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Schnader typically hires a new class of associates each fall. We give substantial weight to academic achievement, intellectual ability, work experience, and those personal qualities that we believe help to make a successful lawyer. Faculty and professional recommendations are considered. 

Please visit our Associate Benefits page to learn more about benefits for full-time associates.

Professional Development for Associates

Substantive education: There is no substitute for hands-on experience. As a smaller firm, our associates work closely from day one with some of the best lawyers in the country, including members of the American Law Institute, American College of Trial Lawyers and those ranked in publications such as Chambers USA. In addition, through our membership with the Practicing Law Institute, our associates have access to cutting-edge legal education in every practice area.

Mentoring: Each new associate receives both a junior and senior mentor. The junior mentor is a senior associate who builds a supportive friendship with the new associate. The senior mentor is a partner who works with the associate to build legal, case management, client relationship, and business development skills. Mentors help new associates transition into private practice by providing guidance on workload management, training and professional development opportunities, and how to get optimum use from the support services of the firm.

Pro Bono work: Our deep commitment to pro bono works means that our associates are actively involved in complex matters early in their careers, gaining invaluable, practical experience.

Community involvement: We support our associates becoming involved in bar associations, and professional, nonprofit and community organizations. In fact, our former Chairman co-founded the Philadelphia Board Observer Program which places young attorneys with nonprofit boards in the Philadelphia region, where they develop the leadership skills necessary for board membership. This program is very successful and was the recipient of an award from the National Conference of Bar Foundations.

Business Development Training: We offer individual business development coaching, assistance with creating and fulfilling a business plan, support for your writing, publishing and speaking goals, and guidance on joining professional organizations.

Firm Retreat: The firm holds a two-day retreat for all attorneys to build relationships with each other through team building and informal social activities. The retreat also includes workshops on business development, collaboration, diversity, succession planning, and practice group management.

Take An Associate to Lunch Program: The Firm pays for the lunches of host lawyers and new associates to encourage our lawyers to build relationships with each other.

Training and Support

Litigation and Transactional Training: Our most recent associate training program took place in the Philadelphia office. The program included litigation and transactional classes for which attorneys received CLE credit.

The litigation side focused on deposition training, where participants role-played taking or defending a deposition, and had the opportunity to play the opposite role in a second training session. Faculty (made up of senior associates and partners) played the witnesses and provided feedback and suggestions for improvement. In addition, a court reporter was present, and attorneys received a transcript after the training to review and learn from their performance.

The transactional side included courses on common financial agreements, corporate opinions, due diligence in transactions, factors to consider in choice of business entity, and the tax treatment of corporations and partnerships.

After a full day of classes and meetings, our associates split into groups and played “Escape the Room Philly.”

Trust & Estates Training: The Trusts & Estates Department trains its associates in drafting Wills, Revocable Trusts, Powers of Attorney, Living Wills, Trusts and other agreements. The associates work with senior attorneys, clients, fiduciary administrators and accountants to learn how to administer a decedent’s estate and to create, fund and administer trusts. Associates are given opportunities to gain experience in areas such as nonprofit creation and representation, tax planning, Orphan’s Court practice and can gain experience working with the IRS and other taxing authorities.

Observation Opportunities: We offer new lawyers the opportunity to observe experienced lawyers in a variety of settings including closings, negotiations, mediations, hearings, appellate arguments, depositions and witness interviews.

Feedback: Partners are expected to meet with associates regularly to provide thorough, substantive, and constructive feedback about the associate’s work and concrete suggestions for any improvement.

Evaluations: Each year, associates participate in a comprehensive evaluation process, which includes written evaluations from the partners with whom the associate has worked and an associate self-evaluation. Each associate meets with a member of the Associate Professional Development Committee and department or practice group chair to discuss the associate’s performance over the past year and to discuss and set goals for the coming year.

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The Higher Calling Of The Law Requires...

