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Curious as to whether current biglaw associates expect their firms to maintain a similar # of summer internship offers to rising 2L's as previous years, or fewer based on market conditions where many economic analysts are anticipating a recession within the next couple of years.

This question was borne out of observing the economy continuing to do well in its current state, a strong 5 year stretch of economic growth, biglaw firms being in a cash rich position, but also noting that the current rising 2L summer associate hiring is for jobs two years from now when the economy may not be doing as well if economic analysts are to be believed.

Also wondering whether this answer differs based on region (NY vs. DC vs. TX vs. Bay Area, etc.).

Appreciate all responses.

I think firms are going to get too fat again and it’s going to end up hurting the associates more than the firms.

There isn’t a huge incentive to cut back.

I’m on the recruiting committee at my firm and we’re aiming for more summers in 2019 than 2017 and 2018.

Don’t think any biglaw firms are interested in anticipating a recession. They’ll do what they can to have enough associates to take on whatever work comes through the door while there is work; and when the work stops, they will just “right size.”

At my big firm in NYC, we are super busy across the board so I think we should be increasing class size this time around, especially with no movement on the salary scale.

2019 SA hiring for the following summer is based on projected needs for firms starting fall of 2021, not on current needs.

I'm a 2L SA in TX, and the recruiter in our office has talked a lot with our 1L SA's about how many spots the firm will have open for any of their class mates that may interview through OCI. The way I've heard it, the firm is making a big shift towards filling the summer class predominately with 1L's and then hoping that they return as 2L's - this is designed to get the "best" candidates early. Not sure if this will actually work over time, but with that in mind I think that any hiring growth will come from 1L OCI and not in hiring more 2L's - I guess the plan is to fill any spots that open up in a class post-2L with laterals or people who have clerked.

woopig2017 wrote:I'm a 2L SA in TX, and the recruiter in our office has talked a lot with our 1L SA's about how many spots the firm will have open for any of their class mates that may interview through OCI. The way I've heard it, the firm is making a big shift towards filling the summer class predominately with 1L's and then hoping that they return as 2L's - this is designed to get the "best" candidates early. Not sure if this will actually work over time, but with that in mind I think that any hiring growth will come from 1L OCI and not in hiring more 2L's - I guess the plan is to fill any spots that open up in a class post-2L with laterals or people who have clerked.

HB Houston by any chance?

That's how a lot of non-major markets do it.

BobLoblaw18 wrote:

woopig2017 wrote:I'm a 2L SA in TX, and the recruiter in our office has talked a lot with our 1L SA's about how many spots the firm will have open for any of their class mates that may interview through OCI. The way I've heard it, the firm is making a big shift towards filling the summer class predominately with 1L's and then hoping that they return as 2L's - this is designed to get the "best" candidates early. Not sure if this will actually work over time, but with that in mind I think that any hiring growth will come from 1L OCI and not in hiring more 2L's - I guess the plan is to fill any spots that open up in a class post-2L with laterals or people who have clerked.

HB Houston by any chance?

Not HB Houston, but somewhere comparable. Seems like this trend is spreading out more and more across the major markets in TX at least.

I work at a V10 and was told we’re targeting a summer class of the same size (or a handful of people
smaller) than our class this summer.

My V60 (lol) cut our summer class by about 1/2 in NYC (20 to about 10) and is actively moving away from expensive time consuming OCI and more towards pre OCI offers (the recruiting partners has decided they can get Just as high quality SA (and sometime more "targeted" candidates for practice group needs) outside of OCI as they can during OCI).

Anonymous User wrote:I work at a V10 and was told we’re targeting a summer class of the same size (or a handful of people
smaller) than our class this summer.

This is what our hiring committee is targeting going into OCI as well (SF/LA market).

BobLoblaw18 wrote:

woopig2017 wrote:I'm a 2L SA in TX, and the recruiter in our office has talked a lot with our 1L SA's about how many spots the firm will have open for any of their class mates that may interview through OCI. The way I've heard it, the firm is making a big shift towards filling the summer class predominately with 1L's and then hoping that they return as 2L's - this is designed to get the "best" candidates early. Not sure if this will actually work over time, but with that in mind I think that any hiring growth will come from 1L OCI and not in hiring more 2L's - I guess the plan is to fill any spots that open up in a class post-2L with laterals or people who have clerked.

HB Houston by any chance?

My firm (also in TX) is going the opposite direction. We've been burned the past few summers by top candidates coming to TX to 1L SA and then going back to east coast for 2L SA. I think that going forward, we will be taking a closer look at the ties/motivations for being in TX of our 1L SA candidates.

I think hiring at my firm across the board is undergoing a very gradual slowdown (say summer class takes 5-10% hit each year, maybe closer to 5%), even though I do not believe business is slowing down at this point (V10-V50 range; large firm).

One can presume that the reason is the common wisdom is that we’re getting some sort of recession within the next few years max.

Good for my firm, IMO.

My firm is very busy but our summer class will likely decrease

woopig2017 wrote:

BobLoblaw18 wrote:

woopig2017 wrote:I'm a 2L SA in TX, and the recruiter in our office has talked a lot with our 1L SA's about how many spots the firm will have open for any of their class mates that may interview through OCI. The way I've heard it, the firm is making a big shift towards filling the summer class predominately with 1L's and then hoping that they return as 2L's - this is designed to get the "best" candidates early. Not sure if this will actually work over time, but with that in mind I think that any hiring growth will come from 1L OCI and not in hiring more 2L's - I guess the plan is to fill any spots that open up in a class post-2L with laterals or people who have clerked.

HB Houston by any chance?

Not HB Houston, but somewhere comparable. Seems like this trend is spreading out more and more across the major markets in TX at least.

TK houston is doing the same from what I know

Anonymous User wrote:

BobLoblaw18 wrote:

woopig2017 wrote:I'm a 2L SA in TX, and the recruiter in our office has talked a lot with our 1L SA's about how many spots the firm will have open for any of their class mates that may interview through OCI. The way I've heard it, the firm is making a big shift towards filling the summer class predominately with 1L's and then hoping that they return as 2L's - this is designed to get the "best" candidates early. Not sure if this will actually work over time, but with that in mind I think that any hiring growth will come from 1L OCI and not in hiring more 2L's - I guess the plan is to fill any spots that open up in a class post-2L with laterals or people who have clerked.

HB Houston by any chance?

My firm (also in TX) is going the opposite direction. We've been burned the past few summers by top candidates coming to TX to 1L SA and then going back to east coast for 2L SA. I think that going forward, we will be taking a closer look at the ties/motivations for being in TX of our 1L SA candidates.

I think that this is definitely part of what they will be considering in our interviews, as we have also had the same experience with people fleeing back East. I think when our recruiters have weighed the flight risks against the chances of losing out on the best talent though, they think that it's better to take a chance (with the caveat of testing out candidate ties to TX/our particular market) than miss out - even if we lose one or two as 1L's, they can replace them during 2L OCI and we get to keep the rest.

I'm at a TX office of a V50 and we're hiring more 2Ls for next summer than we've had in the past few years.

V5 in NYC. We are cutting our next summer class by about 10% but I think that's less to do with the recession and more to do with a higher number of current summers who will be clerking and coming in a year later.

V100 in DC. Hiring the same amount of summers next year as we did this year (and the past 2 years, FWIW).