Summer Associate Program

Kramer Rayson seeks to hire, train, mentor and retain outstanding lawyers. To that end, we visit law schools each year to interview prospective candidates and we also carefully review applications and resumes directly submitted to our firm. Our goal is to find talented and motivated individuals who will complement our diverse backgrounds and interests while sharing our commitment to East Tennessee and to our clients. We are always interested in meeting people who share those values and who will help us retain our status as one of Business Tennessee magazine’s “Best Employers in Tennessee.”

Our summer program provides an opportunity to experience the practice of law and life at our firm. If you accept an offer for summer employment, you will work directly with lawyers in all of our practice areas, and you will meet and work with the people who will ultimately guide you toward a successful legal career if you join our firm as an associate. We believe it is important to work broadly within the firm during the summer because we will expect you to do likewise as a young associate. Our intent is for you to develop an expansive base of knowledge and experience that will enhance your work in the area of law where you eventually choose to focus.

Our summer associates receive work assignments drawn from ongoing legal matters in which our lawyers and clients are actively involved. We strive to see that you are invited to meetings, hearings, closings, mediations, depositions and trials. You will do real work for real clients, and you will encounter real deadlines for the work assigned to you. This will permit you and our lawyers to evaluate whether Kramer Rayson is the right firm for you, and you for it, after your graduation from law school. You will be assigned a “mentor” to help you become acquainted with the firm and to answer your questions about day-to-day matters. Your mentor may also help you manage your work assignments and will offer a view of life at Kramer Rayson from a long-term perspective.

Our summer program coordinators will monitor your progress and growth from start to finish and will provide feedback to augment evaluations you receive from the attorneys who assign each project. We will also have social occasions for you to get to know our attorneys, staff and families outside the office as well.

Interested law students should direct correspondence to the firm’s Executive Director, Marc Upchurch.