18 strategies for employers hiring candidates who are early in their legal careers

There are important short- and long-term benefits for employers to hire students, recent graduates, and others early in their careers for legal roles. We reached out to 18 hiring experts to get their thoughts:

• Partner with Law School Clinical Programs
• Offer Real Courtroom Experience
• Build Relationships with Law Schools
• Create Structured Mentorship Programs
• Establish Strong Campus Recruiting Presence
• Recruit from Provincial Courthouses
• Implement Immersive Project-Based Programs
• Engage Actively with Legal Education Institutions
• Develop Externship Partnerships for Talent Pipeline
• Introduce Paid Trial Work Weeks
• Invest in Better Hiring Manager Training
• Leverage Alumni Networks Effectively
• Foster Authentic Connections with Law Students
• Build Long-Term Partnerships with Legal Programs
• Design Comprehensive Internship Programs
• Rotate Interns Through Multiple Practice Areas
• Organize Legal Hackathons for Talent Discovery
• Recruit Remote Talent from Rural Areas

Partner with Law School Clinical Programs

I’ve found one strategy that consistently works for mass hiring: partner directly with law school clinical programs.

When I was building our Houston practice, we created formal partnerships with UT Austin and other Texas law schools where their students work on real cases under our supervision as part of their clinical requirements. These students handle initial case research, client intake documentation, and assist with DWI defense preparation — giving us a direct pipeline to evaluate dozens of potential hires before they graduate.

The key difference from typical internships is that we let these students see immediate results on actual cases. Our clinical partners help prepare demand packages for personal injury cases and witness our settlement negotiations, so they understand the business impact of legal work. About 60% of our early-career hires came through these clinical partnerships.

Most firms wait until after graduation to start recruiting, but by then you’re competing with everyone else. Clinical partnerships let you identify and develop talent 1-2 years before they hit the job market, plus the students already know your firm’s culture and case types when they graduate.

Brian Nguyen, Managing Partner, Universal Law Group

Offer Real Courtroom Experience

If you want to attract and retain early-career legal talent at scale, give them access to the court. Many graduates enter private firms only to find themselves stuck doing research, redlines, or administrative casework. They didn’t go to law school for that.

Develop a tightly structured in-house trial training program. Prioritize practical learning: motion drafting, suppression hearings, plea negotiations, and supervised court appearances. Rotate new hires through real case teams with experienced trial attorneys. Let them sit in on voir dire, strategy meetings, and witness prep.

The value proposition is clear: come here, and you’ll build a real trial resume within your first year. That draws ambitious candidates. And it reduces attrition because you’re offering actual legal development, not just a salary.

Candidates want impact. Firms that deliver real courtroom exposure will always have a hiring edge.

Steven Rodemer, Owner and Attorney, Law Office of Rodemer & Kane DUI And Criminal Defense Attorney

Build Relationships with Law Schools

The best approach used to recruit early-career candidates to the legal profession is by maintaining a good working relationship with law schools. Instead of waiting for candidates to knock on the door, law schools provide a direct avenue to new talent. Creating internship programs, providing externships, or establishing mentorship programs enables employers to build relationships with students prior to them completing their education. This is a sure way of offering great exposure to future recruits, and you are best placed to see their talent and work ethic before they even join the workforce. This practical experience offered in a real-life setting will help you evaluate the competencies of candidates and their dedication to the profession.

Besides internships, it is also a good idea to be an active participant in campus recruitment activities such as career fairs, networking mixers, or even sponsoring legal competitions to generate a pool of qualified applicants. Holding workshops or panel discussions on the legal business provides students a chance to learn directly from professionals in the field as well as demonstrating your company culture and values. Such interactions not only make the work of your organization visible but also enable you to attract candidates who share the same vision and mission as your firm. This approach will achieve a better quality recruitment process and, in the end, will bring about a seamless transition from academic life into full-time legal practice.

Emma Alves, Lawyer, Alves Law

Create Structured Mentorship Programs

After transitioning from insurance defense to representing individuals and building Virginia Injury Law, I’ve learned that law firms serious about scaling need to focus on one key strategy: creating structured mentorship programs that pair senior attorneys with recent graduates.

