Summer Offers Shrink For HLS Students

As the ramifications of the economic crisis spread beyond the financial sector, Harvard Law School students are finding themselves with fewer job offers than in years past.

Nearly all second-year Law School students who have recently completed the on-campus interview process received at least one summer job offer, but this year was a noticeable departure from previous years, law school officials said.

Law firms are often considered safe from economic turmoil because a strong economy bolsters mergers and acquisitions cases and a weak economy still demands legal services during corporate restructuring and bankruptcy.

But the dependency of many firms on Wall Street clientele has forced them to cut legal partners, associates, and staffers, in addition to reducing the number of new hires.

“Employers have scaled back, so naturally there will be fewer offers,” said Assistant Dean for Harvard Law School Career Services Mark A. Weber. “But employers always want to hire top talented students.”

Law School students said that many of their peers received one to two offers after eight to 10 interviews, a dramatic decrease compared to last year, when some students reportedly received eight offers after eight interviews.

“I’ve heard that there are some 2L’s who don’t have a job. That would have been unheard of last year,” said Joshua H. Rubin, a third-year Law School student.

The financial meltdown has spurred the Office of Career Services to propose changes to the timeline of the interview process. Along with Yale, Harvard holds its recruiting season several weeks after most other law schools in the country. This year, several events including Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy and the government bailout of AIG shook up financial markets in between the two recruiting seasons, causing firms that ordinarily reserve spots for Harvard students to reduce the number of hires.

“Obviously, this year the big elephant in the room was the economy,” Weber said. “There is no doubt that some of our students were impacted by our late start date.”