Law Department Management Blog
Partners Healthcare, while it had 24 lawyers in 2004, sponsored a program for “Attorney Fellows,” who worked in the Office of the General Counsel for two year stints. At any one time there were two Attorney Fellows each with two-year positions. The program introduced lawyers to non-profit, healthcare and in-house legal practice. During a Fellowship, if a permanent position became vacant, the Fellow was eligible to apply for the position.
Partners Healthcare hired lawyers with two-to-four years of post-law school experience, either in a judicial clerkship or in a big law firm. That experience let them take on work without requiring significant training.
The Fellows took a burden off the more senior attorneys. The department eventually hired several Fellows into permanent positions, so program also served as a way to train and ‘test-out’ employees before they were hired. In 2004 the department had four former Fellows on its staff. This excellent practice comes from Rees Morrison, Law Department Administrators: Lessons from Leaders (Hildebrandt Inst. 2004) at 5.