When I moved from defending healthcare providers to representing whistleblowers and personal injury clients, I realized how much faster junior attorneys develop when they get hands-on experience with real cases under close supervision. At our firm, we have new hires shadow experienced attorneys on everything from client consultations to settlement negotiations, then gradually take on more responsibility.

The firms I’ve seen succeed at hiring dozens of early career lawyers don’t just relegate them to research roles. They create clear progression paths where new attorneys can see actual client impact within their first year. We allow our junior attorneys to handle initial client communications and document preparation on our car accident and personal injury cases, which keeps them engaged while building practical skills.

Most importantly, firms should offer competitive compensation structures that reward performance, not just billable hours. We work on contingency fees, which means our team sees a direct correlation between case outcomes and firm success – this attracts ambitious new graduates who want to earn substantial income while helping injured clients receive fair compensation.

Christian Simpson, CEO, Christian Crash Law

Establish Strong Campus Recruiting Presence

Campus recruiting remains the gold standard for volume hiring of junior legal talent. Law schools provide a concentrated pool of qualified candidates who are actively seeking employment, and establishing a strong campus presence lets you build your employer brand where it matters most. I’ve seen firms waste enormous resources on tasteless online campaigns when those same dollars could fund meaningful connections at top-tier schools.

The interview process should balance efficiency with meaningful assessment – avoid the tasteless tendency to rely solely on grades or pedigree. Create standardized evaluation rubrics that assess practical skills and cultural fit, then train your interviewers to apply these consistently across hundreds of candidates. 

Develop a robust summer associate program that serves as your primary pipeline – this isn’t just tradition, it’s strategic. Even firms with tasteless recruitment videos or awkward social media presences can succeed when they provide substantive work experiences that convert into offers. The conversion rate from summer to permanent offers tells you everything about your recruitment effectiveness.

Jason Tenenbaum, Attorney – NY State, The Law Office of Jason Tenenbaum, P.C.

Recruit from Provincial Courthouses

Leave the pile of resumes and go where the work is being done: provincial courthouses, duty counsel offices, and legal aid clinics. It is there that you will find young guns with experience working under pressure, handling unpredictable clients, and managing high caseloads with little hand-holding. These are not learners waiting to be told what to do. They are young professionals full of knowledge on how to scramble last-minute disclosure, think on their feet in remand court, and keep cool when a bail plan goes wrong. They are not packaged in the traditional format, which is why most firms overlook them. This is not a good thing. To have lawyers who can handle real files in months, you need to begin your pipeline with people who have lived in the chaos.

A hiring manager also recruited someone who had worked one year of rotations in the three jurisdictions of duty counsel services. This person did not even get an internship on Bay Street. Their family background was not bad either. However, they had already worked on more than 100 impaired driving, theft under $5000, and assault cases. They had papers with 24-hour deadlines, dealt with Crowns in five different courthouses, and managed clients who could hardly sit still. A few months later, they were conducting contested hearings with the ease of most second-year associates. Such preparation is not available in lecture rooms. You see it in the courtrooms where theory is kicked underfoot by haste, and only the pliable can keep their heads above water. Start by hiring them there first.

Mike Kruse, Criminal and DUI Lawyer, Kruse Law

Implement Immersive Project-Based Programs

What you need is a short, immersive project-based program. One that allows candidates to truly test their skills in a real-world context. Something like a legal “bootcamp” or project sprints where there’s real client work, with team interaction and mentorship. You quickly determine who can think on their feet, who works well with others, and who asks the right questions. Additionally, they get to see how your firm actually operates before committing.

It’s a much more effective way to identify genuine fit at scale and build a pipeline of talent who are invested and ready to contribute from day one.

Riley Beam, Managing Attorney, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.

Engage Actively with Legal Education Institutions

I’d strongly recommend establishing and nurturing robust relationships with local law schools and paralegal programs as a primary recruiting strategy for hiring a high volume of early-career legal professionals. This involves more than just attending career fairs. It means actively engaging with these programs through guest lectures, mock trial sponsorships, externship programs, and scholarships. By becoming a visible and consistent presence within these educational institutions, firms can build a strong employer brand, gain early access to top talent, and create a pipeline of candidates who are already familiar with the firm’s values and practice areas.

Jeffrey Mega, Partner, Decof, Mega & Quinn, P.C.

