Last spring, 3L Tim Hardesty wasn’t having much luck landing a gig at a small or midsize firm in the Dallas area.

Cold resume mailings landed him exactly zero interviews, and Hardesty grew increasingly nervous as graduation loomed with no job on the horizon. But Hardesty had an ace in his pocket: Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law was offering to pay legal employers to bring aboard its new graduates for a month — essentially a no-strings-attached monthlong job interview.