OCIs are changing, forcing law students to make big decisions earlier than ever. We asked Marsden's Pete Van Name to give us the scoop on the latest 2L recruitment timeline.
Ah, you finally made it: law school! No doubt you worked your behind off to get here. After rereading your application a million times, securing your academic references, and briefly debating whether becoming a lawyer is part of your quarter-life crisis, you’ve finally arrived on campus. A weight feels like it’s been lifted off your shoulders, and now, you can take a load off, kick your feet up, sit back, and enjoy the ride… right? Wrong, actually – we hate to be the ones to burst your bubble, but there is a whole lot to think about from day one of your 1L year.
Don’t take it personally; it’s not your fault. The legal market is undergoing an intense transformation changing the way law students are being hired by firms – particularly how early they are being recruited. Historically, schools took charge of the hiring process through on-campus interviews (OCIs), where law firms and public interest organizations would come to different campuses to interview aspiring lawyers. OCIs – also referred to as fall recruitment – targeted 2Ls looking for summer employment between their 2L and 3L year, and if students came across well in their OCI, they would be invited for a callback interview. If that was a success, then they would be offered a summer associate position. That timeline has shifted further forward, and as a result, students must start considering their long-term goals as early as their first semester of law school.
Here to help break down this process is seasoned professional Pete Van Name, a senior consultant at global recruitment firm Marsden, who has years of experience navigating the profession under his belt. Prior to joining Marsden, Pete was the manager of legal recruitment at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for over three years, overseeing the firm’s entry level and lateral hiring. He also previously held legal recruitment and talent management roles at Selendy Gay and Skadden in New York.
Read on to have the new recruitment cycle demystified, including:
- Breaking down the new recruitment timeline;
- Tips on what to prioritize on your resume; and
- The future of OCIs and the knock-on effect we may see on lateral recruitment.
The Timeline as We Know It
First of all, let’s take a closer look at the timeline for 1L and 2L recruitment as we knew it. The recruitment of 1Ls has shifted slightly earlier, but it has largely stayed in the December and January time range – so, the very end of first semester/beginning of the second semester. Often, 1Ls would spend their time at one firm for their 1L and 2L summers, intending to return to that same firm as an associate; or they’d go somewhere else for their 2L summer, and then pick between those two firms to begin their associate career. “What we’ve seen shift dramatically is 2L hiring,” Van Name points out, which used to take place during August but started to creep earlier into the summer a few years back. So broadly, firms would run their summer associate programs through the first part of the summer, end around July, and then OCI season would happen in August-time. That way, “students could interview and meet with firms after their 1L summer jobs had ended but before they returned to campus for their 2L year,” notes Van Name.
Over the years, 2L recruitment has gradually been moving forwards so much so that this year, it began in the springtime… which is notably not fall or even close to it. Van Name attributes this to some of the BigLaw firms in New York driving the market by “moving away from OCI as their primary source of candidates.” Instead, “they began to host, run, and execute their own recruitment programs to do things internally.” Essentially skipping over the OCI process completely, these firms were “running full direct application programs whereby students would apply directly to the firm. The firms control the review of their applications and their materials. They set up initial screening interviews and full-round interviews. The timing, cadence, and orchestration of all that was completely handled by firms outside of any component with the school and career services.” This is a huge change from how recruitment was traditionally run, where “schools were the primary drivers in the logistics around access to students. Coordination all fell within the school’s purview, and firms have pushed back against that,” our interviewee explains.
"Coordination all fell within the school’s purview, and firms have pushed back against that."
So, students who are looking for their 2L summer jobs are now having to interview for those in the spring of their 1L year, instead of at the beginning of their 2L year. This also means that “they have to find 1L jobs separate and apart from that process,” adds Van Name. He continues: “Even though the upcoming summer from the time they’re interviewing is their 1L summer, the jobs they may be interviewing for are really those that are 12, 14, 16 months into the future.” This upcoming cycle, he says, 1L students may be interviewing as early as January and February (which is wintertime!) for summer associate positions not only for 2026, but for 2027 as well.
Confused? You’re not the only one: “There are some blurred lines as to how and when you’re making those decisions on both the firm and student side,” our insider contemplates, “Students can interview as part of the 1L process, and firms may say, ‘We really enjoyed meeting you; we don’t have any more spots available in our 1L summer program for this upcoming cycle, but here is a 2L offer for the summer of 2027.’” This is a new phenomenon in the industry known as “evolving offers.” It refers to “students starting the interview process under the guise it was for a 1L summer associate position where they met and interviewed with the firm, and that evolves into a 2L offer for the following summer.”
