Dear 1L,

Law-school recruiting is in crisis.

I’m trying to create a timeline to give current 1Ls some perspective. I hope it will ease some anxiety.

Please tell me what you’re hearing and seeing so I can modify and recirculate:

🔷 HISTORICALLY

NALP (the National Association for Law Placement, Inc.) imposed strict rules for law firms & law schools on recruiting for 2L summer jobs.

—It was only AFTER the 1L academic year that students had to worry about finding a job for 2L summer.

—Law schools collected students’ applications and created an orderly process for students to secure first-round interviews.

—At a formal, on-campus interview program (OCI) that occured around the last week of July (after 1L), law firms sent representatives to law schools to conduct in-person, screening interviews.

{ —I conducted these interviews for a BigLaw firm a a T14 between 2010 and 2013. }

—Students who succeed in a screening interview were invited to visit the firm for a half-day, in-person interview, after which job offers were declined or extended, and students had until a specific date to get back to the firm.

🔷 2019

NALP got legal advice: what it’d been doing might violate antitrust rules.

NALP stopped regulating the process.

🔷 2020

Pandemic pandemonium. Summer OCI canceled.

Students and firms started fending for themselves.

👉 ENTER LinkedIn

🔷 2021-2022

Law schools tried to continue the former process, and late-July OCI resumed, but with the initial, screening interviews taking place virtually.

🔷 Summer 2023

“Pre-cruiting” is born. Top students and firms hold a June OCI, with a late-July OCI, too.

🔷 Fall 2023

BigLaw starts having “meet-and-greet” dinners with 1Ls in October!

BigLaw starts hiring 1L summer associates—NOT just for “diversity.”

🔷 CURRENTLY

BigLaw stops involving law schools as much: firms tell 1Ls to apply directly through firm websites.

1Ls can’t even find 1L summer jobs, but now they are supposed to apply for 2L summer jobs?

👉 Anxiety and chaos abounds.

***
Too dramatic? Not really.

This is what I’m seeing.
This is what students are telling me.
This is what law-school career counselors are telling me.

What are you seeing and hearing?

What can I do to help?

Thank you for your support and any new information. 🙏🏻

💌 Amanda

#Dear1L