For the first time in years, a Biglaw firm is making a recruiting change that could positively impact law students — and we’re totally here for it.
Cooley just did something that should be obvious, but somehow feels radical in the modern recruitment era: the firm has stopped pretending that first-semester first-year law students should be making life-defining career decisions before they even understand what lawyers do.
Instead of locking in its entire 2028 associate class during the 1L panic cycle, Cooley is only hiring about half of the class now — and intentionally leaving the rest of the seats open to fill later, after students actually have more law school experience, exposure, and clarity. In a system that’s been built on speed, pressure, and early commitment, slowing down is the reform students actually need. Bloomberg Law has the details:
The firm is extending some offers this winter to first-year law students (1Ls) for the summer of 2027. It will then supplement by recruiting after students’ first year of law school, aiming to fill 30-40% of its class of 2028 after the initial 1L hiring spree, and use the overlooked 3L market to help complete its ranks.
“It’s going to broaden the students that we’re able to see over time, rather than rushing to hire our entire entry level 2028 class now with 1Ls who don’t necessarily know what they want to do,” Carrie Wagner, Cooley’s chief talent officer, told Bloomberg. That’s not just corporate HR speak — it’s a quiet admission of what everyone already knows: the Biglaw recruiting system is broken.
Law schools lost control of the recruiting process during COVID. On-campus interviews collapsed, firms took over timelines, and because the entire process got sped up, students were crushed by it. Students are being pushed to apply for elite jobs, often before finals, before grades, before practice-area exposure, and before they even know whether they like litigation, corporate work, or the law in general. Offers come fast, deadlines are short, decisions are rushed, and the pressure is intense. Cooley is hoping to cool down the process and allow students — and the firm — to have some much-needed breathing room.
Cooley’s new approach is an attempt to slow down the system that’s putting too forcing students to make decisions they’re simply not ready for yet. This is what student-centered recruiting should look like.
Biglaw recruiting has been a pot ready to boil over for years. Faster timelines. Younger students. Earlier and earlier decisions. More stress. More mismatches. More burnout, far too soon. Cooley’s move is a serious one — one that eases the pressure and provides much-needed relief for students. Cooley is offering something to students that Biglaw usually doesnt: the gift of time. We can only hope that more firms follow in Cooley’s footsteps.
Cooley Dials Down Recruiting Pressure Cooker for Summer Program [Bloomberg Law]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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