Latest / Non-Billable Hours / T20 Law Student's Guide to Landing Big Law | Timeline & Gameplan Explained (2026)

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T20 Law Student's Guide to Landing Big Law | Timeline & Gameplan Explained (2026) · Non-Billable Hours

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What the timeline is looking like for incoming law students who are interested in working in big law in their future, which is gonna look like trying to get a 1L summer associate position after you complete your first year and a 2L summer associate position after your 2L year, at which point you will enter that firm as an associate a couple months after you graduate after your 3L year.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Things are gonna change because the way that the industry has been working for the past three to four years is just rapidly accelerating year after year.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So this is based on last year's timeline, and it's gonna be a little bit faster than that, but who knows what could really happen.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: It could slow down a tiny bit, it's more likely to speed up.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: What you're gonna do is when you first get into law school, so this is not counting application stuff, but once you get in, which should be somewhere between December and March, is when you should get your acceptance letters and you decide where you're gonna go.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're also gonna start looking at what firms you should be interested in.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be a pretty wide pool because you really don't know what practice are you wanna do, most likely.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: You haven't been exposed to law at all.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what you're gonna do probably is look at the top 100 firms.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you can look by revenue, that would be the AMLA 100, or you can look by prestige, which is the Vault 100.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, prestige is just they ask every associate in big law who they think the best firms are, who are the most prestigious firms, and that's a compiled list of that data.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a perfect science, but it's kind of the industry standard if you're looking at the highest possible view of what you should be focused on.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So once you're looking at that list, you're gonna want to be very intentional in terms of checking if any of those firms have zero L summer internships.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is somewhat of a new phenomenon that firms are doing.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: They used to use a program called SEO, which would funnel students into summer programs through a nonprofit organization in the immediate sense.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: But now that is kind of getting scaled back a bit, and firms are developing their own individual programs so they can interview their own candidates and pick who they want to hire there.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna hopefully slot better into their bottom line overall.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to be more on top of it now.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a centralized thing where you can apply to one program and you're gonna have to stay on top of seeing if those firms have positions one by one.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the application window for those is gonna be probably January of the year that you are going to start law school through, I would probably say April or so.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then the position is gonna run between May and probably the end of July.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's about a 10-week program on average, and you get paid a lot of money.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's about$50 an hour, I think, is a standard right now.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're also gonna go to Admitted Students Week at your law school, start to meet the people that you're gonna be in class with potentially, get a better sense for the law schools before you make a final decision.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: By April, you know exactly where you're gonna go.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know exactly who your classmates are gonna be.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the name of the game there is more so general education to understand what big law is and what the different practice groups are.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Networking is gonna be the biggest thing here that most people sleep on.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And my prediction is as we move further towards automation and the jobs get a little bit more scarce, those human connections and relationships you have, like people actually knowing who you are, is gonna help you go a lot further, even than it used to in the past.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's already been very important, and I think that's something that law schools don't really tell you because the whole industry is built on this idea that it's a meritocracy and that if you do great work or even if you get good grades that you're gonna be a successful attorney and become partner.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: It takes way more than that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot of soft skills, it takes relationships, it takes understanding.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things about practice that you can only learn in an apprenticeship relationship, and those, again, require a network and connection.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna want to focus on connecting with people that you're gonna be in class with, other alumni of the law school you're going to, people who are students at the law school currently, maybe more senior level.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can use the list that you've been focusing on with the firms that you're trying to learn more about and try to connect with the attorneys who are working there or people who worked there in the past.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: These are all good ways to get the ball rolling and they don't really require much beyond a LinkedIn connection request and maybe the occasional chat for coffee, just asking somebody if they want to connect on the phone so you can learn more about their career and give some advice.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now that you're starting classes on day one, that'll look like uh September, sometimes August will be your first day.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna go through orientation, all this stuff.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, your career services at your law school has already gotten your resume up to date.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of schools are starting to reach out to you even before you start classes to make sure you get that solidified, which would be great.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And law firms are gonna start hosting recruiting events in and around campus.