As we start planning for OCI 2011, the landscape looks a lot like OCI 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. There have been some positive changes — more firms are moving to behavioral-style interviewing and some firms seem to be keeping summer associate classes small and opening the door to third-year hiring for specific needs. Law firms will benefit greatly if they continue to step up their efforts to identify and select for “core competencies” in their interviewees. All of these seem like wise moves and, I hope, will result in a better fit between law firm and law student.
In the beginning of the economic crisis, large firms took their licks due to layoffs and bloated first-year salaries. Some pundits even predicted that the big-firm model was no longer viable. Now it appears to be the law schools’ turn to suffer the fallout from the economic crisis.