Develop Externship Partnerships for Talent Pipeline

Enroll in law schools through a proactive partnership with law schools as externship programs. We partner with 5 local law schools that provide semester-long externships at Templer & Hirsch. Supervised research is conducted by students on actual cases. The best students are offered permanent employment when they graduate.

This approach helps develop a stable talent reservoir and shorten the training process. Externs already know our systems and our culture. Since 2021, we have recruited 37 associates in this manner. Two years later, the retention rate is 85 percent compared to 60 percent for traditional hires.

The advantages we have seen are:

• More thorough evaluation of candidates by observing their work rather than relying solely on interviews
• Prior relationship with future hires
• Healthier loyalty of candidates who invested in our firm early

Mark Hirsch, Co-founder and Personal Injury Attorney, Templer & Hirsch

Introduce Paid Trial Work Weeks

When you’re growing your legal team quickly, the old hiring model begins to fray. Resumes and interviews simply won’t provide you with the insight necessary to make intelligent, high-volume hiring decisions. One solution for better results is to introduce trial work weeks, a brief, paid period during which candidates do real work with your team before a permanent offer is extended.

We’ve employed trial weeks to try for key soft skills, things that can’t be assessed on paper. What does a candidate do when pressured? Are they able to communicate effectively with clients and staff? Are they proactive or not? These are things that appear immediately in a live setting but rarely in an interview.

This system also works to the advantage of the candidate. They gain a real perception of what the role will be. There are no surprises during the joining. It fosters clarity and strengthens long-term employee retention.

It builds trust and helps retain the right people over time. Trial work weeks allow you to try fit, establish trust, and hire with more certainty. It is particularly valuable for companies growing rapidly or handling high caseloads, where getting the wrong hire can have ripple effects throughout the team.

Justin Lovely, Owner, Lovely Law Firm Injury Lawyers

Invest in Better Hiring Manager Training

Investing in better training for hiring managers is crucial because that’s where things usually break down. You have capable candidates being screened out because someone’s expecting polish that only comes from prior exposure to the industry. Early-career candidates, however, aren’t going to have that experience yet.

The real work lies in ensuring your interviewers understand what early-career talent actually looks like in its raw form. This might mean adjusting how they assess things like communication skills and legal reasoning, especially across different backgrounds and schools. Strong candidates can be overlooked because their strengths didn’t manifest in the “usual” format. Therefore, if you want better hiring outcomes, you need to take a long, hard look at how you’re evaluating skills in the first place.

Alex Freeburg, Owner, Freeburg Law

Leverage Alumni Networks Effectively

Alumni networks are great because they’re tied into trusted institutions that already filter for a certain baseline of quality. Still, they only work if you treat them like real partnerships. It’s not just another job board to post job listings on.

You should tell them exactly what you’re looking for beyond the job title. Specify what kind of writing skills, attention to detail, or temperament actually succeed at your firm. They’ll send better-fit candidates than most recruiters. And if you do this consistently, you’ll have a warm, qualified pipeline long before you need it.

Adam Dayan, Founder, Consumer Law Group, LLC

Foster Authentic Connections with Law Students

I would strongly recommend building strong relationships with law schools, especially those with robust programs that are relevant to your particular area of law.

Set up on-campus interviews, offer internships or summer associate positions, and attend their career fairs regularly, if you have the resources to do so. You might be surprised how far a consistent presence goes.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of having junior attorneys, perhaps one to three years into their careers, come and talk to candidates. They can relate better, and they remember what it was like to be in those shoes. That authenticity really resonates.

Mark Trenner, Patent Attorney, Trenner Law Firm

Build Long-Term Partnerships with Legal Programs

Recruiting early career candidates into legal roles at scale requires more than just posting jobs on traditional platforms. Legal work demands critical thinking, meticulous attention to detail, and strong communication skills — even at entry-level. As such, a strategic, purpose-driven hiring approach is essential to identifying not just capable candidates, but those with the potential to grow into legal professionals over time.

One effective recruiting strategy is to build long-term partnerships with law schools, paralegal training programs, and post-secondary institutions that offer pre-law, legal studies, or criminology streams. Rather than waiting for graduates to apply, forward-thinking employers co-develop internship programs, sponsor moot court events, or deliver guest lectures. 

