Biglaw, Law Schools

Attention Law Students: First-Year Associate Hiring Set To Increase At Law Firms

Maybe you don't need to be so worried about finding a job after all!

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‘Woohoo, I got a job!’

On a scale of “¯\_(ツ)_/¯” to “holy hell, I’ll never be able to pay off all these loans,” how worried are you about finding a job after graduation? Maybe you don’t need to be quite so apprehensive, because according to a new survey, first-year hiring is about to pick up at law firms across the country, both big and small.

Robert Half Legal conducted telephone interviews of lawyers with law firms in the United States and Canada, and after speaking with 175 respondents with hiring authority within their firm, discovered that nearly a quarter of them (22 percent) intended to increase hiring of first-year associates next year.

Here’s some additional information from the Am Law Daily:

In a sign of overall confidence across the industry, two-thirds of lawyers said that their firms hiring plans for the next 12 months were unchanged, despite challenging market conditions, while just 7 percent of lawyers said their firm would decrease the number of spaces for first-year associates.

Robert Half executive director Jamy Sullivan said that firms are looking to staff up in high-growth practice areas such as litigation, commercial law and real estate. …

The results broadly coincide with those of a report released earlier this summer by Citi Private Bank, which found an overall rise in confidence among U.S. law firm leaders and a likelihood of increased associate roles across the market.

(Table via Robert Half Legal)

While two percent of firms want to increase their first-year hiring “significantly,” we’re a little concerned that seven percent of firms will either be decreasing their first-year hiring “somewhat” or “significantly” within the next 12 months. Perhaps they know something about future market conditions for the legal industry that the rest of us don’t.

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With that cautionary note having been sounded, who are the law students most likely to be hired? Sullivan said that “[n]ew associates who were ranked at the top of their law school class and possess in-demand attributes such as technology proficiency, business acumen, interpersonal abilities and team collaboration skills are highly marketable.”

Best of luck out there, law students! We hope that you’ll be able to find your dream job now that opportunities are increasing.

One-Quarter Of Law Firms To Expand First-Year Associate Hiring [Robert Half Legal]
First-Year Associate Jobs Set For Slight Rise, Survey Finds [Am Law Daily]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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