“2L offers are now going out earlier than they ever have before."
If there’s anything you take away from the above, it’s that “2L offers are now going out earlier than they ever have before. Many firms are going to be making offers before finals end for students in their first year.” The knock-on effect is that “schools are now trying to move their timing up so the firms and students who are still finding jobs and looking for candidates through the OCI process can do so on a timeline that lines up as close as possible with the firms who are running things completely on their own,” Van Name sums up.
A Changing Landscape
We hope you like dominoes, because the market for law students is currently akin to the longest and most convoluted game of it you’ll ever play. Case in point: one of the consequences for sending out 2L offers so early is that firms do not have enough purely academic information to make informed decisions about candidates. Van Name lays this out for us: “Historically, firms would look at students’ performance academically from their 1L year, and they would have two semesters of grades at most schools.” Because 2L interviews now happen so soon for first years, firms are making decisions before they have that second set of grades. “Some firms may make offers contingent upon getting the second set of grades – and hopefully, they’re as good as the first semester grades were – as a way of trying to mitigate risk,” as law firms so often do. “They’ll try to be as risk averse as possible,” continues Van Name, “while also moving forward in a system that is inherently becoming increasingly risky the earlier you extend offers to students in their law school career.” More on risk later.
“Did they graduate with honors? What activities were they a part of? Did they work between undergrad and law school?”
So, if law firms don’t have students’ grades to go off of, what else are they looking for? According to Van Name, there will be additional emphasis on where students did their undergraduate degree and how they performed: “Did they graduate with honors? What activities were they a part of? Did they work between undergrad and law school?” The last question particularly is moving higher up the list of priorities because “there are some firms with big financial or corporate law practices. They’ll be looking at candidates who worked in banking or financial services or consulting between undergrad and law school.” Firms prefer candidates with “real-world experience,” elaborates Van Name, “because sometimes, that experience aligns with portions of their existing practice.”
Work experience aside, the choice of classes at law school is becoming a notable focal point for student recruitment, too: “Are they taking real classes? Are they taking challenging classes? Are they taking core classes that relate to foundational elements of BigLaw practice? Do their classes line up with the practice that these firms have?” This looks different depending on what practice you’re looking to break into (“for the big corporate houses, are you taking securities law? Have you taken corporations? How did you do in those classes?”), but no matter what that is, firms want to see that you’re not solely taking elective classes that “you may be interested in,” but aren’t aligned with the firms you’re applying to. That often includes some of the more “human rights focused classes” – not to say that firms discourage candidates from taking these classes, but “if they detect a trend in picking classes that aren’t aligned with what it is to be a BigLaw attorney,” it can hurt your case. “There is added emphasis on that,” Van Name underlines, “as there are less things to differentiate candidates than there have been in previous years.”
“There are plenty of lawyers who majored in economics or a STEM subject who eventually pivoted that interest, finding a way to apply it to law."
Don’t let this information send you into a panic. Since Van Name is a recruiter, we took the liberty of picking his brain about resumes, as they have never been more important in helping you stand out among the crowd. In order, the things he immediately looks at on a resume are where a candidate went to law school, where they went to undergrad, and what they did in between. But here’s one thing on your resume that may not matter as much as you think: “People get caught up in what their undergrad major was,” our interviewee admits, “There are plenty of lawyers who majored in economics or a STEM subject who eventually pivoted that interest, finding a way to apply it to law. Sometimes the economic interest is the intersection of business and law that students find interesting; those who majored in scientific fields are often drawn towards life sciences or healthcare in BigLaw.” Connecting your undergraduate major to the decision to attend law school is an “important story to be able to talk about in the interview process.”
