Valuable Experience
August 2023 Update: Bredhoff is accepting applications for 2024 summer associate positions.
Each summer, Bredhoff & Kaiser invites a small group of outstanding students—usually from six to eight individuals—who have completed their second or third (pre-clerkship) year of law school to join the firm as summer associates. Many of the firm’s current attorneys, including three of the firm's members, spent a summer at Bredhoff while law students.
The summer program at Bredhoff provides a “real life” introduction to the firm’s practice. Summer associates receive challenging projects on real, ongoing matters that reflect the breadth of the firm’s work—research for Supreme Court petitions and briefs, for appellate and trial litigation, and for the legal advice and counsel that the firm’s clients regularly request. For example, during just the past few years, summer associates have conducted significant research into civil RICO; criminal contempt; congressional investigations; union merger and election issues; First Amendment, due process, and equal protection questions; retiree health benefits; and the independent contractor/employee distinction under the NLRA; and summer associates have written initial drafts of briefs in support of summary judgment and Rule 11 sanctions.
To ensure that the work of summer associates has depth as well as variety, the firm tries to provide each summer associate with one or more longer-term assignments in addition to the discrete, more time-sensitive matters that they will be called upon to research during the summer. And summer associates are always welcome to attend depositions, court arguments, arbitration hearings, or other matters that the firm’s lawyers handle in the Washington, DC area—particularly those in cases on which the summer associate has worked.
It is the goal of the summer program to ensure that each summer associate’s experience reflects the diversity of the firm’s work, and that each summer associate leaves the firm with a well-informed, realistic sense of how law is practiced at the firm.
One of the benefits of the firm’s small size is that it offers summer associates regular opportunities to work with and get to know the firm’s attorneys and staff. The firm also sponsors events outside the office for summer associates and lawyers, including events in the Washington legal community—such as the annual panel discussion by well-respected practitioners regarding the Supreme Court’s labor docket—and cultural or social events.
Successful candidates for Bredhoff & Kaiser’s summer associate program are selected from among hundreds of applicants based on their outstanding academic records, writing skills, and commitment to the firm’s work. The hiring and interviewing process usually begins in late August or early September of each year. Applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, law school transcript or other listing of grades, one or two writing samples, and a list of references to the Bredhoff & Kaiser, PLLC Summer Associate Hiring Committee at
Bredhoff & Kaiser is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the diversity of our attorneys and staff—we believe that diversity, including racial diversity, reflects our values, and improves the quality of our work—and we strongly encourage applications from Black and indigenous persons and people of color, from persons identifying as LBGTQ+, and from persons with disabilities.