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.
New hiring methods
The change in recruiting efforts has affected all aspects of hiring, says David Torosyan, human resources and payroll manager at J&Y Law in Los Angeles. Now that the markets have slowed and firms have realized how much they over-hired in previous years, they’re now adjusting staffing levels to be more sustainable.
The latest NALP report, released in March, finds that direct applications from graduates and early interview programs have been gaining traction, and 78% of offers are being made before August.
“The majority of offers resulted from employers recruiting outside of law school interview programs, such as via direct application, resume collects and referrals,” Gray said in a statement. “The pandemic-era shifts in technology and hiring practices facilitated direct engagement between employers and law students, without law schools being required as intermediaries, and gave law firms greater flexibility in crafting their recruiting strategies.”
And instead of relying on the traditional on-campus interviews, they’re doing more direct recruiting—chatting via virtual interviews that can happen at any time, reaching out to students earlier and making offers before the usual recruiting season even starts, Torosyan says. Some firms are even making offers in the spring of a last student’s first year because they want to lock in top candidates before their competitors even have a chance, Torosyan says.
“It’s gotten very competitive behind the scenes, but the net result is fewer open spots overall for summer associates,” he says. “The slowdown is very real.”
In 2024, 78% of offers for full employment occurred before August, compared with 45% in 2023, the NALP study finds.
Monica Uddin, hiring partner for AZA Law in Houston, says she doesn’t believe the result is a positive one. The unchecked push by Big Law firms to move recruiting earlier and earlier in the academic year results in summer associates who know less about the firms they wind up at, and less about the practice groups they’re signing up for, she says.
“This leads to worse-equipped and worse-performing summer associates than [the industry has] ever had before,” Uddin says.
High turnover in early-career associates predictably follow, leading to hesitation by the firms to hire the next batch of summer associates.
Technology also is having an impact. Many new attorneys prioritize hybrid or remote work arrangements, but these can make it challenging to provide the hands-on mentorship and training that’s crucial in various practice areas, says Elizabeth Carazolez, director of management at CaseyGerry Trial Lawyers in San Diego. At the same time, the legal industry experienced a notable wave of retirements during and after COVID-19, leading to the loss of seasoned attorneys. This created a gap where the work, especially in litigation-focused fields, requires a certain level of practical experience to ensure success, she says.
“As a result, firms are becoming more selective, often seeking candidates with some demonstrated case-handling ability or courtroom exposure to maintain the quality and efficiency clients expect,” Carazolez says.
This may be an attempt to curb the associate attrition rate, which was 20% in 2024, up from 18% in 2023, according to the NALP Foundation.
Other options
Firms prefer to hire people they already know—people who have spent the summer working with their team, learning their systems and fitting into the culture, Torosyan says. But they’re not the only roads to a job, especially in this economy.
If you didn’t receive a summer associate offer, you’ll have to be more productive. This could mean judicial clerkships, fellowships and networking, Torosyan says.
You’ll also need to understand what law firms want, as the definition of what makes a great candidate is evolving, he says.
“Academic performance is still important, but firms are looking for more than just grades now,” Torosyan says. “They want people who show they can hit the ground running, candidates who’ve done clinics, internships or something practical, not just classroom work.”
To stand-out, applicants should highlight any real world problem solving they’ve done, leadership roles, published writing and experience with emerging areas like data privacy, AI regulation or crypto law, where client demand is growing quickly, says Anthony May, the founder at Need An Attorney, an AI-powered attorney matching service.
“There’s been a rise in project-based work, contract roles and a greater willingness to hire non-traditional candidates who can deliver results,” he says.
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