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On-campus recruiting for summer associates falls in popularity as law firms ‘jockey for positions’

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 13, 2025, 12:44 pm CDT

On-campus interviewing by law firms has “firmly tumbled from its place of prominence” in the recruiting of summer associates, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Association for Law Placement.

In 2023, on-campus interviewing was the most popular recruiting method for summer 2024 programs for second-year law students, with 93% of surveyed law offices reporting that they used on-campus interviewing, according to a summary by the NALP Bulletin. By the next year, direct application became the most popular method, used by 91% of offices.

In 2024, 56% of offers for summer 2025 2L programs were made outside a law school interview program. Only 24% came from on-campus interviews, and only 20% came from early interview programs through law schools.

Nikia Gray, the executive director of the NALP, commented on the findings in a March 11 press release.

“We now know from the data,” she said, “that the market is coalescing around direct recruiting and other non-law-school-based recruiting practices as being the preferred methods—or at least the most necessary—to compete for talent.”

On-campus interviewing, she said, “is taking a secondary or even tertiary role, used only to top off or round out summer associate classes as needed.”

The offer timeline has also changed. In the 2023 recruiting cycle, August was still the most popular offer month, accounting for 52% of all offers. In 2024, however, July was most popular, accounting for 45% of offers; followed by June, with 30% of offers; and August, with 20% of offers.

The changes are happening “as competing firms jockey for positions in an increasingly tight hiring market,” according to the report.

The report also found that 97% of 2024 second-year associates received offers to become associates after graduation. Offer acceptance rates reached an all-time high of 90%.

A total of 549 law offices reported information on their 2024 summer programs.

Publications covering the report, Perspectives on 2024 Law Student Recruiting, include Law.com, Law360 and Reuters.

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