Law firm recruiting timelines have been moving earlier for years, but the most recent shifts have introduced a new challenge for both firms and students: interviewing and making hiring decisions before grades are available, or with access to only a single semester of grades.
For 1L hiring, this is not entirely new. Firms have always worked with limited academic data when evaluating first-year students. For 2L recruiting, however, earlier timelines represent a more meaningful change. These roles come with a larger commitment, and firms have historically relied on more complete academic records to guide decisions.
As interview schedules continue to move forward, firms are increasingly balancing the desire to recruit early with the reality that traditional evaluation criteria, particularly grades, may not yet exist.
In the most recent recruiting cycles, many 1L and even some 2L jobs opened from the middle of fall through the middle of winter. In some cases, interviews have taken place before students had completed exams. In others, students were interviewing without any grades at all. For January 2026, we saw a 35+% increase in interview volume by the first week of the month compared to January 2025.
This timing creates an inherent mismatch. Firms are attempting to identify strong candidates earlier, but students have not yet had the opportunity to establish an academic record that traditionally played a central role in hiring decisions.
This may lead to more emphasis on other factors, including prior work experience. While this can be very helpful for those students who have this experience, it creates more obstacles for those going straight through, who have little to discuss.
The result is a recruiting process that is moving faster while relying on less information than in prior years.
Even when grades are available, firms increasingly have access to only a single semester of performance. For 1L roles, this has long been the standard. For 2L positions, however, having just one semester of grades now appears to be the norm rather than the exception.
This is notable because 2L hiring decisions often carry more weight. Firms are not only evaluating summer associate candidates, but they are also making longer-term judgments about full-time employment. With less academic data available, firms must decide how much confidence to place in a partial transcript.
As timelines continue to compress, it is unlikely that this trend reverses in the near future, but things could change over time if this is not a successful strategy.
Earlier interviewing also raises new questions about alignment between grades and offers. When firms interview, or possibly even extend offers, before grades are released, decisions may be based on assumptions about future academic performance.
In some cases, offers may be explicitly contingent on grades. In others, there may be an implicit expectation that performance will fall within a certain range. But what happens when grades do not align with those expectations?
This uncertainty introduces risk for both sides. Firms must determine how strictly to enforce grade expectations after the fact, while students may find themselves navigating offers made without a clear understanding of how their academic performance will ultimately be evaluated.
One possible outcome of earlier recruiting is increased flexibility around grades. Interviews conducted without any academic data necessarily place greater emphasis on other factors, such as interview performance, prior experience, demonstrated interest, and perceived fit.
That does not mean grades will stop mattering. Many firms may continue to maintain minimum requirements, whether tied to spring grades, 2L performance, or eligibility for a return offer. However, grades may function more as a confirmation tool rather than a primary screening mechanism.
If firms find that students hired with limited grade information perform well during the summer, this could reinforce a broader shift toward flexibility in academic thresholds.
For decades, grades, along with a particular law school, were the most important components of a summer associate candidate. Earlier recruiting challenges that idea. When decisions are made with incomplete academic information, the relative weight of grades must change, at least temporarily.
This does not suggest a move away from academic performance entirely, but rather a recalibration of how and when grades are used in the hiring process. Other criteria may play a larger role earlier, with grades evaluated later as part of a broader assessment.
The long-term impact of earlier recruiting will become clearer as the summer classes of 2026 and 2027 move through firms. How these students perform, how often offers convert to full-time employment, and how firms evaluate success will shape future recruiting norms.
If less rigidity around grades aligns with positive outcomes, firms may continue to rely less heavily on strict academic cutoffs. If not, firms may look for ways to reintroduce structure and predictability, even within earlier timelines.
What is clear is that recruiting earlier means deciding with less information. How firms adapt to that reality will define the next phase of 1L and 2L hiring.