Bloomberg reports:
BIG LAW’S accelerated summer recruiting push for top law school students—often beginning before their first year ends—poses particular challenges for first-generation students who may be less prepared for what to expect early on, Tatyana Monnay and Meghan Tribe report.
Leading firms are now urging students to apply for coveted summer jobs while they’re still juggling classes and preparing for first-year finals. The competition among firms to identify and lock down the best young legal talent means students have less time to adjust to the rigors of law school—and are being vetted based on just one full semester’s performance.
I would have been seriously screwed under this policy if it had been in effect whenI were a law student. I was the first member of our family to attend law school. Worse yet, in both college and law school, I had one of those "shows (a lot of) improvement" transcripts. My grades after my first semester put me in the middle of the class. But by the time I graduated my grades put me third. I got a BigLaw job for which I had not interviewed until during my clerkship. Under a system in which BigLaw locks down its choices based on fall semester first year grades, people with my sort of law school career--who could have gone on to successful BigLaw careers--will be blocked out. Both students and law firms will miss out.
But somehow I'm not surprised. I've never thought law firms--especially BigLaw--had very intelligent approaches to human resources.
