For the past few years, law student recruitment for summer associate programs has been incredibly successful, harkening back to a time when law students quickly accepted the offers that Biglaw firms handed out like candy. Amid an unprecedented cash rush for associates and high demand for legal services, the 2021 recruitment cycle was no different — offers were plentiful, and acceptance of those offers was even higher. Things are going smashingly well in the Biglaw sphere when it comes to recruitment.
According to the latest recruiting figures from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), offer rates from Biglaw summer programs remained close to historic highs, with 97% of second-year law students receiving offers for full-time employment as associates after graduation. Acceptances of those offers reached an all-time, historic high of 89%. What’s even more exciting is that this historic acceptance rate is significantly higher than acceptance rates measured before the Great Recession, which tended to hover between 73 to 77 percent.
Here’s what James Leipold, NALP’s executive director, had to say:
“Law firms have been scrambling for talent at both the lateral and entry levels. As a result, recruiting activity in 2021 was robust, with offer rates for summer spots reaching their highest mark since 2007. … The pandemic has changed some of the methodologies of the law firm recruitment process, but it has not dampened any of the competition. The OCI screening interview process is likely to remain virtual, or at least partially so, and 2L recruiting is likely to continue to happen early and fast. For 1Ls, recruiting is also likely to be robust, particularly for diversity fellowships, and with a little luck, the renewed energy around 3L recruiting will remain for some time.”
But don’t get too excited, because Leipold cautions that this isn’t likely to last forever. “Tempering that fairly rosy picture is the inevitable boom and bust cycle of law firm profitability,” he said. “This hot talent market will inevitably cool, one way or another.”
Here are some interesting facts about the summer programs of 2021:
- What with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, 60% of law firms held a hybrid summer program with a mix of both in-person and virtual programming, while 28% held an entirely virtual program. Just 12% of firms held an entirely in-person program.
- The average summer program class size in 2021 was 12, up from 11 in 2020. Let’s not forget that the average summer program class size was 13 in 2019, and it had previously been flat at 14 from 2016 to 2018. (Compare this to the history of summer programs at the biggest of Biglaw firms (700+ lawyers), where summer class sizes have continuously fallen since 2016 (from 22 in 2016 to 20 in 2017 and so on).)
- For 1Ls who worked as summer associates, offer rates for a second summer at their firms were also history, at an all-time high of 93%, with an acceptance rate of 72%. According to firms, more than half (55%) of 1L summers were diversity fellows.
Congratulations to all law students who went through the entry-level recruitment cycle in 2021, as things seem to have worked out marvelously for them, no matter how much the pandemic may have tried to interfere. Let’s be thankful that a new generation of associates wasn’t lost thanks to COVID.
Robust Entry-level Law Firm Recruiting Activity Reflects Broader Competition for Legal Talent [NALP]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