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna show up to career fairs and they're gonna be giving lectures about what their practice groups are like.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to be having coffee chats with you that are organized through student groups and other things like that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the official start of recruitment season.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's what recruitment season is.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to those events, it's meeting partners, getting your name in the door, having uh a list of references you can put down when you're applying to these positions to say, oh, hey, I had a chat with John Smith at this event that you hosted near Columbia, and he seemed like a great guy.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed like the that this firm might be a really great fit for me.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to be considered for the position that you're now hiring for.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: The official application window for applying directly to these 1L and 2L summer positions will be probably mid-September this coming year.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Last year it was around October 1st.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I would expect most firms to open that up in September this coming year, 2026.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to apply, you need to have your resume ready to go.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to write somewhat of a cover letter or you know an explanation of why you're interested in that firm.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they're generally applicable.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can use them for multiple firms, you can tweak it with different AI tools, I'm sure, make it a little bit easier for you if you plan on applying to like 100 firms, which honestly, I would keep it as wide as humanly possible.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would aim to apply to between 40 and 100 firms if you have the patience.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing to recognize now is there used to be a split between 1L summer recruitment and 2L summer recruitment, but those are basically combined at this point.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: If a firm says, hey, we're now recruiting for 1L summer associates, and they open that a little bit earlier than they would open their 2L summer associate position, you should still apply to that 1L summer associate position, even if you don't want to work 1L summer at a firm.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: You need to get your name in there, you need to be part of the conversation.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you apply for those 1L roles, even if you don't get it, because say your grades aren't don't end up being high enough or what have you, at least you're in that firm system and they know who you are and they're actively tracking you and they're actively going to do outreach, send you emails when you could apply to the 2L summer and other opportunities.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as any position is available at these firms, you should be applying.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: That also goes for the zero L summer internship because again, even if you don't get it, even if the firm is only hiring like three to five people and there's no shot in hell that you get it, at least you're in their recruitment system now, you're on their radar, and they're gonna keep tabs on you.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And at least you'll be like a familiar entity at the next wave of recruitment.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're just gonna want to apply as soon as humanly possible.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do not wait for your grades to come out, no matter what your law school career service center says, that is not the strategy that wins.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen way too many people get screwed by that.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: You need to get your application out to these firms as soon as you can, so long as your resume is polished and you have solid materials there.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna start interviewing.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some folks will even start interviewing in October or November.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Mostly that sticks to really high-demand practice groups.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So people who have an IP background or a bachelor in uh science, a STEM field, those are really attractive candidates.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you're interested in going into IP litigation, patent prosecution, anything that's kind of in requires a strong grasp on the sciences and mathematics.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because most attorneys suck at that, and most firms only want to hire people into those groups who have STEM degrees from undergrad or a STEM graduate degree.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And those folks are exceedingly rare in big law.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have that and you're interested in that career path, you're probably gonna be interviewing in like October.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So your timeline might move a little bit faster.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, people will start interviewing in October, November.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Again, before you have grades, before you've had a final, you're gonna start going to these interviews.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: They might not be called interviews, they might be called meetings, they might be coffee chats with partners or associates who are currently at the firm.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But make no mistake, they are all interviews.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're all interviews.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you meet with a student who's a 3L and still a student, but they summered at that firm and you meet with them for coffee, consider that an interview because they are probably gonna be reporting back to their firm to say, oh, hey, I actually like this person, or I didn't really like them, we shouldn't really consider them.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: If they haven't already reported that they met with you to their firm themselves, it's very smart of you to put it on your application that, hey, I met with Georgia and she said that the firm was amazing.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I hope to speak with you soon.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: The firm is gonna go check with Georgia and say, hey, did you like this person at all?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: What like what was their deal?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if they say no, I kind of got a bad vibe or they're weird, it it's an interview.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So treat it as an interview, and those things are gonna be happening.