Law Students

Overview Events William T. Coleman, Jr. Fellowships Hong Kong Summer Internship & Trainee Solictor Program

Explore life at one of the world’s top law firms.

Summer associates undertake hands-on, substantive work in connection with active litigation, corporate, and pro bono matters. They also get a front-row seat to real-world lawyering, with plenty of opportunities to attend client meetings, depositions, and court appearances. The summer program is often the springboard to a career at O’Melveny, so we invest significant time and energy into creating a friendly, inspiring environment for summer associates.

Above all, we aim to bring law students along for a first-hand experience of what it means to be an “O’Melveny lawyer”: someone who personifies our core values of excellence, leadership, and citizenship. Along with countless opportunities to sharpen your skills, build a professional network, and gain hands-on experience, these values will serve as a strong foundation for your future career.

We also take pride in inviting students to pursue careers with us after graduation. Some spend their entire professional lives at O’Melveny, while others eventually explore opportunities in judicial clerkships or in government and other forms of public service. Whatever your goals are, there’s a place for you at O’Melveny. So, tell us—what do you want to achieve?

2026 Summer Program

Applications for our 2026 summer program open March 31. In addition to direct applications, O’Melveny will be participating in select early interview programs and on-campus interviews (“OCI”s). Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We do understand that our application period may coincide with your final exam periods and encourage you to apply when it is most advantageous for you. Click below to apply.

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Real-World Experience

Summer program work is interesting, substantive, and meaningful.
You’ll develop key lawyering skills as you contribute to active litigation and corporate matters.
You’ll also get a front-row seat to the practice of law by attending client meetings, depositions, and court appearances.

Comprehensive Training

As an O’Melveny summer associate, you’ll be entrusted with the kind of responsibility typically given to first-years—but you won’t do it alone.
A dedicated mentor will provide guidance and help you navigate life at a large, international law firm.
In addition, you’ll engage in practice group presentations, an assortment of training sessions, and our robust Mock Deal and Advocacy Institute development programs, where you can work on honing your negotiation and oral argument abilities.

A Clear Trajectory

Halfway through the summer, you’ll participate in a discussion about your progress and identify potential growth areas.
These conversations will continue and help facilitate work opportunities that align with your goals and interests.

Lasting Connections

Because we view our summer associate program as the first step on a path to a future with O’Melveny, we invest significant time and effort into making sure our summer associates feel at home.
Beyond the strong bonds you’ll form while working on substantive projects, you’ll also enjoy getting to know fellow summers and firm lawyers during office gatherings and local outings.
Make lifelong memories at a cooking class, bowling night, baseball game, yoga retreat, pizza tour, and other social activities.

Intellectual Exploration

At O’Melveny, we inspire people to be curious, engaged, and ready to seize every opportunity before them.
Explore broad career possibilities through our work coordination program, which provides summer associates first-hand exposure to a multitude of practice areas.

A Sense of Belonging

Our firm works diligently to ensure that individuals of all backgrounds can thrive.
O’Melveny’s “grassroots” employee network groups honor—and amplify—the characteristics that make our people special.

Community Impact

If you have a passion for giving back, you’ll fit right in at O’Melveny.
Our firm has a long history of serving the public good through impact litigation, the representation of low-income individuals, and other legal services that close the access to justice gap.
We treat pro bono matters with the same gravity as our billable work, which allows summer associates to get involved with a wide range of opportunities to leverage the law to impact lives and communities for the better.

Build A Career Without Compromise at O’Melveny

For talented, driven law students like you, success is often its own reward. But what if you could engage in challenging, transformative legal work without having to compromise on a great firm culture? That’s exactly what you’ll find at O’Melveny: a law firm that offers the best of both worlds, where ambition coexists with mutual respect. Our teams go above and beyond to achieve critical and complex feats for our clients, while supporting and valuing one another in the process.

