Latest news with #ErikaGardiner
Reuters
17-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Top law schools move up summer associate job interviews to May and June
April 17 (Reuters) - Nearly all elite U.S. law schools have pushed up their formal law firm interviewing programs to May and June this year, as law firms increasingly hire summer associates earlier and outside of traditional recruiting schedules. The shift – from July and August to May and June – means that some law firm interview programs, commonly referred to as on-campus recruiting or OCI, will take place before firms have a full year of a candidate's grades to consider. Major law firms recruit law students to work as summer associates following their second year of law school, which is typically a three-year program. Summer associate interviews, as of now held in May and June, also mean that law students will have less time to weigh long-term career decisions and may be interviewing with firms as they begin summer internships that follow their first year of law school. The majority of summer associates become full-time associates at those firms once they graduate. This year, Stanford Law School will kick off the OCI season on May 5, with Duke Law School; the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; and Georgetown University Law Center running their OCI programs later that month. The law schools at Yale, Harvard, the University of Chicago and Columbia are among those holding their OCI in June. Just a handful of T-14 schools are still holding OCI in July this year, but most of them are also offering 'preview' interview programs in May or June to give firms earlier access to students. Erika Gardiner, director of talent acquisition for law students and associates at McDermott Will & Emery, predicted that the earlier timeline will encourage more firms to participate in OCI than last year. Last year, all but two of U.S. News & World Report's top 14-ranked law schools — which supply the bulk of summer associates to large law firms — held their primary law firm recruiting programs in July or August. Stanford and Yale's law schools were the exception, shifting their programs up to June in 2024. The summer associate interview schedule has steadily been moving to earlier in the year for law students. A decade ago, major law firms conducted almost all of their summer associate recruiting during the fall of students' second year. OCI steadily inched into August and late July, partly to avoid overlap with fall classes but also in response to elite law firms hiring a growing number of summer associates ahead of formal recruiting programs — a phenomenon known as "precruiting." In 2022, 23% of all law firms summer associate offers came outside of formal OCI programs, according to the National Association for Law Placement. By 2024, that figure was 56%. Recruiting ahead of OCI "has proven necessary in order to continue to secure top talent," Gardiner said. A 'critical mass' of firms indicated that they would start recruiting in April and May, prior to the release of first-year grades, Stanford Law School's career services office wrote in a March 24 email to employers explaining the change. 'Rather than leave our students to navigate this shifting landscape on their own through direct applications, we've made the strategic decision to move our OCI program earlier,' the letter reads. In an October letter to law firms, Georgetown Law said it 'reluctantly' moved OCI to May but that the shift was a 'necessary move in light of recent market changes.' That change aims to restore balance and structure to the recruiting process, it added, while noting that firms' spring recruiting has placed added pressures on first-year law students and prompted some to forgo opportunities such as trying out for law journals. 'We believe there is no perfect solution to the recruiting mess we all find ourselves in,' the Georgetown letter reads. Yale, Stanford yield to summer associate recruitment 'creep'. Other top law schools resist, for now.
Reuters
11-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US law firms chopped summer associate jobs to record low and recruited earlier than ever, report shows
March 11 (Reuters) - Law firm summer associate hiring hit an all-time low in 2024, as firms took a "conservative" recruiting approach, according to the National Association for Law Placement. The total number of summer associate offers was down slightly compared with the 11-year low of 2023, while the median number of summer associate offers per law firm office fell to six in 2024 from seven in 2023 — the lowest since NALP began tracking that figure in 1993. The average number of summer associate offers, which law firms made to second-year law students, held steady at 22. The number of summer associate offers tracked by NALP indicates that the hiring market has not rebounded from last year's slump. U.S. law firms have focused their recent hiring efforts on experienced laterals and reduced their summer associate and associate hiring amid uncertain demand and declining lawyer productivity, a January report from the Thomson Reuters Institute found. The institute shares a parent company with Reuters. Additionally, firms are still adjusting to a hiring surge in 2021 and 2022, fueled by a spike in demand for legal services as the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane, that left them overstaffed, said NALP executive director Nikia Gray. The lower summer associate hiring comes at a time when law firm profits are strong but client demand is slowing. The new NALP figures, which focus on hiring practices at more than 180 law firms, also show that traditional on-campus interviews are no longer the primary vehicle for summer associate hiring and that law firms are locking down those hires earlier than ever to compete for the best recruits. More than half of this year's incoming summer associates (56%) received their offers outside of law schools' formal recruiting events, through either direct recruiting, referrals or resume collections. That's up from 47% in 2023. This year, only 24% of summer associate offers came through on-campus interviews conducted in mid- to late summer. Another 20% of offers were extended through early interview programs, which are a relatively new type of recruiting event put on by law schools in spring or early summer to get students in front of law firms prior to OCIs. The new data offers further evidence that summer associate hiring is earlier and more decentralized than ever. The shift to online interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic made it easier for law firms to connect with students outside of formal interviewing programs, the report notes. Previously, law firms would come to law school campuses in late July and August for in-person interviews. NALP also did away with its voluntary recruiting guidelines in 2018, giving law firms more flexibility in how they hire law students. Shifting to earlier recruiting "has proven necessary in order to continue to secure top talent," said Erika Gardiner, McDermott Will & Emery's director of talent acquisition for law students and associates.
