Careers | Dickinson Wright

Among our lawyer ranks more than 25 former judicial clerks. While we certainly do not require our lawyers to have a judicial clerkship in their backgrounds, we recognize the value of clerkships and, in most cases, give full credit (up to two years) for completion of a clerkship.

Most Dickinson Wright lawyers who were judicial clerks completed their clerkships in the one to two years immediately following law school. A significant percentage of these lawyers were also former Dickinson Wright summer associates. Associates who joined the firm immediately after a clerkship but who were not previously employed by Dickinson Wright typically came through our interview process three to six months before the end of their clerkships.

If you are currently serving as a judicial clerk and would like to be considered for a position following your clerkship, please send a cover letter that indicates your practice area(s) of interest, a resume that includes your law school and undergraduate GPAs, your law school transcript and two writing samples to:

Jill S. Ingber
Director of Recruitment and Associate Development
Dickinson Wright PLLC

2600 W. Big Beaver Rd.
Troy, MI 48084
jingber@dickinsonwright.com

We are an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

From time to time, Dickinson Wright has opportunities available for legal secretaries, paralegals and other support staff.

If you are an experienced and dedicated professional and are interested in exploring opportunities at Dickinson Wright, please send your resume to:

Linda M. Reyna

Chief Human Resources Officer

Dickinson Wright PLLC

500 Woodward Avenue, Suite 4000

Detroit, Michigan 48226

lreyna@dickinsonwright.com

Open positions in our U.S. offices can viewed by clicking here.
Open positions in our Toronto office can be viewed by clicking here.

If you are highly motivated, creative, experienced and committed to achieving unparalleled success in your area of practice, you may have the makings of a Dickinson Wright attorney. While we appreciate the assistance of placement professionals, we prefer that interested candidates contact us directly.

To view and/or apply for our current lateral associate open positions in our US offices, please click here: US LATERAL ASSOCIATE POSITIONS

For further information regarding the open associate positions in our US offices, please contact Jill Ingber, Senior Director of Attorney Recruitment and Professional Development, at jingber@dickinsonwright.com or Tishia Browning, Legal Recruiting Manager, at tbrowning@dickinsonwright.com. For information regarding available associate positions in our Toronto office, please reach out to Melissa Eisen, Director of Professional Resources and Development, at meisen@dickinsonwright.com.

Dickinson Wright is an AmLaw 200 law firm with offices in Michigan, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, El Paso, Ft. Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Lexington, Nashville, Phoenix, Reno, Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., and Toronto.

About Dickinson Wright in Toronto

Dickinson Wright LLP is one of Canada’s leading full-service business law firms with significant experience in cross-border transactions. Based in Toronto, the firm is home to lawyers with broad legal experience in 15 industry sectors and 36 practice areas. It is an affiliate of Dickinson Wright PLLC, an AmLaw 200 law firm based in the United States, and assists Canadian, American, and international clients with their Canadian business needs.

The firm’s advantage lies in its seamless management of client business issues: the Dickinson Wright OneTeam Approach. This unified strategy provides clients with individualized service, drawing on collaborative, cross-practice, and inter-office teams.

Dickinson Wright understands that in order to continue to succeed, the firm must invest in young legal talent. Dickinson Wright is home to approximately 50 lawyers in our Toronto office – giving students more opportunities to get hands-on experience and to really get to know our firm and our lawyers.

Summer Student Program

Dickinson Wright’s Summer Student Program runs from May until the middle of August.

The Summer Student Program does not involve formal rotations, and students are encouraged to seek out work in different practice areas that interest them. Some of these practice areas include:

• Automotive
• Banking & Financial Services
• Bankruptcy & Insolvency
• Corporate & Commercial
• Energy & Sustainability
• Entertainment, Sports & Media
• Franchise & Distribution Law
• Gaming Law
• Immigration
• Indigenous Law
• Intellectual Property
• International Trade
• Labour & Employment
• Litigation
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Private Equity
• Real Estate
• Securities
• Taxation

Our Summer Students will have the opportunity to work closely with our lawyers. It is common for a Summer Student to work directly with a partner on a file, interacting with clients, and getting deeply involved in the legal issues. Summer Students work on corporate transactions, trials, motions, arbitrations, mediations, research projects, presentations, and attend client meetings throughout their summer experience. Summer Students also have the opportunity to attend firm events – both within and outside of Toronto – including the firm’s quarterly Associates’ Dinners held in the United States (in order to meet colleagues throughout the Dickinson Wright 19-office network).

Dickinson Wright offers our Summer Students a competitive compensation package, comparable to other Bay Street firms.

Articling Student Program

Dickinson Wright’s Articling Student Program runs from August until June.

The Articling Student Program involves three rotations; Corporate Law, Litigation and Real Estate, with the flexibility to get involved with other practice areas under those broader umbrellas, such as: mergers and acquisitions, private equity, franchise, and bankruptcy and insolvency, to name a few.

Dickinson Wright offers our Articling Students a competitive compensation package, comparable to other Bay Street firms, which includes:

• 10 vacation days;
• Allowance towards personal phone; and
• Payment of Law Society Licensing Examination Fees.

Articling Students have direct access to all Dickinson Wright lawyers, who will work with them side-by-side. It is common for Articling Students to work directly with a partner on a file, interacting with clients and getting deeply involved in legal issues. Articling Students work on corporate transactions, trials, motions, arbitrations, mediations, research projects, presentations, and attend client meetings. Articling Students also have the opportunity to attend firm events including the firm’s quarterly Associates’ Dinners held in the United States (in order to meet colleagues throughout Dickinson Wright’s 20-office network), firm retreats, as well as the annual Dickinson Wright black-tie firm dinner.

