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Interview Season Will Start Even Earlier at Harvard Law School

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If we all try really hard, maybe we can get 2L interviewing season to start immediately after 1L finals.

For the second time in three years, Harvard Law School has decided to start it’s early interviewing program (EIP) earlier in the year. But this time they’ve also decided to push back the start of fall classes. The net effect will be that HLS 2Ls will be able to show up on campus in the middle of the summer, interview and have their callback before their classes start.

So this is really an admission from HLS that the old rule that firms would “hold open” a number of summer spots for HLS students is no longer true…

In pertinent part, here is the email from HLS Career Services Dean, Mark Weber:

As you finalize your plans for next summer, I am writing to let you know that our 2011 Early Interview Program (EIP) will take place from August 15 – 19 and classes will begin on September 12, 2011. You will note that EIP is occurring one week earlier and classes are beginning two weeks later than this past year. Click here for a general overview of EIP and law firm hiring.

These changes were made after carefully reviewing the market and consulting with the Dean, students, faculty, employers and senior administrators. This new schedule will allow you to complete your callback interviews during the three week period following EIP and before classes begin on September 12, thus effectively eliminating the need for a flyout week.

We believe these changes will (a) better align the timing of our EIP and the ensuing callback interviews with our peer schools, (b) enhance your employment opportunities, (c) offer you additional flexibility to interview with employers in either August or early September before classes, and (d) provide you with a better learning experience so that you can focus on your coursework without the distraction of interviews during the semester.

This is what happens when you don’t have one broad regulatory organization standardizing the process of attorney recruitment. Many law firm leaders would prefer to hire new associates later in the process, not earlier. Firms will now have to make offers to Harvard students in September of 2011, for hiring needs the firm expects to have as late as January 2014 (to the extent that deferments have become the norm at some firms). That. Is. Insane!

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But schools have every incentive to push interviewing season ever earlier. It is so tough, even at Harvard, for schools to help their students secure the Biglaw jobs so many of them want when they pay $100K or more to go to school for three years. They can’t risk having late interviews. There aren’t enough jobs to go around, and the early bird gets the worm.

The whole process is broken. Not, “in need of some tweaks,” the damn thing is FUBAR. We need of blue ribbon commission of ten deans and ten Biglaw managing partners and we need to lock them in a room until they come up with something that makes sense for everybody. Because right now, the firms aren’t happy, the schools are wreaking havoc with their academic calendars, and the students are still struggling for jobs (and having to come up with an extra month of campus housing and living expenses).

Even the beneficiaries of this system must be able to see that things could be so much better.

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