Interview process
Bates White’s official Summer Consultant page provides a two-round structure. The first round is virtual and combines traditional interview questions with a case. The second round is virtual or in-person in Washington, D.C. and includes behavioral interviews plus another case. [BW3]
More details
The firm says the interview process is designed both for Bates White to learn about the candidate and for the candidate to understand the work, environment and culture. It publishes case-interview tips and an example case. [BW3]
Preparation should therefore combine economics and communication. Practice structuring a question, interpreting a data table, performing clean math and stating what the result means. Prepare detailed behavioral examples about research, teamwork, deadlines and feedback.
Pay & location
Compensation And Work Authorization
The same mirror states that candidates must be able to work legally in the U.S. without sponsorship now or in the future and that Bates White does not provide work-visa sponsorship for incoming Consultants. Because this is a current-cycle mirror rather than text retrieved from Bates White’s own ATS, it should be directly revalidated before relying on those terms. [BW7]
The role description also references a sign-on bonus. Exact amount and conditions should be confirmed in the employer application or offer rather than inferred.
Is it a fit?
Fit and trade-offs
Bates White is a strong fit for students who want economic consulting in a smaller, concentrated firm with a Washington-based community and strong antitrust, finance, healthcare and energy exposure.
Geography. Washington, D.C. is the center of the undergraduate program. Students wanting New York, Boston, California or multiple-office choice may prefer Analysis Group, Cornerstone, CRA, NERA or Brattle.
Firm size. A smaller firm can give direct senior exposure and community, but project selection and progression can depend more heavily on staffing networks.
Deadline-driven work. Litigation and expert work can create unpredictable hours. Candidates should ask about peak weeks and how workload is managed for interns.
Long-run specialization. The role is excellent preparation for economic consulting, antitrust, litigation, law or graduate study but less direct for product or operating careers.
Work, teams and company background
Jump to a section
Summer Consultant Program
Bates White’s Summer Consultant Program is explicitly designed for students pursuing bachelor’s or master’s degrees. [BW6] The internship gives students direct economic-consulting work plus a structured cohort program.
Official program materials say interns work on real projects and handle both qualitative and quantitative assignments, including industry research, data analysis and presentations. The separate intern case study requires solving a client challenge end to end, building economic models and presenting findings to senior leadership. [BW3]
Interns receive technical training in Stata, Excel and R, attend seminars on industry trends and connect with mentors and peers. The program also includes lunches with senior leaders, dinners with consultants, cohort activities and volunteer work. [BW3]
This structure is valuable because it combines billable case work with a common learning experience. A student should still ask how much time is spent on client work versus cohort programming and whether practice assignment is determined before arrival.
At a glance
Evidence snapshot: 2026-09-04. This is a dated research summary, not a live vacancy feed.
Program: Summer Consultant program for bachelor’s/master’s students, with client work, technical training and a cohort case. [BW3][BW6]
Locations: Washington, D.C.; mirrored role is labeled hybrid. [BW7]
Routes: Antitrust/competition; commercial litigation/valuation; healthcare disputes; economic data/modeling. [BW2][BW3][BW8–BW10]
Distinctives: Client assignments run alongside a cohort economic case presented to senior leadership. [BW3][BW6]
Prepare: Use the official case guidance, interpret tables and show an independently understood quantitative project. [BW3]
Antitrust And Competition
Bates White’s Antitrust & Competition practice handles merger review, alleged monopolization, anticompetitive conduct and competition-related litigation. Current engagements include work for government agencies and major companies, including recent high-profile technology and merger matters. [BW2][BW8]
Analyst work can involve market research, pricing, demand, competitor analysis, industrial-organization theory, regression, damages and merger evidence. The economic question is often causal: did the conduct affect competition, and if so, by how much?
Students should prepare microeconomics, statistics and empirical reasoning. A good project can analyze competition or pricing in a public market with a clear explanation of alternatives and limitations.
Finance, Valuation And Commercial Disputes
Bates White’s Finance practice includes commercial litigation and business valuation. The current practice description references public and private company valuation, lost profits, financial securities, fixed income, derivatives, options, warrants, swaps and other complex instruments. [BW9]
Finance students should be able to explain valuation methods, financial statements and the economic question behind the model. A number is not persuasive merely because the spreadsheet is sophisticated.
Commercial-dispute work can require a counterfactual: what would earnings, value or cash flow have been absent the disputed event? The candidate should understand sensitivity and evidence.
Healthcare And Life Sciences
Healthcare work at Bates White crosses Antitrust, Finance and a dedicated Healthcare & Life Sciences practice. Current engagements include payer-provider disputes, health-system mergers and pharma or biotech matters. [BW2][BW10]
Students can encounter provider competition, insurer behavior, pharmaceutical markets, reimbursement, policy, damages or transaction analysis. Economics, public health, health policy, statistics, biology and finance can all be useful backgrounds depending on the case.
A strong candidate should be able to translate healthcare complexity into an economic question. For example, a provider merger requires understanding patient choice, geography, insurer networks and market structure rather than only financial size.
Energy
Energy students can bring economics, engineering, policy, finance or data backgrounds. The work can involve regulation, contracts, pricing, markets, damages and policy rather than plant operations.
A strong application project can analyze an electricity or fuel-market question with explicit assumptions and policy or regulatory context.
Mass Torts And Complex Claims
Bates White’s public work includes Mass Torts, bankruptcy-related disputes and large claim populations. [BW2]
Analyst work in this area can involve sampling, claims data, exposure, damages, epidemiological evidence and settlement analysis. Students with statistics, public health or data backgrounds can be particularly relevant.
The analytical discipline is similar to other economic consulting: define the population, build defensible samples, document data and distinguish association from causation.
Before accepting the assignment
Ask how Summer Consultants split time between client cases and the cohort project, and how practice staffing is decided.
Firm and practice model
Bates White describes its work as simplifying complex matters that require sophisticated problem solving and deep empirical analysis. Its professionals provide expert testimony, consulting support and settlement support across competition, energy, finance, mass torts, healthcare and life sciences. [BW4]
The firm’s single Washington headquarters is a material distinction from larger economic-consulting firms with many U.S. offices. A student is choosing a firm and a local professional community at the same time. This can create stronger cohort cohesion and easier access to leaders, but less geographic flexibility.
The practice mix is broad enough to build several distinct analyst profiles. Antitrust work can involve mergers, monopolization and competition litigation. Finance can involve business valuation, complex securities and commercial damages. Healthcare work can overlap with antitrust, reimbursement, litigation and policy. Energy can involve regulation, contracts and market questions. Mass-tort work can require exposure, epidemiology, claims and damages analysis.
The common method is evidence. Analysts research industries, work with large data sets, build models, test economic theories and help expert witnesses or clients communicate conclusions.
Technical Preparation
Bates White’s program explicitly trains Stata, Excel and R. [BW3] Candidates do not need to present themselves as software engineers, but they should be comfortable working with data and learning analytical tools.
A strong proof asset could be an economics research paper, finance analysis, market study or public-data project. The candidate should be able to explain data construction and robustness rather than only the final chart.
Historical example · 2026-09-04
Economics coursework is helpful but Bates White’s historical recruiting materials state that it is not an absolute requirement. The relevant signals are quantitative, analytical and research skill, strong communication, creativity and performance in deadline-driven team environments. [BW12]