It should be noted at the outset that there are varied approaches to legal recruiting. Often, the approach, and timing, are similar within a "legal employer type," but vastly different when comparing two different types of legal employers. For example, judges have similar recruiting approaches, and large law firms share common recruiting practices, but when you compare how judges recruit to how large law firms recruit, there are very different timelines and processes. The point is, that the while the remainder of this section will focus on the early recruiting approach adopted by a single legal employer type: large law firms ("Biglaw"), this does not reflect the timing of all types of legal employers. However, because large firms account for approximately one-third of all entry-level legal jobs in a given year, it is worth paying attention to.

Prior to the pandemic, large law firm recruiting followed a very similar process year over year. This involved traveling to law school campuses in the early fall semester to interview second-year students for 2L summer associate positions. The law schools were often intermediaries for posting/advertising these positions, collecting application materials, and scheduling interviews. Since the pandemic, several changes have occurred:

• Employers now advertise summer associate positions, collect application materials, and schedule interviews through their own platforms (the law schools are seldom intermediaries).
• The interviews are now conducted virtually rather than in-person.
• The timing is much earlier. Presently, students are applying for these positions in October of their first semester and begin participating in interviews before receiving grades.

Reuters notes the number of applications from first-year students submitted to firms via the Flo Recruit platform increased by 1,300% between November 2024 and 2025.

There is a similar earlier shift in the timing of interviews. The number of interviews increased by more than 32,000 between January 2022 and 2026. (While interviews between August 2022 and 2025 decreased by over 38,000).

In sum, law students are presently applying and interviewing for large firm summer associate positions, designed to lead to post-graduate jobs, during the first 6 months of law school.

Pre-law experience takes on heightened importance amid the backdrop of the earlier large firm recruiting timeline.

• There is less time to explore legal settings and career pathways upon arrival at law school. Pre-law experience provides an expanded window to peer into potential legal career settings and practice areas.
• The only experiences on a law student resume submitted to employers with early timelines are those experiences obtained prior to law school.
• There is increased emphasis on first semester academic performance because that is the only semester of grades available to employers participating in an early recruiting process. When pre-law students gain experience and engage in exploration before law school, this frees up more time to focus on academics once law school begins.

Robert Birrenkott

Associate Dean for Career & Professional Development

University of North Carolina School of Law

This site was built for pre-law students enabling them to enter law school more prepared than surprised by the early legal recruiting timelines. The new market reality is legal recruiting is in full swing during the very first semester of law school. However, once students at arrive at law school, there is limited time to devote to the job search, especially during the first semester. This makes pre-law preparation more important than ever.