Training

Dickinson Wright’s Summer and Articling Students are an integral part of the firm’s success, and are provided with extensive training throughout their experience with Dickinson Wright. In addition, each student is matched with both a Junior and Senior Mentor to help guide them through their summer and articling experience.

Dickinson Wright recognizes that its students have lives outside of their work at the firm, and while its students work hard, Dickinson Wright supports and encourages our students to have a healthy work-life balance.

How to Apply

The firm accepts applications for second-year Summer Students in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Law Society of Ontario.

For Summer Student Applicants: Dickinson Wright LLP participates in the On-Campus Interview process, and attends the following law schools in September and early October:

Osgoode Hall Law School
University of Ottawa
Queen’s University
University of Toronto
Western University
University of Windsor

Students from other law schools will also be considered, and Dickinson Wright encourages such students to apply.

All applications must be submitted online at www.vilawportal.com, and more information about Dickinson Wright can be found online at www.nalpcanada.com.

For Articling Student Applicants: The firm does the majority of its recruiting through the On-Campus Interview process. The firm’s articling positions for the 2023-2024 articling term have been filled.

All applications should include a cover letter, resume, undergraduate transcript (photocopy of original transcript), law school transcript (photocopy of original transcript), list of upper year courses, and should be submitted to Melissa Eisen - meisen@dickinsonwright.com. Reference letters are optional.

Contacts:

To speak to one of our Articling Students about their experience with Dickinson Wright, please contact:

Juli Kim - JKim@dickinson-wright.com
Navneet K. Garcha - NGarcha@dickinson-wright.com
Sam D. Friedman - SFriedman@dickinson-wright.com

For further information on our Toronto Student Programs, please contact:

Melissa B. Eisen, Director, Professional Resources and Development
Dickinson Wright LLP
199 Bay Street, Suite 2200
P.O. Box 447
Commerce Court Postal Station
Toronto, Canada M5L 1G4
meisen@dickinsonwright.com

Dickinson Wright’s Summer Associate Program

Dickinson Wright offers a 10-week summer program that combines high-quality legal work, professional development and on-the-job training opportunities with a host of social activities designed to foster relationships within the Dickinson Wright community. Our Summer Associates participate fully in our sophisticated and diverse legal practice, and they gain realistic insight into life at our firm and the lives of the diverse lawyers who make up Dickinson Wright.

Designed primarily for second-year law students, our program is carefully structured and administered to provide a supportive environment geared toward success because we want every Summer Associate to earn and accept an offer to become a Dickinson Wright attorney. We view the Summer Associate Program as key to our goal to identify and attract the most highly qualified law students who will drive the firm’s strategic growth.

We strategically hire our Summer Associates with the hope that they will each become colleagues after graduation.

The Summer Associate Program is run by a "Summer Team," led by the chairs of our Recruitment Committee, our Senior Director of Attorney Recruitment and Professional Development, and our Legal Recruiting Manager together with select DW lawyers designated as Assignment Coordinators and Social Coordinators.

Broad Exposure and Real World Experience

Summer Associates complete high-quality client work that can span nearly every department in the law firm, from commercial, appellate, and employment litigation, to corporate, M&A, finance, real estate, and bankruptcy. Our goal is to provide each Summer Associate broad exposure to the breadth of practice areas we offer so that each Summer Associate may form a clearer idea of the areas in which they may want to practice. Summer Associates also gain real-world experiences, such as attending deal closings, strategic meetings with clients, depositions, trials, and arbitrations to gain an understanding of the work they will perform if they continue their careers at Dickinson Wright.

For students who are patent bar eligible and interested in pursuing an intellectual property practice, we also offer a limited number of IP-focused Summer Associate positions in the program in which students spend the ten weeks exclusively working on a variety of high-level IP assignments, spanning patent prosecution, IP litigation, trademarks, and copyright matters. Aside from getting assignments exclusively from the firm’s IP practice groups, our IP Summer Associates are otherwise part of our general Summer Associate Program in all other respects.

Dickinson Wright recognizes the importance of balance between the professional and personal lives of all employees—ranging from Members to Summer Associates. While we work hard, we also recognize and respect the need for family time and other personal priorities. Summer Associates work an average of 35-40 hours per week and complete about 10 to 15 substantive assignments over the course of the summer.

Mentorship

Each Summer Associate is assigned a Junior and Senior Mentor. Junior Mentors serve as the Summer Associate’s primary resource, while Senior Mentors provide bigger picture career advice and guidance.

Social Activities

Summer Associates are invited to participate in a number of social activities, such as baseball games, concerts, trips to art museums, golf, and dining experiences, which provide opportunities to meet more DW lawyers and grow their networks within the firm.

To Apply:

We are now accepting applications for our 2025 Summer Associate programs from rising 2Ls.

• To apply for our Summer Associate Program click here. If you are patent bar eligible and interested in one of our IP Summer Associate positions, please click here to apply.

While we are considering applications in advance of on-campus interviews, we still plan to participate in the OCI process at several law schools throughout the US. You are welcome to apply through our career portal using the link above or through your law school’s OCI program. Please check with your school’s Career Services Office to see whether and when we are interviewing at your law school.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our Legal Recruiting Manager, Tish Browning, at tbrowning@dickinsonwright.com.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

To access Dickinson Wright’s Applicant Privacy Policy, please click here.