Inclusion. When Pennsylvania Attorney General William Schnader left politics and sought to return to private practice in Philadelphia, he discovered that no major Philadelphia law firms would hire his protégé, Bernard Segal, a Jewish attorney. In response, in 1935, William Schnader, Bernard Segal and Francis Lewis formed a new law firm, Schnader & Lewis -- the first religiously integrated law firm in Philadelphia.

Innovation. Because Schnader was religiously integrated from its founding, many local clients in the Philadelphia area would not retain the firm in the 1930s and 1940s. Accordingly, the firm sought to represent larger, national companies.

Vision. Firm founder William Schnader was president of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, which drafted and developed the Uniform Commercial Code. He successfully campaigned for the Code's adoption in 49 states.

The pursuit of freedom. At the request of President Truman, firm founder Earl Harrison, as Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, toured displaced persons camps at the end of World War II and recommended to the President that displaced persons in Europe be permitted to resettle in Palestine. His report was a major factor that led to American support for the establishment of Israel.

The pursuit of justice. Firm founder Earl Harrison testified on behalf of an African-American student denied entry to the University of Texas School of Law because of his race. The case challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine, as applied to state law schools and laid the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court eventually overturned the lower courts' decisions and ordered the University of Texas to admit qualified black applicants.

Courage. Firm founder Bernard Segal convinced the Philadelphia bar to defend nine accused Communists pro bono. The defendants were convicted but their cases were thrown out on appeal. As a result, the Justice Department abandoned Smith Act prosecutions across the country.

The pursuit of justice. When George Wallace threatened to block integration of the University of Alabama, Schnader’s Bernard Segal drafted a statement in opposition. He and Jerome Shestack called lawyers all over the country requesting their support. The statement was published in the Birmingham News with 53 prominent lawyer signatories and provided support for President Kennedy's Executive Order federalizing the Alabama National Guard.

The pursuit of justice. In the wake of George Wallace's efforts to impede the integration of the University of Alabama, and at the urging of Schnader’s Bernard Segal, President Kennedy convened 244 lawyers at the White House to ask them to move the battle for civil rights and racial equality to the courts. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was born and Jerome Shestack became its full-time executive director while continuing to practice at Schnader.

Inclusion. Firm founder Bernard Segal was chair of the ABA’s Committee on the Federal Judiciary. He advocated the appointment of federal judges of all genders and races.

Inclusion. Firm founder Bernard Segal was the first Jewish person to serve as Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. He encouraged the bar into public service and expanded its racial horizons.

Inclusion. Schnader was one of the first major Philadelphia firms to hire a female attorney.

Diversity. Schnader was a founding member of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group, which aims to increase the number of diverse attorneys in-house and in private practice.

Inclusion. The firm appointed Albert Dandridge as Chief Diversity Officer and charged him with increasing and developing our bench of diverse attorneys.

Service. The firm adopted Caton Village (now closed), a halfway house for women in Philadelphia, where we provided free legal clinics and social and educational activities for its residents.

Service. Schnader lawyers regularly represent undocumented children who were abused or abandoned by their parents. We help these children obtain guardians, stop removal proceedings, and begin the path to citizenship.

Service. As U.S. veterans waited an average of four years for a ruling on the denial of their disability benefits, Schnader attorneys led a campaign advocating for a solution to address the backlog.

The pursuit of justice. Schnader attorneys represented Guantanamo Bay detainees, advocating for fair treatment and due process against a byzantine legal landscape.

Service. With a nonprofit partner, Schnader attorneys and staff designed and taught a pilot life skills seminar for young adults aging out of the foster care system. The program included lessons on securing vital documents, opening a bank account, looking for jobs and going to an interview.

Service. Schnader attorneys help middle school students in Pittsburgh set up a youth court, prepare for mock trials and draft a bill of rights for their school. The students learn about Constitutional law, advocacy and restorative justice from participating in these programs.

Service. Bernard Segal, a founder of the firm, believed that Schnader's hallmark is its "dedication to the higher calling of the law," which he defined as "the lawyer's obligation to assume an active role in the pursuit of a just and ordered society, in helping to solve the emerging problems of social, economic and political importance, and to serve the public as his or her client, as she or he would serve a full-paying client."