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's very unlikely that you're gonna get a hard offer until we hit January, until you get grades.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of firms, even if they know for almost like 99% accuracy that they want to hire you and they want to give you a summer position, they're gonna hold off until they get your transcript.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And most schools don't release their grades and transcripts until early January.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So you might have finished your entire interview process and they're just waiting for those grades.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: That can happen.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing that can happen more likely is that they do like one or two intro screener interviews that are low pressure, and maybe with somebody who works in recruitment, not even an attorney, then they wait to tee it up until after they get your grades, and then you start your hardcore interviewing in January.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it looked like this past year.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: It might look a little different next year, it might be a little bit earlier, but we hope not because at that point, you would be handling your final interviews around the same time as your final exams, which would be honestly a nightmare.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let's hope that that doesn't happen.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: But even if it does happen, that's another reason why you should be front-loading your networking and your meeting with attorneys before you hit that finals period.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Grades can be important, but depending on where you're going to school, they might not matter as much as you think.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: They might not matter as much as anyone tells you.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: The school might tell you something, the firms might tell you something, your classmates might say something, partners at the firms might say something that all grades really matter, just focus on your grades.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do not take that advice.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not how it works.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you end up top, like topping out of your class and you're like the top 10% of your class, but you're at like a T6 law school, yeah, it's gonna be the difference between maybe you getting an offer from Wachteller Kravath versus um, I don't know, Simpson Thatcher, but it's not gonna really move the needle a ton.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And for the most part, if you're at a T6 already, any grade is gonna be good enough to get a pretty good offer.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you're hovering around median, I wouldn't freak out.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So just remember that if you were good enough to get into a top six school now, it's gonna go a really long way.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a strong curve, and the odds that you get a grade that's low, if your school even has grades at all, are pretty slim.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, grades are important, law school is important, but you have to understand that 90% of the job in big law isn't really something you can prepare for in law school.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so the grades only really take you so far.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: There are some exceptions.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you're interested in litigation or pellet litigation, Supreme Court litigation, obviously your grades are going to be a lot more important.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you really want to clerk for a prestigious judge, your grades are going to be more important.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to tweak and adjust your game plan depending on what you're looking for.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the vast majority of people that are going into a big law career and are already at a top school, don't backload all of your recruitment activities in favor of focusing on grades.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because, again, Street Smart, academic smart here.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you kind of need to handle both, unfortunately.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: At that point, we're talking about January.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So by now you most likely finished all your interviews.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some people will get pushed into the February window, usually in the first half of February.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're wrapping up your interviews and your callbacks, and then you're getting offers.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: But most people will get their offers from firms on their summer associate positions in the end of January, early February.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: There are some people that are more stragglers that are still interviewing in early March, but it's more rare.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And by that point, most of the classes at the top firms have probably been filled.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if everything goes as planned, you'll probably know where you're going to go for the summer by the time you hit the end of January, which is the normal timeline for people at a T14 school if you perform reasonably well.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: The vast majority of people seem to have gone in that timeline, at least for the ones going to vault 30 firms, I would say.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the top 30 firms.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this is focused on that.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different strategy if you're going for a different tier.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: The firms that are ranked a little bit lower might hold back a little bit longer because they know they can't compete with those top firms for talent.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they might say, let's go two to three weeks after Kravath and Scadden because we know that if we give someone an offer against them, we're going to lose them anyhow.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: But there's the difference between the 1L summer associate position and a 2L summer associate position.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there's also the jumbo offer where you get both.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's also like a hybrid jumbo offer where it's your 1L, you do get paid as if you were a summer associate, but you aren't actually working at that firm.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: You would choose to do something else in uh the judiciary or the public interest sector.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Some firms will cover your expenses and your salary if you go to a private company and do like an in-house summer internship your 1L year, but the paycheck will look the same and you're still part of a larger firm ecosystem on those uh alternative jumbo offer situations, which is becoming the norm.