This summer, Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger welcomed six law students from leading Bay Area law schools to its 2026 Summer Associate Program. The program is designed to expose students to the actual practice of law. Summer associates work alongside accomplished trial attorneys on active cases and see firsthand what it means to advocate for a client.

Throughout the summer, the associates received one-on-one mentoring, attended skill-building workshops led by firm attorneys, and learned directly from lawyers with decades of courtroom experience. They worked in a collaborative environment where the client’s story sits at the center of every case.

In video interviews, the six summer associates reflected on their time at Walkup and what they learned. Here is some of what they had to say:

Gerardo Hernandez | Santa Clara University School of Law

“Any attorney you talk to is very open. They have an open-door policy. I would recommend this program to anyone who was interested in personal injury.”

Lily Loftis | UC Law San Francisco

“The passion that you see in this firm is something that you don’t see—but you see it here in the work that they do. And that motivates me and would motivate anyone to want to continue.”

Patrick McMahon | UC Law San Francisco

“I feel like I’ve learned more this summer than I have in any class in law school.”

“I worked on a variety of cases and was exposed to a bunch of different aspects of litigation.”

Max Rosgen | University of San Francisco School of Law

“I got so much experience looking into the day-to-day operations that go into handling a plaintiff’s case in California.”

Brett Sachs | Stanford Law School

“Being able to learn about and understand people’s stories, work on their cases and give them hopefully satisfaction in the courtroom and also interpersonally has been tremendously rewarding.”

Samantha Tran | UC Berkeley Law

“My experience here at the firm this summer was really empowering. This summer has really opened my eyes to how the field of personal injury can really seek justice on behalf of so many different kinds of people experiencing so many different kinds of harms.”