The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Council of Student Representatives signed a letter urging the American Bar Association to reconsider accelerated recruiting timelines earlier this month.
The January letter — addressed to Daniel Thies, the chair of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar — identified key issues related to the changing recruitment timelines for law students. Student representatives at Penn Carey Law — alongside 17 other law schools across the country — outlined concerns over the compromised quality of legal education, increased pressures to choose careers, and significant strains on legal recruitment teams.
Requests for comment were left with a Penn Carey Law spokesperson and Penn Carey Law School’s Council of Student Representatives.
The letter pointed to changing priorities in legal education, arguing that schools have shifted away from a focus on legal studies to increasingly earlier career recruitment.
“This attention to recruitment risks undermining the efficacy of the first-year curriculum,” the letter read, adding that “students are deprived of the time necessary to study diligently.”
The message to the ABA argued that early recruitment timelines limit the meaningful development of students’ professional and academic interests and hinder them from exploring the width and breadth of potential future legal careers.
The first-year law school curriculum, the signatories stated, is meant to build analytical and professional competencies that carry significance throughout the student’s future legal career rather than prepare them for imminent career recruitment.
“What we’re increasingly seeing is many more mismatches, on both sides of the aisle,” University of Chicago Law School Dean for Career Services Lois Casaleggi said on the issue in a December 2025 interview with Bloomberg Law. “Most first-semester 1Ls don’t have fully formed ideas about what they might want to do in the law."
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The letter to the ABA concluded by suggesting potential solutions to the issue — including creating a platform for open communication between students, schools, and employers, as well as developing and reviewing policies for recruitment programs and accreditation standards.
The authors called for increased collaboration between the student groups and the ABA, requesting “a dialogue and opportunities to engage with the ABA on this issue.”
In a Jan. 26 press release from the National Association for Law Placement, NALP Executive Director Nikia Gray cited similar concerns about “where the industry is headed.”
“One of the forces exerting the most pressure on the structure of the first-year curriculum is not pedagogical reform or accreditation standards, but employer recruiting activity,” her statement read.
The January letter concluded, “We aim to help shape a recruiting system that prioritizes legal education, professional development, and informed career decision-making.”
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Staff reporter Rachel Erhag covers student government and can be reached at rerhag@sas.upenn.edu. At Penn, she studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow her on X @RErhag.
