Summer Associate Program
Our summer associate program highlights what you can expect as an Ice Miller attorney.
Ice Miller Attorneys Collaborate Across Eight U.S. Offices
Ice Miller has more than 350 attorneys working in 8 office locations (Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; DuPage County, Illinois; Philadelphia; New York; Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.). We seek to hire summer associates in all our offices except DuPage County, Illinois and provide opportunities for summer associates to work across offices, which is a critical component of the Firm’s success.
Ice Miller Attorneys Represent a Broad Range of Practice Areas
Ice Miller has
more than 20 practice areas, and summer associates are given opportunities to do real client work in a variety of these practices. The Firm’s largest practice groups are Litigation, Business, Labor & Employment, Municipal Finance, Public Affairs, Real Estate and Environmental. Not all practices are represented in every office. You can review our
NALP survey to determine whether the offices in which you’re most interested have attorneys practicing in the areas in which you’re most interested.
Ice Miller’s Commitment to Client Service
Ice Miller’s attorneys do sophisticated legal work for a broad range of
clients, including individuals, local, regional, national and international corporations, non-profit organizations, government agencies and colleges and universities, amongst others. It is important to the Firm that you get to know the wide range of clients we serve and that delivering the best client services is everyone’s goal – including summer associates! The summer associate program seeks to introduce you to our clients and help you understand how important your contributions are to this goal. You may be invited to client meetings, depositions, deal closings, site visits and court hearings.
Ice Miller is Focused on Diversity & Inclusion
The Firm’s Chief Managing Partner, Mike Millikan, has named building a more
diverse and inclusive workplace his Number One Priority. In 2018, the Firm adopted its 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Plan. The strategic focus is directed at building an inclusive culture and equitable systems that will retain and advance team members of all backgrounds.
Every member of the Firm – including summer associates – are asked to commit personally to building an inclusive culture, to sharing information and knowledge that will support one another’s success, to valuing all contributions made by team members and to treating all people with respect. The Firm’s goal is that all Ice Miller’s team members will feel empowered to be their authentic selves at work so they can realize their full potential and contribute their best work.
Typically, Ice Miller recruits talent law students at the
IndyBar Diversity Job Fair, the
Cook County Bar Association’s Minority Job Fair, the Loyola Patent Law Interview program and the
National LGBT Bar Association’s Lavender Law Career Fair.
The Firm also participates in the
Columbus Bar Association Minority Clerkship Program.
Ice Miller’s Commitment to Our Communities
Ice Miller prides itself on the extensive
community involvement of our attorneys and staff.
Ice Miller attorneys serve a wide variety of pro bono areas including: civil rights; immigration; landlord/tenant; estate planning; children’s rights and more. The Firm encourages all attorneys to engage in pro bono work and allows associates to receive billable credit for up to 100 pro bono hours per year. Summer associates may receive pro bono assignments during the program.
Ice Miller’s Annual Day of Service allows all employees to give their time, talent and treasure to local charitable causes, including hospitals, food banks, home shelters and other community agencies. Ice Miller also has the Volunteer Time Off program, which allows employees to volunteer up to four hours during regular business hours annually to support community engagement.
To allow summer associates to experience the Firm’s community service commitment firsthand, each summer associate program class selects an organization to which they devote an entire day during their program to assist the organization in some meaningful way. The entire summer associate class works together and handles all of the details involved in the planning.
Past summer associate classes have:
- Painted homes in low income neighborhoods
- Cleaned city parks
- Worked at a local food bank
- Painted playground equipment at a rehabilitation center
- Worked in a domestic violence shelter
- Assisted with clean up and relief for tornado victims
Ice Miller Encourages and Supports Attorneys’ Lives Beyond the Law
Ice Miller recognizes the strong contributions of its attorneys through competitive salaries and a bonus structure that begins at 1850 billable hours.
In addition to various plans for medical, dental and vision benefits for you and your family, the Firm offers all attorneys – men and women – 16 weeks paid family leave for the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child. Nursing mothers who need to conduct business travel have access to a free breastmilk shipping service. All team members receive 20 free days of backup child or elder care per year.
