NPLA Issues Statement on Law Schools’ Accelerated Hiring Timelines
The National Plaintiffs’ Law Association (NPLA) strongly condemns the aggressive and rapidly accelerating recruitment timelines unfolding at law schools nationwide. NPLA is a network of law students and alumni from over 120 law schools, working to encourage and support students in becoming plaintiff-side attorneys.
First-year law students are being forced to make career decisions within their first semester of law school. This premature hiring cycle is problematic for a number of reasons, including but not limited to its interference with students’ ability to focus on their legal education, its negative effects on mental wellbeing, and its exacerbation of existing systemic barriers. Unfortunately, this trend of increasingly early recruitment timelines shows no signs of slowing down, with law firms beginning to target incoming J.D. students in the class of 2029.
NPLA supports the growing number of plaintiffs’ firms hiring law students, and calls on them to reject this hyper-accelerated recruiting timeline. Rather than competing within an accelerated system, plaintiffs’ firms are uniquely positioned to model a healthier and more sustainable recruiting framework that better reflects the values of the plaintiffs’ bar. Firms should commit to transparent hiring practices that focus on enabling students to make informed decisions and positioning them for long-term success.
When plaintiffs’ firms commit to a fair hiring timeline and expand opportunities available to students, it becomes much easier for students to opt out of on-campus interviewing (OCI) because they know that plenty of plaintiff-side jobs are still available. But when some plaintiffs’ firms participate in 1L Winter or Spring OCI or otherwise follow the BigLaw schedule, they increase pressure on students interested in plaintiffs’ work. Students then feel compelled to apply early, even if waiting would more likely lead to a better firm fit.
Rushing into job decisions increases the likelihood that students and firms will end up with a less-than-ideal match, which harms both sides. Without sufficient time to explore a firm and its practice areas, students may feel trapped after committing to a position. And because many students rely on 2L summer jobs as a pathway to post-graduate return offers, a poor fit has consequences for everyone involved: it forces students to re-enter the recruiting process and firms to incur the costs of devoting substantial time and resources to a summer intern who ultimately is not a strong fit. While our focus is on plaintiff-side work, some of our members are offered summer or permanent employment at large law firms that recruit 1L students for 2L summer work. We call on all legal employers to refrain from recruiting 1L students for 2L summer employment.
NPLA’s recommendations are further detailed below:
All firms should clearly share their recruitment timelines in advance on their websites. This allows interested students to plan ahead, creating stronger applicant pools for firms.
Plaintiffs’ firms should open 2L summer recruiting after students’ 1L year. Recruiting after 1L year puts students’ interests first: students can spend their 1L year focusing on learning the 1L curriculum and exploring their interests, which allows them to make more thoughtful decisions about where to apply.
Plaintiffs’ firms can expand internship opportunities for 2Ls and 3Ls to include school-term positions, which provide structured and meaningful engagement with plaintiffs’ practice outside of the summer recruiting cycle.
Plaintiffs’ Law Associations (PLAs) at law schools across the country have made extraordinary strides in introducing 1Ls to plaintiffs’ law. These efforts span the entire school year, starting with introductory panels and leading to networking events and job workshops. Students with a year of classes under their belt and the benefit of a full year of PLA programming will have a much better sense of what they are looking for in a summer job. We strongly encourage plaintiffs’ firms to engage with PLAs to contribute to the mission of fully informing law students about available career paths.
We encourage plaintiffs’ firms to reach out to us to further discuss any of our recommendations by emailing us at firms@nationalplaintiffslawassociation.org.
