BigLaw Hiring Stronger, Still Soft Compared To Pre-Recession Levels

Entry-level hiring at major law firms is bouncing back from recession lows, but “it’s still very much a buyer’s market,” Tom Ksobiech, assistant dean for career services at University of Alabama Law School, told The Wall Street Journal. Of the graduates of 2013 who went to work in private practice, 20.6 percent landed at a firm with more than 500 lawyers, according to the National Association for Law Placement, up from 16.2 percent for the class of 2011. But totals have not returned to 2009 numbers, when more than 5,100 graduates landed with a BigLaw firm, compared to about 3,900 for the class of 2013. Summer classes at some law firms, like Winston & Strawn LLP and DLA Piper, are about half as large as they were in 2009. But about 20 major firms, including Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and WilmerHale, say their starting class is equal to or larger than that of 2009.