Big Law’s Pushy Recruiting Pressures First-Semester Students

The biggest law firms’ intensive recruiting of first-year students has spread to smaller rivals, with some making offers even before first-semester grades are in.

The firms are pushing students to decide months into the school year where they will spend their next two summers and likely start full-time legal careers, said Anne Heaviside, a Houston legal recruiter. The firms, who she declined to name, are giving students two weeks or less to respond to offers, she said.

“Those firms are being super aggressive,” Heaviside said in an interview. “It’s insanity,” Elizabeth Bangs, assistant dean for student affairs at The University of Texas School of Law, said in response to Heaviside’s LinkedIn post about the offers.

The recruiting calendar for coveted summer associate positions—the most common path to the lucrative world of Big Law—became frenzied in recent years as the biggest law firms abandoned the traditional on-campus interview process in favor of direct applications. The approach has now spread to smaller firms that rank among the 100 biggest by revenue, Heaviside said.

Firms across the spectrum increasingly use so-called “jumbo offers,” which lock in students for two summers. The move has increased pressure on them to make decisions while barely into their legal industry sojourn.

“First-year students barely even know what type of law they want to do,” said one second-year student at the University of Houston Law Center, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect career prospects. “It almost feels like they’re being boxed in, having to choose a firm that they barely know anything about. It’s a little bit crazy.”

Heaviside said five students in their first semesters at Top 25 law schools told her they received offers for summer associate positions and were given 10 to 14 days to accept. Two took offers, while the others stressed out over whether to accept and be locked out of other opportunities so early in their training. She recommended the students ask for deadline extensions.

Several students from Texas Law and the the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas have already received jumbo offers made only weeks or months into their first semester, according to deans of the schools. Bangs did not respond to requests for comment.

Two-Summer Deals

Leading firms in hotly competitive markets opened applications for first-year students (1Ls) as early as Oct. 1. Some want students to work at the firms in both their first and second (2L) years of law school. Others are offering stipends to those who spend some of the time working for judges or non-profit groups.

“What has happened is that a few firms started offering jumbo packages and making offers super early, and now all of them believe they must follow suit,” said Rebecca Glatzer, a partner with Major, Lindsey & Africa’s recruiting team.

Kirkland & Ellis, the nation’s highest-grossing firm, and Baker Botts are among firms currently recruiting first-year students for their 2027 summer programs. Both firms said they won’t make offers until they see candidates’ first-semester grades.

Jami McKeon, chairperson of Morgan Lewis, said the firm is “absolutely” recruiting students before their first exams. “That’s what the market is right now, so you have to do it,” she said.

Brandon Renken, a partner at Mayer Brown in Houston, said the recruitment climate is a product of “classic capitalist market forces.” He said he told students at Texas Law, his alma mater, not to let firms bully them into hard-set application deadlines.

‘You Have to Do It’

Attorneys, recruiters, and law school deans highlighted pros and cons for early offers. Associate salaries at Kirkland, Baker Botts and other Big Law firms start at $225,000. Lawyers who eventually make equity partnerships at large firms can see seven- or eight-figure annual profit shares.

“You literally may have just secured yourself a permanent job in your first year,” said Heaviside, the founder of Upperline Legal. “The downside is that 1Ls don’t know enough to decide what they want to practice, and they really don’t know enough about the landscape of law firms.”

Most firms followed guidelines from the National Association for Law Placement, preventing employers from approaching 1Ls until Dec. 1 of the previous year. But NALP in 2018 eased its guidelines due to antitrust litigation, scrapping the engagement ban and a 28-day decision window, and the pandemic shifted on-campus interviews to virtual two years later.

Firms in 2024 began recruiting 1Ls as early as November, with some making jumbo offers. Although firms hired a small number of 1Ls, they made the effort “to build relationships with law students” they wanted to recruit for 2L positions, said Katherine Allen, CEO of the Austin-based software and development firm Flo Recruit.

‘Feeding Frenzy’

Law schools are scrambling to guide first-year students through the recruitment process.

“The challenge for the schools is that we want to protect the students while also not keeping them from any opportunities that they could get,” said Tiffany Tucker, assistant dean at UH Law Center.

“Firms feel intense pressure to secure talent quickly, and students (and schools) feel pressure to participate lest they be left behind,” Marcie Davis, assistant dean of SMU’s office of career services, said in email. “It is a feeding frenzy that no one seems to know how to stop.”

Meanwhile, the students are increasingly anxious, said Hannah Kelly, marketing director for Flo Recruit. “They find this process extremely stressful,” she said. “It’s been hard for them to find consistent information about recruiting timelines and best practices in the changing market.”

The second-year student at Houston Law, who passed on pursuing jumbo offers, said firms eventually will ease back on making them. “These firms are going to realize, ‘Oh, that’s not really who I thought I was going to be hiring,’” the student said.