Latham Scraps On-Campus Interviews to Recruit Summer Associates

Latham & Watkins is no longer conducting on-campus interviews at law schools to recruit summer associates and instead is asking candidates to apply directly with the firm.

Latham’s move, confirmed by a person familiar with the matter, is another sign that Big Law firms are moving away from a recruitment tool that has been a mainstay for decades. Firms instead prefer directly hiring law students ahead of the traditional recruitment season to gain an edge on talent.

On-campus recruiting will “become more of a primary tool for regional and local firms,” said Nikia Gray, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement. “For those big national firms, it’s going to become something that they perhaps participate in to top off or round out their class.”

The Los Angeles-founded firm had been cutting on-campus interviews, dubbed OCIs, over the last three years before opting out entirely this year, according to the person, who spoke on a condition of anonymity. The 3,000-lawyer firm has directed law students to apply online for the summer associate positions that are the principal pathway for graduating law students to get jobs.

Individual law schools and NALP traditionally issued guidelines on how and when firms could talk with students and mostly barred them from speaking with summer job candidates before Dec. 1 of the previous year.

NALP loosened the guidelines in 2018, and the coronavirus pandemic shifted all on-campus interviews to virtual two years later. That allowed law firms easier—and earlier—access to the nation’s top law students.

The majority of summer associate position offers last year resulted from employers recruiting via direct applications and resume collections and referrals, NALP found. Only 24% of offers came from OCIs or other law school interview programs. In 2024, firms extended 78% of all offers before August, compared to 45% in 2023, NALP found.