The 2025 student recruiting season came in fast and felt long, with interviews spread over several months, despite finishing earlier than ever. With over 780 registrations for our recent season wrap webinar, it’s clear the legal recruiting community is eager to understand just how dramatically the recruiting timeline has shifted.
Below are some of the biggest insights from our latest data, pulled from Flo Recruit and Flo Forward activity across 140+ firms, 110+ law schools, and 25,000+ law students.
One of the clearest takeaways from this year’s data: recruiting has officially moved up, dramatically. Law firm interviews surged in April and May, with volume on Flo Recruit rising 662% and 935%, respectively, compared to the same months last year. But by June, interviews had decreased by 29% compared to 2024, and by July, they’d dropped 86% year over year.
Campus interview programs followed a similar pattern, with the majority of activity concentrated in May and June — especially among top schools. For example, T-15 schools accounted for 68% of May–June interviews, showing a growing preference for early action.
This trend extended to the offer stage as well. Firms using Flo Recruit’s ATS moved 1,604% more candidates to “Offer” in May 2025 compared to May 2024. But that volume fell off sharply in June and July. It’s clear that both interviews and offers are happening earlier, faster, and in tighter windows.
One late and pronounced peak in “Offer” status changes the week of July 21st could show a final spurt of offers extended from July OCI programs – or just teams doing data entry at the end of their season.
This earlier timeline was also reflected in application patterns. In 2025, 60% of 2L applications on Flo Forward were submitted in April and May — a significant jump from just 10% during the same timeframe last year.
As we approach Class of 2028 1L recruiting, clients are looking to 2024 data for reference on when to open jobs. Fall 2024 brought distinct 1L application opening spikes in late October, mid-November, and early December. The coming months will show if openings move earlier; we’re watching dates on the Law Student Recruitment Tracker. You can sign up for email updates here.
Outreach events are increasingly front-loaded. In fact, March alone accounted for nearly one-third of all firm-hosted outreach events in 2025, up from 25% in 2024. This shift is especially pronounced among the largest firms: 95% of events hosted by firms with 1,500+ attorneys occurred before May, with almost no activity in the summer.
Regional differences continue to shape the calendar. New York firms packed 80% of their 2025 outreach events to date into January through March. California shows peaks in October, November, and March, with no summer activity at all. In contrast, Texas recruiting remained heavily focused on the fall, with most outreach taking place between September and December to target 1L candidates.
With the season starting earlier, law students are also preparing earlier. Flo Forward saw record student adoption this year, with 11,074 Class of ’27 law student users, which includes over 70% of all 1Ls at T35 law schools. More notably, 78% of those 1Ls joined before the end of January, and students at T-35 schools adopted even faster — 83% were on the platform by that same point.
Firm engagement with Flo Forward also surged. Job postings that Flo aggregates from law firms rose 16% year over year, and firms more than doubled their use of upgraded Firm Profiles and event listings to reach students directly on the platform. All Vault Top 20 firms now have an upgraded presence on Flo Forward.
Looking ahead: The 2026 season is already taking shape, and the industry is wondering if it’s going to start even earlier. Now’s the time to revisit your recruiting timelines, get listed on Flo Forward, and make sure you’re visible during students’ critical decision-making windows.
You can download the complete webinar slide deck here and watch the recording here. Have more questions about Flo solutions? Reach out to talk more about how our platforms and data can help in your recruiting strategy.