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, getting a 1L summer associate position where you're going to be working at that firm, like coming into the office, is very rare these days.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's only in a couple of markets, mostly focused in Houston and some other smaller markets where it's harder for firms to get talent.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's also focused around people who are focused on IP for the same reason I mentioned earlier.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: You could get those, it's easier to swing.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: But hard to get an actual in-person thing, more common to get a paycheck for the first summer.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of surviving and enjoying your life, I wouldn't worry about it too much.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Most people won't actually start at their firm as a summer associate until they're 2L summer, which is gonna be pretty far in advance from when you're finishing all this stuff.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: After you've locked in an offer, you've accepted, you know you're gonna start somewhere.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: The summer that comes up, you'll focus on maybe something else.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: You'll probably go to maybe a handful of events that the firm will host just to keep you in the ecosystem and introduce you to the other people you're gonna be summering with, try to get you involved in the firm culture to make sure that you don't leave before your start date as a summer.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And those should be pretty fun events.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: They might be like concerts or dinners or I don't know, an art gallery.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: But that's gonna be the summer on the firm side.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: The next year that you have is gonna be your 2L year.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you can kind of you don't really have to worry about recruiting then.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you're mostly gonna be focused on school if you want to do journals or student org leadership or a moot court or a clinic, that is the time to do that.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: You get to pick more of your classes, it's gonna be probably more enjoyable than your first year, and you can just focus on that for the most part.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Here and there, I would recommend continuing to network, especially when you know exactly what firm you're going to.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if you know you're going to Davis Polk for your 2L summer and you accepted that offer a while ago, from the point when you accept to when the point you start as a summer associate on your 2L summer, you should be meeting people.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: You should be networking, you should be asking for coffee chats.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: You need to get yourself out there a little bit.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be anything crazy, but I would say, you know, in the time between when you accept and when you start your 2L summer, I would probably want to have at least five solid coffee chats done with people who are currently at the firm.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can aim for associates.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I would aim a little bit higher for a partner if you can.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you gotta realize not everyone's gonna be doing the strategy.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you might think, you know, partners are really busy, they're not gonna have time for me.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: But you gotta understand that law students aren't really as aggressive with networking and they don't always do this outreach in a way that is effective.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're able to stand out early and have a good approach and be able to phrase that properly, you can for sure get a phone call with a couple partners for 15, 20 minutes, and at least they know who you are before you even start, which gives you a huge advantage.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you start your summer and you have to deal with firm politics internally, networking, knowing who the power players at the firm are, making sure that you're better positioned to get a full-time return offer when you come in as an actual attorney.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of those decisions are kind of relationship-based as well.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if a firm hires a hundred summer associates and only ends up giving them return offers for 95 of them, which is usually like the standard rate that we see, though that could decline in the future.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who they decide to cut and who this who they decide to keep is largely based on performance, yes.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I think at this point, if you got the offer, you're relatively smart and you can handle it.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of it is just like, did you build good relationships?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a good rapport?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do people know who you are?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do they view you as efficient and effective?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the smartest law student on earth and you do amazing work, if nobody really knows who you are or you aren't showing your work to say, hey, look at all the stuff I'm doing, or putting yourself in position to make sure that people see what you're doing.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: So keep that in mind.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your 2L summer will go relatively, you know, easily.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of information out there on how what a summer associate position is like.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: That will probably hold for your year.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then you'll have your 3L year, which is historically more relaxed, and you get to kind of like pick even easier classes, pick more fun classes for you to do, hang out with your friends for your last haram.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can take it easy on the networking thing at that point because you already have a return full time offer.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the end of the timeline for your student career.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And if anything changes for this cycle or cycles in the future, I will let you know.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is possible that things might move a month or so earlier than the numbers that I quoted.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But for now, I think going in expecting that to be the timeline is the smartest move.