Ropes & Gray Internship Program: Launching Your Legal Career

Ropes & Gray offers a comprehensive internship program designed to provide law students with invaluable practical experience and a strong foundation for their future legal careers. This program immerses participants in the firm's collaborative culture, challenging work, and commitment to professional development. Whether you're a 1L or 2L student, the Ropes & Gray internship program offers a unique opportunity to experience life at a leading global law firm, contribute to real client matters, and build lasting relationships.

A Firm at the Forefront of Legal Innovation

At Ropes & Gray, lawyers and professionals operate at the intersection of innovative business developments and complex legal challenges. The firm is consistently recognized as a leader in the legal industry, exemplified by its repeated placement on The American Lawyer’s A-List. This recognition underscores the firm's dedication to excellence, fairness, and integrity. Practicing law at Ropes & Gray places you at the forefront of legal and business developments shaping industries and creating new opportunities daily. You’ll handle innovative work for leading global clients while honing your professional skills with a training program recognized as the finest in the industry.

Experiencing Law at the Highest Level: The Summer Associate Program

Ropes & Gray's summer program offers law students a firsthand look at the practice of law at the highest level. Summer associates contribute to actual client matters and benefit from bespoke training and mentorship. The program is designed to provide a true Ropes & Gray associate experience, with assignments drawn from the firm's active matters and transactions, including pro bono work.

Participating in the summer program allows you to experience firsthand what it’s like to practice law at the highest level. Summer associates get exposure to cutting-edge, industry-defining work for the world’s leading businesses and organizations. You’ll contribute to actual client matters, benefit from individualized mentorship, and gain practical and soft skills from the firm's training program. You’ll also have lots of opportunities to get to know your fellow summer associates and other lawyers at the firm and to build long-lasting relationships.

The firm seeks students with a "gold medal mentality" and a track record of success. The program provides work assignments that mirror the experience of a Ropes & Gray associate, with associate and partner mentors available to guide you.

Read also: NCAA Apparel Regulations

Real Work, Real Impact

Ropes & Gray distinguishes itself by ensuring that summer associates engage in substantive work that directly contributes to the firm's ongoing cases and deals. There’s no such thing as busywork. Instead, summer associates’ assignments are drawn from the firm’s active matters and transactions, including pro bono. This hands-on approach allows interns to develop critical analytical and project management skills while providing support in critical contexts.

Bespoke Training and Mentorship

Ropes & Gray is committed to helping you reach your highest potential. The firm invests heavily in the success of its summer associates, offering a multifaceted training program that includes both practical and soft skills development. Recognizing that career development is not one-size-fits-all, Ropes & Gray pairs each summer associate with a team of lawyers and business support professionals. This team provides individualized mentorship, guidance, and feedback throughout the program.

Social and Networking Opportunities

Ropes & Gray recognizes the importance of fostering a welcoming and engaging environment. The summer program includes numerous social events to help interns connect with their peers and other lawyers at the firm. They know how important it is to feel welcomed and engaged when joining a new firm. That’s why their summer program includes a multitude of opportunities for you to get to know your fellow summer associates and other lawyers at the firm. Events are frequent, usually really fun, and well-attended. The events help summer associates who are not from the area get a taste of what the city has to offer. The firm has a nice job of organizing and hosting a variety of social events both internally and externally. There was always something to do or someone to talk to, but I never felt pressured to show face at any, much less all, events.

Paralegal Opportunities: Developing Essential Skills

Ropes & Gray's commitment to professional development extends to its paralegals. The firm supports paralegals in their professional development through a formal paralegal training program, complementing their on-the-job training working alongside the firm’s attorneys and support staff. Program paralegals will hone their analytical and project management skills, and enhance their ability to provide support in critical contexts.

A Culture of Inclusion and Giving Back

Fostering a welcoming work environment, where people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to succeed, is one of the firm's most important missions. Welcoming and valuing people of all backgrounds in all aspects of the firm’s operations is fundamental to their core values of excellence, fairness, and integrity. At Ropes & Gray, giving back is embedded in their DNA. They take pro bono work very seriously and regularly leverage the legal training and the wider skills of their people to make a difference in their communities.

Ropes & Gray's pro bono work is truly connects the firm. Like their law firm, their pro bono work is global, crossing practices and time zones.

Sustainable Practices for a Better Future

With 16 offices in cities around the globe, Ropes & Gray is mindful of its environmental footprint. As the firm continues to grow, they look for ways to apply sustainable practices and promote green initiatives. They recycle all paper, aluminum, plastic and glass where available-and several offices participate in composting. Sophisticated HVAC controls, motion sensor light switches and efficient lighting keep energy usage down, while specially designed faucets minimise water consumption. They purchase Energy Star-rated computers and office equipment, and when taking on new space or planning construction they make conscious decisions to reuse furniture and infrastructure, when possible - recycling or donating items they no longer need.

The Alumni Network: A Lifelong Resource

Ropes & Gray values its alumni as extended members of the firm's community. The alumni network can be a resource to help support your career goals.

