Entry-level recruiting activity holds steady, survey shows

The National Association of Law Placement, Inc. recently  released its Perspectives on 2022 Law Student Recruiting report, which indicates that last year’s law firm recruiting law season was both robust and competitive, albeit possibly tinged by the threat of an economic recession.

At a high level, the data indicates that an overwhelming majority of U.S. law firms either maintained or increased their recruiting activities compared with last year, a fact that is made notable as the 2021 recruiting cycle was itself particularly strong compared to prior years.

However, despite sustaining a heightened level of activity for a second year in a row, fewer offers were made for students to join summer 2023 programs, with the number of offers decreasing by nearly 2% compared with those made for the 2022 program.

In most years, a 2% decrease would not be overly remarkable, but recall that summer 2023 2Ls are in the Class of 2024, which had an entering class size that was almost 12% larger than the class of 2023.