The National Association for Law Placement® (NALP) recently released its Perspectives on 2021 Law Student Recruiting report, the results of which indicate that 2021 was another banner year financially for law firms across the country.
The findings show that last year was the most profitable year since before the Great Recession, with the strongest growth in demand for legal services since before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the results show that fall 2021 recruiting activity was also strong following a year of more conservative hiring decisions early in the pandemic.
“Law firms have been scrambling for talent at both the lateral and entry levels. As a result, recruiting activity in 2021 was robust, with offer rates for summer spots reaching their highest mark since 2007,” NALP Executive Director James G. Leipold said in the report. “The pandemic has changed some of the methodologies of the law firm recruitment process, but it has not dampened any of the competition.
The OCI screening interview process is likely to remain virtual, or at least partially so, and 2L recruiting is likely to continue to happen early and fast. For 1Ls, recruiting is also likely to be robust, particularly for diversity fellowships, and with a little luck, the renewed energy around 3L recruiting will remain for some time.”
Leipold added that the increase in recruiting activity is unlikely to hold over the long term. “Tempering that fairly rosy picture is the inevitable boom and bust cycle of law firm profitability. This hot talent market will inevitably cool, one way or another.”
—Key Findings: Fall 2021 Recruiting
• Overall, 53 percent of law schools reported an increase of more than 10 percent in the number of employers “on campus” (in person or virtually) recruiting 2Ls for summer 2022 positions as compared to summer 2021.
• In fall 2021, 58 percent of callback interviews resulted in offers for summer positions, the highest offer rate since 2007.
• In total, 73 percent of law offices reported making more offers for summer associate positions for summer 2022 as compared to summer 2021.
• The median number of offers extended by law offices to second-year students for summer 2022 programs was 10 offers, up from a median of 8 offers for summer 2021.
• Overall, 12.3 percent of all offers made by law firms were early offers made prior to the start of on-campus interviewing (OCI). This is also the highest figure measured since NALP began tracking early offers.
• In fall 2021, 28 percent of law offices reported that they reached out to schools to solicit more 2L candidates after the completion of the school’s OCI program, up from 14 percent last year.
• The extent to which firms recruited 3Ls in fall 2021 increased by 10 percentage points to 22 percent of offices, up from 12 percent last year.
—Key Findings: Summer 2021 Programs and Outcomes
• For summer 2021, 60 percent of law offices held a hybrid summer program with a mix of both in-person and virtual programming, 28 percent held an entirely virtual program, and 12 percent held an entirely in-person program.
• The average summer program class size in 2021 was 12, up from 11 in 2020.
• The offer rate coming out of summer 2021 programs remained near historic highs, with 97 percent of 2L summer associates receiving an associate offer. The acceptance rate to those offers was at an all-time high of 89 percent.
• The offer rate to 1L summer associates to return for a second summer also reached a historic high of 93 percent. The acceptance rate to those offers was 72 percent. Firms reported that overall, 55 percent of all 1L summer associates were diversity fellows.
To read NALP’s Perspectives on 2021 Law Student Recruiting report, visit www.nalp.org/perspectivesonrecruiting.
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