Job Searches, Summer Associates

Orrick is Recruiting Again

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Back in July, Orrick told people exactly what it was going to do regarding recruiting for its 2010 summer program. Here is the crucial part of Orrick’s July announcement:

[W]e believe it would be irresponsible to recruit a class for the summer of 2010 – a class that would normally join us in late 2011 or early 2012, the same time our current class of summer associates would be joining us after the one year deferral – until we know how many of our 2009 summer associates accept their one-year deferred offers. We need to prioritize the interests of our current Orrick summer associates over the law students whom we have not yet met and who would otherwise be competing for the same positions.
For these reasons we have decided to shift our on-campus recruiting efforts from the normal time-frame to November 15, 2009 through March of 2010. After the November 15th NALP deadline, we will know how many of our current summer associates accept their deferred offers, and we will be able to better assess our needs for recruiting 2L associates for a 2010 summer program. We expect to reach out to 2L and possibly 1L students during this shifted time frame to meet our summer 2010 recruiting needs.

Well, we’re getting pretty close to November 15th. And Orrick has been placing recruiting ads at a law school near you. But some Above the Law tipsters are surprised that Orrick is doing exactly what Orrick said it would do:

I assumed that was BS though and figured it was just a way to avoid saying they weren’t recruiting at all. Given how things are going, why would they basically go to recruit fromt the bottom half of the class?

You know, when this whole recession is over, we are going to need to have some trust building exercises between firm management and employees.
Orrick didn’t lie back in July. They really are recruiting. Check it out after the jump.


Here’s the recruiting ad from Orrick’s D.C. office:

Title: 2L Summer Associates in Washington, DC
Description: The Washington, D.C. office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is seeking applicants for our 2010 Summer Program. We are looking for second-year law students with grades in the top 33% of their class. We consider other factors, including Law Review, Moot Court participation, student activities and previous work experience. We also take into consideration attributes we believe are important in the practice of law, such as leadership ability, independence, poise and maturity. The weight given to any one factor varies with each application.

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One tipster wonders if Orrick is setting its standards a little high:

They’re 33% guideline essentially is saying were looking only for people who have already accepted offers.

Well, you know, maybe Orrick doesn’t care if people have accepted offers elsewhere.
But it’s more likely that Orrick expects that there are 2Ls running around in the top third of their class that do not have offers yet. We are in a recession after all.
Earlier: Breaking: Orrick Overhauls On-Campus Recruiting
Should 2Ls Accept All of Their Offers to The Detriment of Fellow Students

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