Many of our summer associates seek clerkships or other prestigious legal opportunities before they seek permanent employment with our firm. Although we will hire graduating law students directly from our summer program, many of our current members and associates came to us after spending several years with large law firms in Atlanta, Washington DC, New York and other cities, and/or one or more years of judicial clerkship after summer clerkships at Wyche.
We do not follow the practice of many firms that hire large numbers of associates with the knowledge that most of them will never become members. (To the contrary, although we obviously cannot guarantee membership, we anticipate that every associate we hire will eventually become a member of the firm.) Also, our size and culture do not permit us to hire a large number of entry-level associates at any given time. Thus, Wyche generally does not make formal offers of permanent employment to any summer associate unless and until the candidate requests that an offer be made and is prepared seriously to consider permanent employment with the firm.
Similarly, students who clerk with our firm following their first year of law school should indicate whether they are interested in a summer clerkship following their second year of law school. In addition, with regard to those students seeking judicial clerkships, formal offers of permanent employment are not extended until they have begun their clerkships and received authorization from their judges to apply.
For more information about this recruiting philosophy, contact [email protected].
Although academic credentials are not an infallible measure of legal abilities, we believe ours are among the best in the country. We represent many of the top law schools; ten of us are members of Phi Beta Kappa; one is a Rhodes Scholar; one is a Fulbright Scholar; three have served in the Justice Department; most have been members of law reviews or journals; nineteen have clerked in the United States District Court or Court of Appeals; one has clerked for the Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court; one has clerked for Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals; and three have clerked in the United States Supreme Court.
To the extent that a firm’s practice is a reflection of the legal abilities of its members, we believe that we fare well by that standard. Our corporate practice includes start-ups, leveraged buy-outs, recapitalizations, public and private offerings, debt refinancings, mergers, acquisitions and other corporate restructurings. The size of these transactions ranges from relatively small amounts to values exceeding one billion dollars. Similarly, our litigation practice includes relatively simple cases—which afford the opportunity to get into court—as well as complex litigation such as antitrust, First Amendment, voting rights, redistricting, securities, copyright, patent and trade secrets lawsuits. Within each of these areas, our practice allows each new associate immediately to begin to experience a wide range of activities and responsibility.
Wyche is built on a daring idea – the notion that a small firm in South Carolina can attract world-class talent to pursue a cutting-edge legal practice. As we celebrate our Centennial, we are filled with gratitude for the countless friends and clients who have helped to make that idea a reality. It’s humbling to see the ways in which the bold vision of the firm’s early leaders has been realized, and it’s inspiring to know that same spirit thrives today.
