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Attorney Development & Training

When you choose to build your practice at Hodgson Russ, you will quickly realize that the support of the firm goes hand-in-hand with our high expectations. Hodgson Russ furnishes the tools necessary to start, advance, and enhance your career at every stage. We provide extended orientation, social events, professional and business development planning, and a robust menu of training programs, including the following.

Our first-year training and integration series goes beyond traditional orientation programs. We teach or review skills critical to a new attorney’s success, like keeping time charges and providing exceptional client service. Hodgson Russ’s leaders give presentations on firm management and structure and the annual associate review process along with other topics designed to help new associates understand the firm’s operations.

Our “Diners and Dives” events, informal cocktail hours, and associate integration lunches ensure that everyone has a chance to meet attorneys throughout the firm. Our “People in Practice” lunches feature one or two attorneys talking about their experiences and giving practice tips and mentoring advice — usually with a good dose of war stories and firm history.

We know that the best training happens through real experience and timely feedback. To keep our attorneys informed of changes in the law and growing as professionals, we have a full menu of training opportunities, including: 

  • Practice area CLE programs. Continuing legal education is a regular part of our practice area meetings.
  • Writing. We are proud to have an experienced writing specialist on our staff who provides both group training and individual project feedback.
  • Business basics. We partner with clients to teach business and accounting basics.
  • Firm finances and the business of law. Firm leaders present programs on numbers, industry statistics, and other information used by management to run the firm.
  • Understanding our clients and their industry sectors. Clients regularly visit the firm to tell us about their businesses and industries.
  • Nuts and bolts of our practice groups’ experience and strength. We better service our clients by understanding the depth of knowledge and talent across all our practice areas.
  • CLE book club. We’ve discussed books ranging from 19th century classics like Hermann Melville’s Billy Budd to contemporary legal and judicial histories such as Becoming Justice Blackmun by Linda Greenhouse. 

We supplement our internal training programs with a Practicing Law Institute (PLI) subscription and outside consultant presentations. Nationally recognized experts routinely present to our attorneys on writing, negotiation, and time management. 

At Hodgson Russ, our goal is for each individual to attain his or her highest potential, and we are committed to provide the resources to help make this happen.