Since our Mid-Season Insights data webinar on February 5, 2026, activity across the law student recruiting market has continued to evolve, with activity appearing to hit a peak in January and decrease significantly between February and March.
To understand how these patterns are developing, we analyzed data pulled March 16, 2026 from 35,000+ law students, 160+ law firms, and 110+ law schools using Flo Recruit solutions.
Flo Co-Founder and CEO Katherine Allen walked through these findings during our recent Big Law Season Overview webinar and paired them with live polling from 370+ webinar attendees to capture how recruiting teams are reacting in real time. Those responses help contextualize the system data, especially where firm strategies are looking at this point in the season.
Below, find top takeaways from the webinar, including key data shared from Flo and the full live poll results.
Poll Results From Our Big Law Webinar:
Out of 166 respondents, 84 (50%) said their class would be the same size, 51 (31%) said their class would be smaller, and 31 (19%) said their class would be larger.
Out of 162 respondents, 90 (56%) said they are finished interviewing, 44 (27%) said they are interviewing but are almost finished, and 28 (17%) said they continue to actively hire.
Out of 164 respondents, 86 (52%) said no, 47 (27%) said maybe, and 31 (19%) said yes.
Out of 161 respondents, 96 (60%) said they weren’t sure yet, 43 (27%) said judicial clerks, and 22 (14%) said 3Ls.
Key Data from Flo:
Out of 159 respondents, 79 (50%) said yes, 66 (42%) said rarely, in exceptional circumstances, and 14 (8%) said no.
Flo saw an unprecedented number of candidates enter the offer stage in January 2026, reflecting a 665% increase versus January 2025.
The rise in volume of student candidates moved to “Hired” in February 2026 follows expected timing, after interviews and offer movement peaked January. March MTD has reached 37% of February volume, trending towards a decline.
At this stage in the Big Law law student recruiting cycle, we know that Class of 2028 interview and offer activity peaked earlier than in any past year, outreach has become more front-loaded, and the overlap between 1L Summer 2026 and 2L Summer 2027 recruiting continues to reshape how firms think about hiring strategy. The dropoff at this point in the season has been significant.
We’ll continue monitoring how these dynamics play out through spring, particularly as hiring outcomes, acceptance rates, and later-cycle activity come into focus.For an update at the end of April, including how midsize firms are navigating this same environment and updates to the BigLaw cycle, join us for the Mid-Season Overview: Midsize Firms + BigLaw Updates webinar in April.
You can explore the full slide deck and Firm Leadership Summary from this webinar and follow along as we continue to analyze how this recruiting cycle evolves.
