{"id":140931,"date":"2026-01-05T17:10:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/05\/law-students-make-hail-mary-plea-for-aba-to-curb-law-firm-recruitment-timelines\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:10:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:10:46","slug":"law-students-make-hail-mary-plea-for-aba-to-curb-law-firm-recruitment-timelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/05\/law-students-make-hail-mary-plea-for-aba-to-curb-law-firm-recruitment-timelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Law Students Make Hail Mary Plea For ABA To Curb Law Firm Recruitment Timelines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting a summer associate gig is probably a far cry from what you remember. There used to be some decorum. You\u2019d make it to campus, try to make some friends, and form your study cohort, knowing that you\u2019d have at least a couple of months before you had to worry about the job hunt. That decorum went out the window back in 2018 when NALP abandoned the recruitment guardrails<\/a>. The following years coasted on custom, but once firms realized how deregulated things were, the process ramped up. OCI and law firm swag? Already on the decline<\/a>. Keeping your head in the books so your grades make you a strong candidate? Who has time for that? Biglaw firms are recruiting 1Ls before any of their grades are in \u2014 and they\u2019re sending in 3Ls to do the work of determining who gets the summer jobs<\/a>. Aggressive recruiting has put additional pressure on students at top-tier law schools and they\u2019ve banded together to ask the ABA to do something about it. Law.com<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

A group of student organizations from top-tier law schools reached out to the American Bar Association with concerns about accelerated recruiting timelines being promoted by Big Law firms.<\/p>\n

While the students from 18 law schools, including all 17 schools from the \u201cT14,\u201d praise employers for being enthusiastic and state that \u201cour student bodies have thus far matched this energy,\u201d they claim the early recruiting has \u201cbegun to undermine legal education, student and staff well-being, and the recruitment market,\u201d according to the Jan. 1 letter addressed to Daniel Thies, chair of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words: We love the money and lines on our r\u00e9sum\u00e9 \u2014 keep that up \u2014 but can you let us breathe long enough to do our Con Law readings?<\/p>\n

Can you blame the students for wanting some intervention? Some firms are trying to fill up second-year spots <\/em>before grades come in. A running joke on Thinking Like A Lawyer is that the next step will be for Biglaw recruiters to put \u201cGo Get A JD!\u201d tents right outside of prestigious undergrad commencement ceremonies, but the risk that that might actually be the next stage of development cuts into the tee-hee factor.<\/p>\n

Asking for the ABA to intervene is probably the smartest thing to do here. Even if the rush to recruit is facially wrongheaded, no one else has a strong enough MO to overcome the push to adopt the practice. Why would students risk fumbling the chance at a lucrative career by not sending in their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s when firms ask for them? Some moral victory? Those dividends don\u2019t pay rent. Why would the firms change? Waiting for grades would allow for a more merit-based approach toward choosing summers, but sitting on their hands risks their competitors getting first pick of the crop. If relying on the prestige of the relative applicants\u2019 schools is a good enough measure of potential, the earlier the better. And as far as boutique firms are concerned, the crop of law students that survive the hastened recruitment and have good work product to show from it will seek out niche practice areas once they figure out what they\u2019re actually good at. Boutiques just have to wait for the talent to knock on their doors.<\/p>\n

It would be nice if the ABA had the authority to smack some common sense back into these firms. Until that happens, law students should be on the lookout for any 3Ls who can hook them up with a six-figure job.<\/p>\n

Law School Student Groups Ask ABA To Review Accelerated Associate Recruiting Timelines<\/a> [Law.com]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Exclusive: Biglaw Firms Farming Out Law School Recruitment Efforts To Current Law Students<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Law Students Make Hail Mary Plea For ABA To Curb Law Firm Recruitment Timelines<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Getting a summer associate gig is probably a far cry from what you remember. There used to be some decorum. You\u2019d make it to campus, try to make some friends, and form your study cohort, knowing that you\u2019d have at least a couple of months before you had to worry about the job hunt. That decorum went out the window back in 2018 when NALP abandoned the recruitment guardrails<\/a>. The following years coasted on custom, but once firms realized how deregulated things were, the process ramped up. OCI and law firm swag? Already on the decline<\/a>. Keeping your head in the books so your grades make you a strong candidate? Who has time for that? Biglaw firms are recruiting 1Ls before any of their grades are in \u2014 and they\u2019re sending in 3Ls to do the work of determining who gets the summer jobs<\/a>. Aggressive recruiting has put additional pressure on students at top-tier law schools and they\u2019ve banded together to ask the ABA to do something about it. Law.com<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

A group of student organizations from top-tier law schools reached out to the American Bar Association with concerns about accelerated recruiting timelines being promoted by Big Law firms.<\/p>\n

While the students from 18 law schools, including all 17 schools from the \u201cT14,\u201d praise employers for being enthusiastic and state that \u201cour student bodies have thus far matched this energy,\u201d they claim the early recruiting has \u201cbegun to undermine legal education, student and staff well-being, and the recruitment market,\u201d according to the Jan. 1 letter addressed to Daniel Thies, chair of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words: We love the money and lines on our r\u00e9sum\u00e9 \u2014 keep that up \u2014 but can you let us breathe long enough to do our Con Law readings?<\/p>\n

Can you blame the students for wanting some intervention? Some firms are trying to fill up second-year spots <\/em>before grades come in. A running joke on Thinking Like A Lawyer is that the next step will be for Biglaw recruiters to put \u201cGo Get A JD!\u201d tents right outside of prestigious undergrad commencement ceremonies, but the risk that that might actually be the next stage of development cuts into the tee-hee factor.<\/p>\n

Asking for the ABA to intervene is probably the smartest thing to do here. Even if the rush to recruit is facially wrongheaded, no one else has a strong enough MO to overcome the push to adopt the practice. Why would students risk fumbling the chance at a lucrative career by not sending in their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s when firms ask for them? Some moral victory? Those dividends don\u2019t pay rent. Why would the firms change? Waiting for grades would allow for a more merit-based approach toward choosing summers, but sitting on their hands risks their competitors getting first pick of the crop. If relying on the prestige of the relative applicants\u2019 schools is a good enough measure of potential, the earlier the better. And as far as boutique firms are concerned, the crop of law students that survive the hastened recruitment and have good work product to show from it will seek out niche practice areas once they figure out what they\u2019re actually good at. Boutiques just have to wait for the talent to knock on their doors.<\/p>\n

It would be nice if the ABA had the authority to smack some common sense back into these firms. Until that happens, law students should be on the lookout for any 3Ls who can hook them up with a six-figure job.<\/p>\n

Law School Student Groups Ask ABA To Review Accelerated Associate Recruiting Timelines<\/a> [Law.com]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Exclusive: Biglaw Firms Farming Out Law School Recruitment Efforts To Current Law Students<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected] <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting a summer associate gig is probably a far cry from what you remember. There used to be some decorum. You\u2019d make it to campus, try to make some friends, and form your study cohort, knowing that you\u2019d have at least a couple of months before you had to worry about the job hunt. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Chris-Williams-2025-lAAcMb.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}