Early Big Law Hiring Sparks Student Backlash Over Pressure and Disruption

Large US law firms are rushing to hire future lawyers for highly paid positions almost as soon as students set foot on law school campus, sparking a backlash among many students.

A little over half of first-year law students — 56 per cent — said that accelerated large firm recruitment timelines for summer associate positions had a negative impact on their first year of study, according to a new survey of more than 2,000 students conducted last autumn by the Law School Admission Council and the National Association for Law Placement.

The verdict was even stronger among students aspiring to work at large firms, with 67 per cent of first-years reporting a negative impact on their law school experience due to early recruitment. Just 4 per cent reported a positive impact.

Students said keeping up with the first-year recruitment race affected their ability to prioritise academic work and focus on career planning, and made it harder to balance competing priorities, according to the survey released on Thursday.

“Balancing networking and applying to positions with 1L coursework is very difficult,” one student wrote. “Someone stop them from doing this again because it sucks, and nobody can actually focus on learning.”

Summer associate positions, which typically occur after the second year of law school, are the primary pipeline to lucrative full-time associate jobs at big firms after graduation. Summer associates earn the same monthly pay as first-year associates — $225,000 annually at most large US firms, with some paying even more.

Hiring for these positions, which historically took place prior to or early in law students’ second year, has crept earlier over the past decade as firms compete to secure students they perceive as top prospects. The process accelerated further after the pandemic, when online interviews allowed firms to bypass traditional campus programmes.

The survey is the first to examine how accelerated hiring is affecting law students and how they are receiving information about the rapidly changing recruitment process, according to the researchers. Even students with no aspiration to work at large law firms said the sped-up timeline had added stress and pressure on campus.

“This tells us that the accelerated recruitment timeline is dramatically reshaping the entire law school experience in ways that are detrimental to all students in their academic development, their professional identity formation, and their well-being,” said NALP executive director Nikia Gray.

The survey also suggested that uneven awareness of the early timeline could further concentrate hiring among already privileged and well-connected students who understand the process and prepare in advance.

Awareness of the accelerated hiring timeline was higher among male students, those attending the most selective quarter of law schools, and students with college-educated parents. It was lowest among first-generation graduates, students at the least selective quarter of institutions, and Pell Grant recipients, the report found.

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