Reuters Quotes David Botter on Firm Plans for Larger 2022 Summer Associate Class

Akin Gump hiring partner David Botter has been quoted in the Reuters article “Summer associate recruiting is ‘fast and furious’ after pandemic slowdown.” The article reports that Akin Gump is among the firms looking to bolster the number of law students it hires by bringing in more summer associates next year.

According to Botter, Akin Gump plans to increase the size of its summer associate class by 30 percent, from 55 students to roughly 70.

“For us, that’s a significant increase,” Botter said. “We’ve always made sure that our summers are completely involved in all the aspects of our law firm and do real work.”

Botter said he expects the bulk of the additional hires for next summer will be placed in the firm’s transactional practices, though many other practices will also see more summer associates as well.

Regarding how interviews of law students are being conducted, Botter stated that all of them, first-round and callback interviews, are being done virtually.

“We’re really focused on protecting people’s health and are also concerned about not putting any undue pressure on people,” Botter said. “If you had in-person callbacks, even though you would clearly say to a student, ‘It’s only if you are comfortable,’ there was a concern on our part that even if the student was uncomfortable, they would feel pressure to do it in person.”