From Eric Killelea, Big Law’s Pushy Recruiting Pressures First-Semester Students, Bloomberg Law, November 25, 2025.
The biggest law firms’ intensive recruiting of first-year students has spread to smaller rivals, with some making offers even before first-semester grades are in.
* * * *
The recruiting calendar for coveted summer associate positions—the most common path to the lucrative world of Big Law—became frenzied in recent years as the biggest law firms abandoned the traditional on-campus interview process in favor of direct applications. The approach has now spread to smaller firms that rank among the 100 biggest by revenue, Heaviside said.
Firms across the spectrum increasingly use so-called “jumbo offers,” which lock in students for two summers. The move has increased pressure on them to make decisions while barely into their legal industry sojourn.
For earlier coverage, Christine Charnosky, How Law Students Are Navigating Early Recruitment, Law.com, August 18, 2025; see also Debra Cassen Weins, Davis Polk Will Pay $25K Stipend to 2027 Summer Associates ‘Giving Back’ in Summer 2026, ABA Journal, November 13, 2025 (“The so-called ‘talent wars’ are not getting any less intense, and firms are seeking to recruit top talent, at all levels, earlier.”).