Things that could demote you from the top of the pile include “a clear indication that you don’t want to do the type of work the firm does” and your GPA: “If you’re applying to the top five or ten law firms in the world and you have a 2.7 GPA, realistically, that’s just not going to work,” confesses Van Name. He has also found that it is popular to share hobbies and interests in an ‘Interests’ section at the bottom of a resume: “Most of them are somewhat mundane or fall within the same sort of bucket: people like to travel and list how many countries they’ve been to, whether they like cooking or Formula One, or they’re fans of the Yankees.” This is all fine, he tells us, but “these things should actually be of interest to you; you should be able to talk about it. I remember people listing that they were Game of Thrones fans, getting into an interview with a partner who was a huge fan, and then it came out that they’d never actually seen the show.” (Moral of the story is do not claim you’re a Severance fan if you can’t dissect the season 2 ending in great depth.) General rule of thumb: “Don’t get too personal. It displays a lack of decision-making skills around what is and isn’t appropriate. It’s a red flag.”
The Domino Effect
All of this makes it sound like OCI is on its way to obsolescence, but that’s not quite right according to Van Name: “OCI still provides a platform for firms and students to connect. It helps firms hire future lawyers via the summer associate program, and it helps a significant segment of law school students find jobs for the summer and after they graduate.” It’s easy to fall into an “echo chamber” because “where we’ve seen the most change is at the very tippy top of the market,” but firms outside of that are “all still looking for talent. The direct application process is not going to be a successful route for them because they’re not hiring the same number of summers. They don’t have the internal resources to run an entire interview process and application review.” So, “there are jobs to be had via OCI,” nods Van Name, “Schools are still doing a great job matching students to employers, and not every student wants to go to a top firm. Plenty of students are interested in doing different types of work, being in different markets, and having a life in a different way than is reflected at the top ten firms in the country.” The key change is that schools are now “going to advise students in distinct ways, because if you’re a student who wants to do top ten BigLaw work, you’re going to have a different recruiting process than a student who wants to go to a middle-market firm or a middle-market city,” he explains, “Seven years ago, they probably went through the same process and just ended up in two very different places.”
“OCI still provides a platform for firms and students to connect."
Remember those dominoes we mentioned? The lateral market is just one of the many things that will be subject to the ripple effect of changing OCIs, because “students are making decisions about firms with much less time to research who the firms are, what practices they have, the culture,” Van Name states. A lot of students have not worked before, so “they don’t understand what the leverage difference is from one firm to another and how that could impact their lives.” Billable hour targets and practice offerings are not front of mind for 1Ls who have “only gone through one semester of law school; they don’t know what type of work they’ll want to do. First semester of law school is geared in a very specific way for students to think they may want to practice one type of law, but oftentimes, students don’t discover the practice that really speaks to them until they’re in second or third year of law school.” Now, they are having to make choices with limited information in a short time frame before they know what market they want to be in after law school. The repercussions of this will be much more movement from juniors who “realize after one or two years that their firm isn’t the right fit for them.”
On the flip side, “firms are also making decisions much earlier,” and they will have to “become comfortable with the idea that they will lose junior associates faster than they historically have.” As a result, firms will need to “get on board with the idea of hiring laterals at a more junior level. Typically, firms didn’t want to hire first or second years; a third year was as junior as they would go in the lateral market and realistically, that will have to change.” Van Name also predicts a bouncing back of the 3L market, where firms will be “looking for students who perhaps weren’t happy with their 2L summer associate experience, or who have had things change in their life about what they want to do and where they want to be.”
Recruiters at the Ready
Recruiters will be undoubtedly busy in this changing market. In preparation for this uptick, firms will be keen to “partner with trusted strategic advisors to determine what they can do to either position themselves in the market – whether that’s to be attractive to a certain type of student or attorney who is doing a specific type of work – or to be strategically aggressive in hiring for attorneys who feel they made the wrong choice and are now looking to move.” Proactivity is the name of the game, and they will be “more open to meeting high caliber junior associates earlier than before because they will try to scoop those people up.”
“Musical chairs between law firms is becoming more commonplace.”
The common thread running through all this is that law firms, which have “historically been slow to change, are in a critical inflection point in embracing that movement is now part of the new world order.” It goes beyond just associates too: “Partners moved much more infrequently years ago than they’re moving now.” This idea of “musical chairs between law firms is becoming more commonplace.”
So, some parting words of advice for law students: “You want to get the best experience you can at the best place for you. If you discover your firm isn’t the right fit, there will likely be opportunities for you to go somewhere else.” The last thing Van Name hammers home is substantive experience: “Firms are going to be really interested in the folks who have as much substantive experience as possible from the firm they’re moving from. If you’re able to lean into that and dig into the firm’s work while you’re there, it will set you apart if you decide this isn’t the right place for you.”
