As recruitment for BigLaw summer jobs moves up, impact hits 1Ls hard, study finds
As recruitment for the prized BigLaw summer associate positions has moved up, often to the first year of law school, it’s having an impact on law students—and it’s not good.
In a survey released Thursday, the Law School Admission Council and the National Association for Law Placement found that the timeline shift negatively affected 55.5% of students’ first-year experience as they face increased pressure to land a job while adjusting to the demands of law school.
The survey, which measured responses from more than 2,000 1Ls from 196 law schools in October, found some students might be excluded from the hiring process. Only a quarter of responding 1Ls knew about BigLaw’s recruitment timelines before starting law school. Men, continuing-generation college graduates, younger students, full-time students, and students at highly selective law schools were more likely to know, exposing that those with stronger institutional support and personal networks were ahead of the game.
“These findings should give the profession pause,” Nikia Gray, NALP executive director, wrote in the report. “The first year of law school is foundational to students’ academic development, professional identity formation and well-being. Yet the accelerated pace of BigLaw recruiting is reshaping that experience in ways that undermine each of those goals while risking the exclusion of talented students who lack early access to information, networks or guidance.”
Securing a summer associate job is often key to landing a full-time position later. Typically about 96% to 98% of summer associates receive offers for post-graduation employment, according to the report.
In June 2025, the ABA Journal first reported on the fast and furious pace of recruitment that shifted from just before the students’ 2L year to as early as during the 1L year, with some outreach starting just after students receive acceptance into law school.
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 NALP’s voluntary recommendations. Law schools organized on-campus recruitment events for the fall of students’ second year.
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.
Then, in 2020, the pandemic inspired a seismic shift to online interviews, avoiding the time and costs of flying interviewers around the country, bypassing career services and controlling the timing of interviews to be convenient for the law firms.
That encouraged direct and early contact without involving the schools’ career services offices. Some recruiters now reach out regarding 1L summer jobs before the students even start law school.
“Ideally, from a developmental standpoint, recruiting for postgraduate legal employment would take place after the completion of three semesters of law school, allowing the majority of law students to have adjusted to law school and hit their stride with the entire first-year curriculum as well as 1L summer employment experience and a full semester of upper-division elective courses under their belts,” wrote James Leipold, LSAC senior advisor, in a June 3 blog post.
The timeline shift has been contentious. In January, leaders of 18 student organizations from top law schools wrote to the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar protesting the high-speed timelines for employment recruiting at law schools.
While the student leaders supported the employers’ enthusiasm to find top talent, “the accelerated timelines have also begun to undermine legal education, student and staff well-being and the recruitment market,” according to their Jan. 1 letter.
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