ABA Journal, Didn’t Get a Summer Associate Offer? You’re Not Alone:
Law students hoping to land a coveted law firm spot post-graduation are facing a changing job market. The traditional summer associate role is no longer a direct route to a job. Instead, law firms are finding new recruiting strategies.
According to a new report by the National Association for Law Placement, U.S. law firms slashed summer associate hiring in 2024 to its lowest level since 1993, issuing a median of just six offers per office. That’s a drop from last year’s median of seven offers per office—a number that, at the time, represented the lowest figure since 1993. The firms, grappling with a wildly uncertain economy, are shifting focus to hiring experienced attorneys rather than investing in training new graduates.
The findings are based on the 2024 recruiting cycle of students who are expected to participate in the 2025 summer programs and graduate in 2026, explains Nikia Gray, executive director of NALP in Washington, D.C.
Firms are reeling after pandemic hiring surges in 2021 and 2022, causing overstaffing issues. Combined with slower client demand, this has led to more conservative summer associate hiring, Gray says.
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