Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is investing nearly $1 million into a new public service initiative designed to encourage incoming 2027 summer associates to spend their 1L summers working with nonprofits and government agencies.
Under the program, the firm will commit $900,000 to support both participating students and the organisations hosting them. Ten future summer associates from Wilson Sonsini’s 2027 class will work across eight nonprofit and government organisations throughout the United States.
To qualify, students must commit both of their first two law school summers to the firm.
While public interest stipends have become increasingly common across BigLaw, Wilson Sonsini’s model goes a step further by also financially supporting the nonprofits and agencies themselves, an approach that remains relatively uncommon in the legal market.
The initiative arrives amid intensifying competition for elite junior talent, as firms increasingly look beyond headline compensation to differentiate themselves with training opportunities, culture and purpose-driven work.
At Wilson Sonsini, pro bono work already appears deeply embedded within the associate experience.
Incoming summers are typically matched to a specific practice group, including corporate, litigation or patents & innovations, and are given opportunities to shadow lawyers on substantive client matters. Associates describe summers receiving meaningful work early on, from legal research to drafting portions of ancillary documents and litigation filings.
One associate recalled a summer associate contributing research to a motion to dismiss that was ultimately incorporated into a filed brief.
The firm also places significant emphasis on pro bono participation. Every hour spent on pro bono work is bonus eligible and counts toward billable targets, with no cap — a policy often viewed as a strong indicator of how seriously firms treat public interest work internally.
Associates regularly receive opportunities spanning short-term small business clinics through to longer-running landlord-tenant disputes, immigration matters and human rights litigation.
The firm has previously partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union to resolve litigation relating to alleged discriminatory policing practices in Louisiana, while also working alongside the Center for Justice and Accountability on multiple human rights matters under the Torture Victim Protection Act, including one case anticipated to proceed to trial in 2026.
“You’re able to participate in so much, from depositions to arguing at hearings,” one litigator noted of the firm’s pro bono opportunities.
The scale of the firm’s pro bono commitment is also notable. Wilson Sonsini recorded nearly 75,000 pro bono hours in 2024, with lawyers averaging approximately 81.5 hours each.
Wilson Sonsini’s pro bono participation sits above many major commercial firms and broadly in line with several elite BigLaw peers, though specialist litigation and public policy-focused firms such as Covington & Burling, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block still record materially higher averages. We’ll see how this new approach may change things however.
Taken together, the new initiative appears less like a standalone recruiting incentive and more like an extension of the firm’s broader approach to associate development, one that combines early responsibility, substantive client exposure and public interest engagement.
Additional Sources: