Biglaw

Biglaw Summer Programs Continue To Shrink, With 43 Percent Of Firms Making Fewer Offers

Should law students start freaking out about their future employment prospects?

By  
on

You’re probably going to need a magnifying glass to see this tiny summer class.

Biglaw recruitment at law schools for entry-level positions remained steady last year, but summer associate class sizes shrunk and fewer offers were handed out, indicating that law firm growth efforts may have finally petered out in the wake of the recession’s toll on attorney headcount at firms across the country.

According to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), Biglaw recruiting levels are now on par with what they were prior to 2009 when the economy gave way and the legal profession lost its footing. “Recruiting numbers were mostly flat compared to last year,” said NALP executive director James Leipold, “and in some cases we saw some pulling back, particularly at the largest firms, suggesting that the most recent period of growth has ended.”

The American Lawyer has some additional details on NALP’s latest survey:

[T]he survey found that for the second year in a row the aggregate summer offer volume decreased compared to the year prior. Forty-three percent of law firms that responded to NALP’s surveys said that they had made fewer offers for the 2018 summer programs than they did for 2017 summer programs. As a whole, offices in New York City made fewer offers for summer programs while Silicon Valley remained flat.

In addition, the survey found that the average summer program class size at the nation’s largest law firms also dipped in 2017. For firms with more than 700 lawyers, the average summer class fell to 20 in 2017 from 22 in 2016.

Just last month, Leipold referred to Biglaw’s shrinking summer class sizes as a “meaningful dip in recruiting.” Should law students start freaking out about their future employment prospects? Not quite yet.

It may be a little harder to get a Biglaw job right now, but Leipold says that “[a]bsent a dramatic economic interruption of some sort, the picture for law firm recruiting is not likely to change dramatically in the short term.” In case you’ve forgotten, Biglaw salary increases are pretty great predictors of economic downturns, so cross your fingers that we aren’t headed for another recession before you get a job.

Sponsored

And in the event that’s exactly where this economy is headed, cross your fingers that you don’t get laid off right after you do get that coveted Biglaw job. Best of luck!

Law Firm Recruitment Activity Steady, But Summer Programs Shrink [American Lawyer]

Earlier: The Incredible Shrinking Summer Associate Class

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, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , , ,