Law Student Recruitment Season Moves Earlier And Earlier As Firms Search For Summer Talent

Following up on my previous post (links below): ABA Journal, Recruitment Season Is Moving Up As Firms Search For Summer Talent:

It’s long been a rite of passage.

Just before their 2L year, law students don their best suits and nervously sit for on-campus interviews with potential employers for that summer’s positions. Then they wait to see which offers come in, weighing each carefully before taking the step that could set up their entire career.

Not surprisingly, post-COVID-19, many in-person on-campus interviews have been replaced by Zoom conversations.

But what’s startling to those in academia is how the start of recruitment season for both 1L and 2L summer opportunities keeps creeping forward. In fact, students increasingly have offers for 2L summer positions before spring arrives during their 1L year, and outreach by firms sometimes starts just after students receive their acceptance into law school, they say.

Recruiting changes have been especially fast and furious the past two years.

“I don’t know that any of us at law schools have figured out how to do it,” says Patricia Roberts, dean of St. Mary’s School of Law. “This has been happening so quickly, and it just moves up further and further and further.”

For students, securing a summer job offer—especially when facing mounting student loan debt—can feel all-important. …

Historically, first-year students were intentionally kept out of career services until Oct. 15 and did not talk to potential employers until December, based on the National Association for Legal Placement’s voluntary recommendations. …

But in 2018, NALP dropped its guidelines in order to “support flexibility and encourage innovation” in entry-level recruiting, according to a memo to members. Timing guidelines for advising and recruiting first-year students were scrapped, and law schools and law firms were free to create their own policies. …

Deadlines for accepting a 2L summer offer over the past few years have shifted too. Twenty years ago, students had several months to decide on an offer and could entertain other options. Now decisions must be made within 21, 14 or sometimes seven days, according to people interviewed by the ABA Journal. The quicker time frame helps a law firm get a firm grip on their class size at an earlier date, says Menes, who adds she is “liberal with extensions” if students have other interviews lined up.

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