Litigation Associate (3–6 Year)

Oak, Elm & Birch LLP is seeking a mid-level litigation associate to join the firm's Litigation group at our Hartford office. The group is chaired by Lance Harrington, Deputy Managing Partner, and handles bet-the-company commercial disputes, securities and financial-services litigation, crisis response, and appellate advocacy in Connecticut state and federal court and before the Second Circuit.

The practice

The associate selected for this role will take an active drafting and case-management role on matters across the group's docket. Representative work includes complaint and motion drafting, fact-witness depositions, expert-discovery management, pre-trial brief work, and — for associates ready for it — second-chair trial responsibilities. The Litigation group tries cases. Associates in this practice should expect trial and evidentiary-hearing experience on the typical timeline this firm's practice actually produces, not on a rotational or shadowing basis.

Required experience

• J.D. from an accredited U.S. law school.
• Active Connecticut bar admission.
• Admission to the bar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, or eligibility for admission within three months of joining.
• Three to six years of civil-litigation experience at a peer firm.
• First-chair deposition experience. First-chair trial experience is preferred.

Preferred experience

• Clerkship at the Connecticut Superior Court, D. Conn., or any U.S. Court of Appeals.
• Admission to the Second Circuit.
• Securities-litigation, white-collar, or complex-commercial experience.
• Appellate brief-writing experience with published work product available as a writing sample.

What the role asks for

A trial lawyer in training, not a motions associate. The Litigation group's Monday-morning case review has been, in several former associates' accounts, the best substantive training in Hartford, and the associate will be expected to contribute to it rather than merely attend. Strong writing is a precondition. Strong oral advocacy, or a credible track toward it, is expected to develop during the associate's tenure.