, we assign each first-year associate a Peer Advisor and a Partner Advisor to help them make a smooth transition to the life and culture of the firm.
• Partner Recognition Award. At the end of each year, an award is given in each office to a partner who excels at the professional development of associates and counsel. This includes mentoring, providing feedback and guidance, delegating effectively, as well as upholding the firm's core values. The Partner Recognition Award symbolizes the value that the firm puts on this crucial role of firm partners.
• Knowledge Management. The firm's Knowledge Management program provides lawyers with instant access to the firm's most valuable work product, including annotated forms of agreement, model pleadings and motions, legal research and detailed information about previous matters. These materials enable our lawyers to bring the firm's collective expertise to every engagement and reinforce the traditional lawyer training curriculum with partner-reviewed work product.
• Technology Training. Comprehensive hands-on technology training covers the spectrum of relevant software applications. Designed specifically for lawyers and taught by our own experienced trainers, technology training programs include Effective Document Creation and Editing, Trial Ready Presentations, Using PowerPoint for Persuasion, Using Photos and Exhibits in PowerPoint, Litigation Tools, and Protecting and Uncovering Metadata.
• Continuing Legal Education. In many jurisdictions, the local bar mandates Continuing Legal Education (CLE). For this reason, we provide CLE credit for many of our in-house training programs. We also actively support attendance at high-level institutes and seminars, and are proud to be a Privileged Member of the Practicing Law Institute, one of the nation's largest CLE providers, which allows our lawyers to register for almost every PLI seminar free of charge. Akin Gump is an accredited CLE provider in Texas, California and New York in accordance with the CLE rules of those jurisdictions. 
• On-Line Learning. Through our relationship with PLI, we offer on-line seminars on a wide range of topics delivered to the attorney's desktop. In addition, the firm's libraries of videotapes and other media resources are available for individual and informal group training. We have also joined with West LegalEdcenter to provide on-line training programs to summer associates firmwide. These special programs include short video segments on writing, research and law firm culture.

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