Creating a structured early talent pipeline also allows employers to integrate DEI goals meaningfully. Legal employers can specifically target underrepresented student groups who may otherwise face barriers breaking into legal careers. 

One law firm we advised launched a multi-year internship initiative in partnership with three Ontario colleges offering paralegal certification. Instead of recruiting only after graduation, they brought on first-year students for 6-week placements with mentorship pairings and shadowing opportunities. After graduation, over 70% of those interns accepted full-time roles, and nearly half were promoted within 18 months. Their retention rate improved, and their onboarding time decreased because those hires already understood internal systems and workflows.

According to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), structured internship and externship programs are one of the strongest predictors of long-term retention in legal careers. A 2022 report by the Canadian Bar Association also emphasized that early exposure to legal practice significantly boosts confidence and professional identity development in new graduates. 

In a profession where long-term training and mentorship are integral, the most successful legal recruiters don’t wait until graduation day. Instead, they invest early — partnering with schools, mentoring students, and creating hands-on experiences that allow young legal minds to thrive. Not only does this create a reliable hiring funnel, but it also nurtures a new generation of legal professionals who are aligned with the firm’s culture, mission, and future needs.

Miriam Groom, CEO, Mindful Career inc., Mindful Career Counselling

Design Comprehensive Internship Programs

Among the strategies that I can recommend, I would look at comprehensive internship programs. These programs provide employers with an unparalleled opportunity to assess and mentor early career applicants in actual legal settings. When you give interns practical experience, they become accustomed to your firm’s culture, working procedures, and legalities. There is also the long-term investment aspect of an internship to ensure these candidates acquire skills that would enable them to transition to full-time employment. Interns are also able to offer new insights and may prove to be invaluable in the legal environment.

In the case of such programs, one should provide clear mentorship and feedback since it helps to reinforce the relationship between the employer and the intern. The first thing hiring managers need to consider is the candidates’ work ethic and interest in the field. Using a well-developed internship pipeline, employers are able to expand the recruitment process while discovering the best talent at an early stage.

Ron Harper, Licensed Paralegal/Owner, OTD Ticket Defenders Legal Services

Rotate Interns Through Multiple Practice Areas

I’ve found success in creating structured internship programs that give law students meaningful exposure to different practice areas during their 2L summer. Last year, we rotated interns through immigration, corporate, and litigation departments, giving them real cases to work on alongside experienced attorneys. This approach not only helped us evaluate candidates more thoroughly but also resulted in 85% of our interns accepting full-time offers because they already understood our work environment and culture.

Loren Locke, Founder, Locke Immigration Law

Organize Legal Hackathons for Talent Discovery

I create a talent revolution through my work of building strong university partnerships, which enable me to recruit numerous early-career legal candidates. I establish relationships with multiple law schools and colleges to provide students with practical legal problem-solving experiences through internships and hands-on workshops. This initiative attracts motivated candidates who reveal untapped talent with unrefined abilities. The contract-drafting challenge I organized attracted dozens of students who later joined LegalOn as full-time employees. I base my hiring decisions on candidates’ abilities rather than traditional resume credentials because I use brief evaluation methods to identify intelligent candidates. Virtual job fairs combined with LinkedIn campaigns help me reach more candidates, while mentorship programs develop loyal employees. The hiring process transforms into a talent cultivation system that develops dedicated legal professionals who will succeed in their careers.

Job posting should be replaced by seed planting. A “legal hackathon” event at local colleges helps discover students who bring innovative ideas to the table. Recruits should be matched with mentors who understand their career aspirations instead of their professional roles. The process functions as a matchmaker for exceptional talent, which creates enduring loyalty.

Daniel Lewis, CEO, LegalOn

Recruit Remote Talent from Rural Areas

A great recruiting strategy for a legal company to hire hundreds of staff is to hire graduates from rural towns in South India to work remotely. There are many candidates who are university-qualified, dedicated, and hardworking. However, they lack the same job opportunities that those living in the cities have access to.

Many of these candidates are living in poverty and are the first in their families to go to university. Giving them jobs will help bring them and their families out of poverty. Because of this, they are very committed to the company and will bring their best efforts to work.

Sari Schmidt, Co-Founder, Nala Talent