Updated: With a link to the memo, below.
Orrick has worked out a way to unclog a logjam of new associates coming through its pipeline: With its fall 2009 class already bumped to join the firm in January or March of 2010 or even 2011, Orrick has decided its current summers who get offers won’t be joining until January 2012.
The firm is also saying it will recruit from campuses starting in November and running through March, instead of the traditional late summer OCI season.
It made both announcements in a memo to law school deans and assistant deans yesterday, which was posted on Above the Law this morning.
“With the fall on-campus recruiting season about to begin, and with many law students needing to make plans and commitments for their future, we knew we had to deal with the issue promptly,” Silicon Valley Orrick partner Stephen Venuto wrote. “Therefore, we decided it was in the best interests of our existing summer associates and fellows, our upcoming new associate classes as well as those students we plan to recruit in the future to make and announce both of these decisions now.”
In a recent story in one of our sister publications, The National Law Journal, it seemed that other firms were advocating this kind of move, too. That all makes you wonder, when will the deferring end?
We’ll have a full story on Orrick’s recruiting change, and reactions to it, tonight on CalLaw.com.
— Petra Pasternak
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