Get the Inside Scoop From “The O’Melveny Podcast”

Our interactive podcast, hosted by former O’Melveny firmwide hiring partners, provides exclusive insight into life at one of the world’s top law firms. Lee and her guests—who include summer associates, associates, senior lawyers, and alumni—discuss everything from remote work to the firm’s cutting-edge fintech practice to “the first-year perspective.” Taken together, their stories paint a vivid picture of the O’Melveny culture and why it’s so special to us. Access episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

What’s It Like to Work at O’Melveny? Former Summer Associates Weigh In

For years, we’ve achieved consistently high rankings in Vault’s survey of the “Best Summer Programs” and “Best Law Firms to Work For”—a testament to our dynamic firm culture and the career-fueling opportunities we offer. Get the full story on our Vault and Chambers Associate profiles, where you can hear what current associates and counsel and summer associates have to say about their O’Melveny experience. One source told Vault, “I was engaged in substantive tasks the entire summer, including a pro bono matter. The training was also phenomenal, including a week-long summer institute that culminated in an appellate brief and oral argument.” Another added, “The summer program is legendary and lets O'Melveny's fantastic culture really shine. Events are well designed to foster connections.” You can also visit our NALP profile to learn more about the firm's policies, programs, and benefits.

Our Stories

Many law students who summer with us return to the firm as first-year associates. Each of these lawyers has a unique success story to tell, but they’ve all benefited from O’Melveny’s robust investment in talent development. Learn more about how they’ve achieved a career without compromise—in their own words.

Maiah H. Parks

Counsel, San Francisco

When San Francisco counsel Maiah Parks first joined O’Melveny as a summer associate, she quickly forged a close bond with partner Jennifer Taylor—a relationship that became invaluable to Parks’ growth both as a lawyer and an individual. “I knew immediately that I’d found an incredible mentor in Jennifer,” Parks said. “She’s been a bedrock of my experience at the firm.” Now, Parks is paying it forward by mentoring the next generation of O’Melveny lawyers.

Parks met Taylor when she was assigned to Taylor’s team for a pro bono project. She remembers Taylor as someone who took great care to ensure that summers were substantively involved in firm matters. “At the time, she was a young partner with two children of her own, which clearly made her life very busy, but she put in so much effort to connect with summers and junior associates and still continues to do so,” Parks explained. “She lifted me up and made me feel important.”

Since then, Parks has routinely turned to Taylor for guidance on issues large and small. When Parks was feeling burned out after the COVID-19 pandemic and considered taking time off, she asked Taylor about O’Melveny’s sabbatical program. “She was very supportive,” Parks said. “So I took three months off and came back to my work totally refreshed, with a renewed excitement for the work I do.”

Taylor also advises Parks on potential client development opportunities. Once, while attending a conference for corporate finance lawyers together, Parks told Taylor about a startup she’d been connected with that was seeking financing. “She said, ‘Let’s set up calls with the venture-focused banks we work with regularly as well as some firm alumni who might be good advisors,’” Parks said. “Her suggestions ultimately helped me get that company on board as a prospective client.”

For the past two years, Parks has volunteered for O’Melveny’s New Associate Mentorship Program (NAMP), which pairs first-year lawyers with a dedicated mentor. Every month, she collects feedback from other lawyers at the firm and passes it on to her mentee. These regular reviews ensure that young lawyers are able to effectively manage their workloads and remain on track to achieve their goals. She has also worked with the UC Law SF (formerly UC Hastings) Women’s Law Society for the past four years as an alumni mentor, mentoring 1L and 2L law students as they navigate law schools and the recruiting process.

Parks treats her responsibility as a mentor with the same gravity she observed in Taylor. “I want younger lawyers to know they can come to me with virtually anything, whether it’s a thorny legal problem or a question about how something in the kitchen works,” she said. Parks is intentional about sharing her own emotions about work—whether positive or negative—with younger colleagues, too. “I try to show them that it’s okay to have feelings and express them in a productive way so you can move forward.”

Although mentorship has required a significant contribution of time and energy from Parks, she sees it as a way to reinvest the support that’s helped her build a successful career. “I hope junior associates look up to me the same way I still look up to Jennifer and my other mentors,” she said. “O’Melveny is a special place because of the connections we’re able to make with our colleagues, and I’ve tried to do my part to uphold that.”