amazing experience:

A good place to rise and shine.

Driven people experience amazing opportunities and other valuable things here.

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culture counts

Explore an amazing experience that begins with you.

  • A free-spirited, entrepreneurial culture
  • Success is celebrated
  • All-star talent without the attitude
  • We are a WE place

Substantive Training & Continuing Education

  • Consistent with the needs of the Firm and our clients, the Firm expects all attorneys, including new Associates, to assume significant client-facing responsibilities quickly and capably. 
  • As a result, our Associates obtain significant and invaluable on-the-job training by working closely with experienced attorneys with varying styles and approaches. 
  • To supplement this practical, hands-on experience, we provide our Associates with formal training in a broad range of substantive topics via in-house programs and extensive external continuing legal education options. 
  • Associates can also sharpen their substantive legal and business skills via e-learning programs offered on-demand through vendors, like Practicing Law Institute (PLI), Thomson Reuter’s Practical Law, and Hotshot Legal.

Core Skills & Competencies

  • Developed with input from our Associates, our Core Skills are customized to our Firm’s culture and expectations.
  • As such, the Core Skills offer a balanced counterpart to our Associates’ substantive legal training and development.
  • Throughout the year, we offer in-house seminars, workshops and speaker events on wide-raging topics, such as business development, law firm economics, and delegation. 

Mentoring & Coaching

  • Given the size and culture of our Firm, many Associates quickly develop mentoring relationships with other attorneys in their Practice Groups.
  • To supplement these Practice-Group-based relationships, we pair new lateral Associates with an Associate mentor in a different Practice Group.
  • We offer individualized coaching resources, both internal and external, to our Associates, as well. 

Engagement & Connection

  • The Firm is committed to helping foster connections and collaboration among all of our colleagues, but particularly so among our Associates.
  • To this end, the Firm offers regular opportunities for Associates to connect with one another across Practice Group, both informally and formally, often multiple times a month and throughout the year.
  • New in 2018, the Firm hosts an annual half-day Retreat for all Associates, providing a more concentrated opportunity for knowledge sharing, internal networking, and strategic planning. 

Leadership Pipeline

  • Our Associates represent the future leaders of the Firm. 
  • We encourage our Associates to grow their leadership skills from a wide-array of opportunities. 
  • For example, Associates may participate on the Associates’ Committee, comprised of Associates selected by Associates, which serves as a liaison between Associates and Firm management. 
  • Associates may also participate on any number of committees, like the Inclusion & Diversity Committee, the Pro Bono Committee, or the Technology Committee. 
  • Several of our Associates lead the Firm’s efforts for various public interest initiatives and serve as board members on charitable boards. 
  • The Firm supports Associates’ participation in external leadership development opportunities, as well, such as programs offered through the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, ACG, Y Boston, and the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts.

Evaluations & Feedback

  • We strive to conduct formal performance evaluations for Associates on an annual basis. 
  • This process includes self-evaluations by Associates and evaluations by supervising Partners/Counsel. 
  • Associates receive their respective evaluations in advance of an in-person meeting with the Director of Professional Development and one or two designees from their respective Practice Group. 
  • At the meeting, we discuss not only the evaluations, but also their ongoing development goals. 
  • Throughout the year, Associates seek and receive informal feedback and guidance from Partners/Counsel with whom they work. 

Diversity here is a labor of love. We talk passionately about improvements and back the talk with action.

benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including generous time off, and competitive salaries commensurate with years of experience. Our benefits program strives to provide a combination of work/life balance, health and wellness, and financial stability.

Health and dental insurance

Health savings accounts

401k and discretionary profit sharing plan

Life and long term disability insurance

Health and dependent care flexible spending plans

Commuter flexible spending plans

MBTA pass program

Paid time off

Wellness and professional development seminars and initiatives

Backup child care and elder care

Employee Assistance Program

Tuition reimbursement

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summer associates & law clerks

Burns & Levinson hires summer associates and law clerks on a periodic basis, based on the projected needs of our practice groups. Our summer associates and clerks are assigned to a specific practice group, receiving work assignments from attorneys in that group and gaining hands-on experience in that particular area of law. In recent years, we have hosted summer associates and law clerks in our Business Law, Business Litigation, Intellectual Property, and Private Client Groups.    

People who excel in these roles are driven self-starters who demonstrate sound judgment and have strong analytical and communication skills. Burns seeks diverse candidates who share the firm’s passion for, and commitment to, delivering amazing results for our clients.   

In general, we do not participate in on-campus interviews at law schools. Because our hiring needs are practice group-driven, we recruit for summer associates and law clerks at various times throughout the year. For our summer associate program, we typically determine our hiring needs for the upcoming summer in the early months of that year, and then begin an online application process and interviews. 

For Summer 2023, our Business Law Group will host a current second year law student as a Summer Associate in our Boston Office. The application is open at the link below as of March 1, 2023 and will remain open until March 15, 2023. If we see a potential match, we will be in touch as soon as possible to schedule an initial Zoom interview.

If you have questions about our summer associate and law clerk programs, please email our Director of Professional Development & Inclusion, Elizabeth Brady Murillo, Esq., or our Recruiting Manager, Wousthanya Dumornay, MPA.


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