When you join Winston, you join a client-driven, collegial and civic-minded firm. We provide our clients with creative solutions to their business problems. With 14 offices in key financial centers around the world, we bring an understanding of the global and industry-specific legal and business issues our clients face in transactions, disputes, and regulatory/enforcement-related matters.
Winston has one of the fastest growing corporate and transactional practices among the Am Law 100. While we are renowned as a litigation powerhouse, Winston’s corporate and transactional department is also a key driver of the firm’s growth—generating half of the firm’s total revenue. So, whether you are an aspiring litigator or a deal lawyer, Winston is a great place to begin your career.
Culture
At Winston, you will learn from world-class attorneys who are sincerely interested in your career growth and care about your happiness. Our formal mentoring program helps entry-level attorneys integrate into the firm, learn about our culture, and gain valuable skills and knowledge. We also provide formal opportunities for you to give feedback and have an open dialogue. You can hear Winston’s Director of Attorney Recruiting & Development Victor Barnett describe Winston’s summer associate program below.
All of our people—whether they stay at Winston or go on to other distinguished legal careers—remain part of the Winston family. Our alumni program offers access to professional development and community service opportunities, and to social events.
Assignments & Staffing
We are deeply invested in ensuring our associates receive the opportunities they deserve to work with a wide range of partners and clients. We staff our client matters leanly, which means you will have substantive and challenging work that fosters your professional development from day one. Each office has an assignment attorney to distribute work and ensure you work on meaningful assignments that allow you to explore your interests. You will also receive real-time feedback and formal reviews to maximize your learning and growth.
Learning, Development & Well-Being
Winston’s best-in-class training programs and resources are designed to support your growth and success as you advance through your career.
Winston University delivers practice-specific courses and holistic training programs—available live and on-demand—to help you develop the core competencies needed at every stage of your career. All new associates begin with our week-long Jumpstart Orientation program, which covers professional skills and includes participating in a business simulation exercise.
First- and second-year associates then attend either a Litigation or Corporate Jumpstart Training Program, which covers practice-specific content and legal skills.
Winston’s Litigation and Transaction Departments have a dedicated Career Development Advisor who meets regularly with associates from the time they join the firm through their first few years of partnership. These advisors are dedicated to helping associates fully leverage the firm’s vast professional development resources so they can develop into well-rounded attorneys and business advisors with thriving and rewarding careers.
All Winston attorneys have access to one-on-one coaching with our director of coaching and well-being, who provides career and business coaching as well as well-being coaching. Winston also regularly hosts well-being workshops on topics ranging from well-being best practices and learned optimism to time mastery and peaceful parenting.
Opportunity & Inclusion
Opportunity and inclusion are embedded into the fabric of our firm.
Our efforts focus on fostering an inclusive and respectful environment, broadening access to opportunity, and encouraging meaningful engagement across every level of the firm. We develop innovative programs and invest in partnerships that strengthen our recruitment, retention, and development of all talented lawyers and business professionals throughout the firm.
At Winston, we’re committed to expanding access to opportunity through early, meaningful engagement with law students. Our recruiting initiatives are designed to identify promising law students, support their development, and create pathways for long-term success. Each year, Winston awards Pathways Scholarships to selected 2L summer associates to help them offset the cost of their legal education. Scholarship recipients participate in our 2L summer associate program and receive $50,000 (less applicable withholdings and taxes).
Law students who summer with Winston have multiple opportunities to interact with our 10 firmwide networks for Black, Hispanic, AAPI, Middle Eastern/North African, LGBTQ, first generation, and women attorneys as well as those who are caregivers, military service members, or identify as having a disability. These groups, which are open to all lawyers, serve as platforms or connections, networking, and community.
Winston’s Associate Sponsorship Program pairs high-performing associates in their fifth and sixth years of practice with a sponsor from the firm’s Executive Committee. The program is designed to create meaningful, sustained relationships. Sponsors and protégés connect monthly for one-on-one conversations, with structured support to help guide their engagement. We kick off the program year with a robust orientation that includes presentations, guest speakers, and clear expectation-setting for both sponsors and protégés.
Work-Life Integration
At Winston, we understand that supporting lawyers with families is critical to their long-term career success. We’re proud to offer family-friendly benefits that promote balance and flexibility, including:
- 20 weeks’ paid parental leave, regardless of caregiver status
- Partner-level Parental Leave Liaison
- Reduced hour targets during “ramp down” and “ramp up” periods
- Career strategist for working parents
- Free overnight breast milk delivery and on-site nursing rooms
- Discounted back-up childcare (60 days in year one; 15 days/year thereafter)
- Family Network lawyer network
- Flexible hours options
Pro Bono Opportunities
Active engagement in pro bono is a hallmark of the firm. Winston’s robust pro bono practice is managed by a dedicated team of four attorneys and two staff members.
Being in the top 15 U.S. law firms on The American Lawyer Pro Bono Scorecard is a key goal in our firm’s strategic plan and 2024 was the sixth consecutive year that Winston achieved this status. The firm encourages all attorneys to devote 35 hours annually to pro bono mattersand provides credit for 100 hours of pro bono work toward associates’ annual billable-hours target.
Watch Winston’s Chief Pro Bono Officer Greg McConnell discuss Winston’s strong pro bono culture below.
Incoming first-year associates have the opportunity to participate in Winston & Strawn’s Public Interest Law Fellowship Program during the period following graduation and prior to their official start date. Participants agree to work a minimum of 300 hours at a local public interest law organization and receive a $10,000 stipend in addition to gaining hands-on legal experience and providing much-needed service to public interest law organizations.
You can find additional information about working at Winston and our Summer Associate Program here.