Teamwork and Collaboration: Achieving Common Goals

At Ropes & Gray, people work together to reach a common goal. They are about high-functioning, highly engaged global teams and creating something greater than the sum of their parts.

Insights from Summer Associates

The Ropes & Gray podcast offers valuable insights into the summer associate experience. In one special edition, Jeff Katz, co-hiring partner and co-managing partner of the Boston office, speaks with three summer associates from the 2025 program: Ben Haward (Harvard University), Esteban Ortiz (Boston University), and Michelle Yang (Northeastern University). They share their candid reflections on mentorship, professional growth, and the collaborative culture that defines the firm.

Michelle Yang highlighted the firm's collegial atmosphere and the genuine care shown by partners, associates, and staff. She recounted instances where colleagues went out of their way to offer support and mentorship, making her feel like part of the Ropes & Gray family. Michelle Yang: I think the people here have surprised me the most this summer. I think for many law students, we hear about how collegial a law firm is and how their people and culture are what sets them apart from the rest. From my very first week here at Ropes, I’ve gotten to see that kindness, selflessness, and willingness to invest and mentor young associates firsthand this summer. My partner mentor and my senior associate on the floor stopped by my office towards the end of my first day to welcome me to the firm and introduce themselves. We ended up chatting for hours that night. On my second day here, one of the partners that I interviewed with last summer stopped by to check in on me and just make sure that I would know that she would be a resource for me this summer, even though I wasn’t sitting on her floor. A memory that will always stick with me is that an associate on my floor heard that I’d be going to a Red Sox game that evening when it was expected to rain, and he immediately went to his office and grabbed a brand-new Ropes & Gray sweatshirt and brought it to me so that I would stay warm and dry during that game that night. These are just a few of the many experiences that I’ve had this summer where a partner, an associate, a paralegal member, staff member, or even one of my own fellow summer associates have made me feel so incredibly lucky to be part of the Ropes & Gray family.

Esteban Ortiz emphasized the importance of being sensitive to clients' time constraints and delivering legal advice with precision. He also appreciated the opportunity to work on substantive projects while receiving mentorship from experienced attorneys. The number one thing that I learned is about being sensitive to clients’ time constraints. I can’t count the number of times I’d be on a call with a client, and they said, “I’m so busy today.” And especially with that backdrop, that makes you wonder, “How can I be as efficient with them and as efficient with my communications and be sensitive to how their time is short?” The biggest thing that I’ve learned is also how to curate how we present our legal advice. I think that’s our deliverable here. We’re not delivering slide decks. We’re not delivering anything like that. There’s no frills. We have to be as pointed and pinpoint precise with our advice as we can.

Ben Haward highlighted the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects and the collaborative spirit among attorneys from different offices and practice groups. He was surprised by the level of involvement he had on a complex matter and how his research skills were valued by the team. Ben Haward: I’ve been very lucky, as have many other summers who were in the health care group, that we’ve had a lot of work to do this summer on a lot of different, interesting projects with clients working on really cutting-edge goals and matters. The one that really stands out for me was at the intersection of litigation and health care. I didn’t come into the summer thinking that I had an interest in litigation, but it was really amazing during this project to see how attorneys from across Ropes offices, from across practice groups came together and shared their expertise, and really enjoyed having a back and forth with different associates, different partners and continuing to build a strategy, building my own research skills, and also being challenged to think quite creatively about a very difficult matter that implicated health care regulation, that implicated constitutional law. And so, something I didn’t think I would experience this summer became something that was deeply, deeply fascinating and also deeply satisfying, being the person that lawyers come to, being treated as a peer even though we’re only here for 10 weeks. It’s difficult, for some matters, to go to summer associates-I think it’s part of just the time limitation we have.

Advice for Prospective Summer Associates

Jeff Katz advises prospective summer associates to engage, introduce themselves, and seek opportunities from day one. He emphasizes the importance of being curious and assertive, as well as saying "yes" to new challenges. The advice I have for future summer associates is from day one, engage, introduce yourself to people, and just look for opportunities. Say “yes.” Be curious and be assertive. The assertiveness is important-going back to the word I mentioned before, “speed,” because things happen so quickly, the summer associates that are more open, who get out of their office, talk to lawyers, they’re going to see more.

Application Information

Ropes & Gray requires first-year grades as part of the application. Therefore, they strongly encourage applicants to apply after they have their first-year grades. You may submit an unofficial copy of your law school transcript, but it must be complete with all of your grades listed.

Opportunities for 2L Students

Ropes & Gray hires a select group of law students to spend the summer with them immediately upon completing their 2L year. During the 10-week 2L program, participants receive work assignments that mirror the experience of a Ropes & Gray associate, with associate and partner mentors available to guide them. The firm seeks students with a "gold medal mentality" and a track record of success.

Opportunities for 1L Students

Ropes & Gray also hires a select number of first-year students for the summer who have accepted their 2L offers. Their hiring criteria will focus on prior relevant work experience and exceptional undergraduate success.

tags: #ropes #and #gray #internship #program