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

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 23:15:19 +0000

Careers

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

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. Image from Shutterstock.

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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New Jersey bar can reserve positions for members of underrepresented groups, appeals court says

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 03:23:35 +0000

First Amendment

New Jersey bar can reserve positions for members of underrepresented groups, appeals court says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 23, 2024, 2:22 pm CST

A state appeals court has ruled that the New Jersey State Bar Association has a First Amendment right to expressive association that would be violated if forced to change a diversity program for leadership positions. (Image from Shutterstock)

The New Jersey State Bar Association has a First Amendment right to expressive association that would be violated if forced to change a diversity program for leadership positions, a state appeals court has ruled.

The Superior Court of New Jersey’s Appellate Division ruled Dec. 20 against Rajeh A. Saadeh in his lawsuit alleging that the program violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.

Law360 has coverage.

The diversity program reserves 13 out of 94 leadership positions in the bar for members of certain underrepresented groups. Saadeh is a Palestinian Muslim American attorney who was not eligible for the positions.

The bar association had maintained that it had a First Amendment right to select leaders consistent with its values regarding diversity in the legal profession. The appeals court agreed.

Requiring the New Jersey State Bar Association to change or eliminate its program would “significantly burden the expression of its views, thus running afoul of the association’s First Amendment right of expressive association,” the appeals court said.

The appeals court cited the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, which held that the Scouts had a First Amendment right of expressive association that protected its decision to oust an openly gay assistant scoutmaster.

“Applying Dale to the undisputed facts in this record establishes beyond peradventure that the bar association qualifies as an expressive association, and that compelling it to end its practice of ensuring the presence of designated underrepresented groups in its leadership would unconstitutionally infringe its ability to advocate the value of diversity and inclusivity in the association and more broadly in the legal profession,” the appeals court said.

The appeals court did not decide whether the program amounted to unlawful discrimination because of the First Amendment holding.

A trial judge had ruled that the diversity program was a “quota system” that violated the law.

Saadeh “will promptly seek correction” of the appellate decision, Lindsay McKillop, his lawyer, told Law360.

The New Jersey State Bar Association applauded the decision in a Dec. 20 press release.

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