Exclusive: Biglaw Firms Farming Out Law School Recruitment Efforts To Current Law Students
Biglaw’s recruitment of law students is well and truly broken. That’s not a shock — in 2018, when NALP announced it was eliminating the recruitment guardrails, the race to the bottom was on. Seven years later, it’s awful out there. Major law firms are peace-ing out of on-campus recruitment. 1Ls are securing their 2L summer jobs *before* their 1L summer jobs. Offers for summer associate jobs that explode before the first year of law school is even over have become a thing. It’s madness — and it uniquely disadvantages law students without a built-in network of Biglaw contacts, those that think a Cravath is just a misspelling of an Ascot-style tie.
But it’s also a struggle for Biglaw firms trying to stack their summer associate classes with the best and brightest. At least two Biglaw firms have struck upon a rather… interesting method to attract talent. According to Above the Law tipsters Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul Weiss have tapped law students to handle some key recruiting functions for the firms. Upperclass students at top law schools (ATL hasn’t heard of the practice outside of the T14) that already accepted offers at the firms have been given the authority to wine and dine 1Ls as part of the firm’s recruitment. It’s walking around money for 3Ls who aren’t yet full fledged attorneys to treat their friends to the benefits of a Biglaw expense account.
Above the Law reached out to Paul Weiss and Sullivan & Cromwell for a comment, but have not heard back.
It’s a bold move that, on the one hand, frees up full-time associates to continue billing, but puts the important screening function on students with a fundamentally limited experience with the firm. It’s also fascinating that the firms ATL has heard of participating in the practice are ones on the receiving end of a lot of MAGA-related negative publicity (Paul Weiss was the first Biglaw firm to capitulate to Donald Trump and ink a deal providing him with millions in pro bono payola for conservative causes and clients, S&C is representing Trump in his criminal case and was reportedly involved in the negotiation of Paul Weiss’s deal with Trump). 1Ls don’t have the most experience with Biglaw, but the Paul Weiss and S&C stories have crossed over into mainstream news. Throwing money around probably helps to negate some of those negative associations.
But Biglaw recruiting is cutthroat, and I have to imagine the practice will spread… if it hasn’t already.
Do you have experience with law students recruiting on behalf of Biglaw? If so, email ATL with your story or info on other firms doing the same. All tipsters are kept strictly confidential.
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