Like many of its Biglaw brethren, the firm is a signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge and supports other national and localized pro bono organizations.  The firm also offers a 16-month public interest fellowship at The Door, a New York nonprofit for indigent teens; it provides full-firm benefits to the fellow and offers the fellow the opportunity to return to Chadbourne & Parke at the end of the fellowship to practice in an area of the fellow's choice.  Although the firm recommends that its attorneys work 20 to 50 pro bono hours annually, Lateral Link Members report that there is no formal requirement to do so.  However, the firm considers pro bono an “important factor” in its performance reviews and bonus determinations.  The maximum number of pro bono hours that will be credited towards billable hours is 100, but according to the firm, “an additional 200 hours can be counted toward the firm work expected of associates.”  While the firm encourages pro bono work, “they don’t shove it down your throat,” according to one associate.  In 2010, 56% of the associates participated in pro bono work, averaging 75 hours per associate.

Chadbourne & Parke has a one-track partnership system, with an average of eight to nine years to make partner.  Making partner is viewed as an achievable goal, and the consensus among Lateral Link Members is that the firm is accommodating and will allow attorneys who do not make partner to continue working at the firm and will reconsider them the following year.  Major partnership factors cited by Lateral Link Insiders include work ethic, politics, and potential for bringing in business.

For associates staffed in Chadbourne & Parke's foreign offices, the firm reportedly provides excellent expat packages.  In its U.S. offices, the firm provides an in-house cafeteria and regular happy hours in certain offices, and dinner reimbursement and car service if working late at night; however, the gym membership subsidy was eliminated in 2009.  Further, associates in the New York office shouldn't expect their own office until their third year.  The firm provides bonuses and class credit for judicial clerkships and offers some form of compensation for advanced degrees on a case-by-case basis.

Summer associates in Chadbourne & Parke’s New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices have the opportunity to do hands-on work similar to what new associates do, as well as the chance to "shadow" partners and senior associates to experience what their work is like.  Respondents to the summer associate survey praise the “good size” of the firm and the summer program, which is “small enough that you will feel a deep sense of camaraderie with all of the summer associates and many of the lawyers, even partners.”  Summer associates are paired with partner and associate mentors, and the firm holds trainings for summer associates twice a week.  Work is assigned to summer associates in various practice areas by a summer coordinator, and survey respondents report that they complete 15 or more assignments during the nine-week summer program and typically bill about eight to nine hours a day on work.  One respondent describes the assignments summer associates receive as a mix of “a lot of busy work” and “a decent amount of actual work.”  Summer associates are also encouraged to participate in pro bono work, as well as in its Public Interest’s Visiting Summer Associate Program, in which summer associates work at a pro bono organization for two weeks during the summer program at their full salary.  Survey respondents in the New York office say they are expected to be in the office during normal working hours, usually leave around 6:30 to 7:00 p.m., and that weekend work is uncommon.  The firm provides BlackBerrys, which summer associates are expected to check regularly.  Lunches with attorneys are budgeted at $35 per person, and summer associates typically attend two to three each week.  In addition, social events are held at least once a week and include Broadways shows, dinners, and excursions to regional attractions.  The firm made offers of permanent employment to 71% of its 30-member 2009 summer associate class, and made offers to 95% of its 20-member 2010 summer class.  Half of the incoming Class of 2009 associates at Chadbourne & Parke were “deferred indefinitely;” however, they received a $13,000 stipend in the Fall of 2009 and an additional $60,000 stipend in February 2010.  In March 2010, the firm revoked the offers of 11 deferred associates, explaining that its “most recent near-term projections led [the firm] to conclude that [it] could not justify increasing the first-year class beyond its current size.”