BigLaw Firms Report Big Jumps in Summer Associate Hiring for 2012
With this year’s summer associates barely out the door, major law firms are already starting to interview candidates for 2012 summer associate positions.
And some BigLaw firms are planning to bring in a lot more law students for summer jobs next year than they did this year, reports the Am Law Daily. Regardless of whether they expect sizable increases in their summer class, a number are also ready to rumble, expecting to have to compete harder this year to hire the candidates they want.
Weil Gotshal & Manges is looking to fill 100 positions next summer, up from 65 in 2011. And Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy wants a “materially larger” group than this year’s 39-member summer associate class.
“There’s a perception the job market has turned a corner,” Steven Sletten tells the legal publication. He chairs the hiring committee at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, which wants its 2012 summer class to be 10 to 15 percent larger than this year’s 117-member summer associate group.
“We’re expecting this season to be more competitive,” he says. “We’re up to that challenge.”
Also anticipating more competition, Milbank is sending the law firm’s chairman, Mel Immergut, out to interview law students this fall and doubling the number of law schools at which it recruits from 15 to 31. The firm had 20 summer associates in 2010 and 78 in 2009.