The Firm encourages your wellbeing through a the Wellness Activities Program, which allows you to earn financial rewards for going to the gym, participating in a run/walk event, completing a routine dental exam, an annual physical, donating blood, or volunteering. The Firm offers fitness center reimbursements, wellness education programs and a confidential employee assistance program (EAP).
The Firm also supports your outside hobbies and interests through a $1,500 annual stipend. You can take a class, learn a new language, hire a personal trainer, subscribe to Netflix, enroll in a food delivery service – whatever makes your life easier and more enjoyable!
Ice Miller Welcomes Our Summer Associates as the Future of Ice Miller
The Firm looks to our summer associates to fill our fall associate hiring needs and as the pipeline to the future of Ice Miller. We want every one of our summer associates to develop into successful Ice Miller attorneys and provide them with the tools they need to make that happen.
Each summer associate is paired with an associate mentor upon the acceptance of their offer. This associate mentors help their mentee successfully on-board with the Firm, help them learn more about the Firm and allow them to have a safe place to seek guidance and ask questions.
Summer associates receive feedback and training throughout the summer to not only help them improve their skills, but also to provide a sample of the kind of professional development they can expect as associates. Our professional development philosophy focuses on providing level appropriate hands-on training and our feedback program focuses on identifying strengths and areas for improvement early. Our goal is to work to nurture strengths and provide support to develop in areas for improvement to help Ice Miller attorneys and summer associates be the best they can be.
With that in mind, members of the Recruiting Committees meet regularly to track the progress of and to provide feedback to summer associates. Summer associates also receive formal evaluations at the middle and end of the program.
Ice Miller Summer Associates are not members of any state Bar association. All Summer Associate work is supervised by a member of the relevant state Bar.
Ice Miller Wants to Know About You
We look forward to again meeting 2L students in July/August to interview for our 2024 Summer Associate program. Initial interviews will take place virtually, but students will have the option to do a callback interview in person or virtually.
OCI
We look forward to meeting 2Ls interested in our 2024 summer associate program at the following schools for OCI:
| Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law |
New York |
| Brooklyn Law School |
New York |
| Fordham University School of Law |
New York |
| Indiana University - Maurer |
Chicago, Indianapolis |
| Indiana University - McKinney |
Indianapolis |
| Northwestern |
Chicago, Indianapolis |
| Notre Dame Law School |
Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis |
| OSU - Moritz College of Law |
Columbus |
| Rutgers Law School - Newark |
New York |
| Seton Hall University School of Law |
New York |
| St. John's University |
New York |
| University of Illinois |
Chicago |
| University of Iowa College of Law |
Chicago, Indianapolis |
| University of Michigan |
Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis |
| University of Minnesota |
Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis |
| Wash University School of Law - St. Louis |
Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis |
*If you are a student at one of these schools but the city for which you are interested in interviewing is not listed, please contact us directly.
Job Fairs
We will be interviewing 2L students at the following job fairs:
- Cook County Bar Association Minority Job Fair
- Indiana Bar Diversity Fair
- Lavender Law
- Loyola Patent Law Interview Program
Resume Collections
2Ls can apply through our Resume Collections at the following schools:
George Washington, Georgetown, Howard, Penn, UVA, Vanderbilt, Drexel, Penn, Temple, Villanova
Apply Directly
If we are not coming to your school this year, you may apply directly:
Ice Miller looks for the most talented and motivated law students from across the country to build the next generation of Ice Miller attorneys.
The goal of our summer associate program is to introduce students to life as an Ice Miller attorney. Summer associates receive real client work assignments from a variety of practice groups while spending time learning from and socializing with current attorneys to get to know their colleagues and the Firm’s culture.
The most successful Ice Miller summer associates:
- Excel in team environments, have excellent interpersonal skills, and are prepared to work with people from different backgrounds
- Are highly motivated and self-directed
- Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability so they can thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
- Seek to solve problems with innovative, client-centric solutions
- Have excellent written and oral communication skills, as well as analytical and legal research abilities.
Besides excellent academic credentials, we seek summer associates who:
- Take leadership positions in their organizations
- Volunteer in their communities
- Challenge themselves to learn new things
- Manage their time and their projects diligently
- Have a demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion.
If you have any questions, please contact Attorney Talent Manager,
Cassidey Davis.