NALP Bulletin+
March 2022
Every few years, NALP surveys second-year law students who participated in their law school's fall on-campus interview (OCI)/recruitment program in order to gauge changes in student behaviors and attitudes. After taking an extra year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NALP's Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position was the first to gather information regarding student perceptions of virtual screening and callback interviews and their format preferences. The findings are included in NALP's Perspectives on 2021 Law Student Recruiting.
Chart 1 shows the percentage of second-year students who reported participating in virtual, in-person, or both interview formats for screening and callback interviews. For both types of interviews the majority of students reported that all of their interviews were virtual, but the percentage was higher for screening interviews (85%) as compared to callback interviews (78%). Just 1% of students reported that all of their screening interviews were conducted in person and 5% reported that all of their callback interviews were in person. The remainder of students responded that they participated in both virtual and in-person interviews.
For those students who participated in both virtual and in-person interviews, Chart 2 displays their interview format preferences. The vast majority of students preferred in-person screening (71% preferred) and callback interviews (74% preferred). Another 13% of students preferred virtual screening interviews and 17% preferred virtual callback interviews. The rest had no preference.
Students who were offered a choice of interview formats were asked whether they felt any pressure by firms to select a particular format. As seen in Chart 3, 80% of students offered a format choice for screening interviews and 70% of students offered a choice for callback interviews did not feel pressure to select a particular interview format. For students who reported feeling pressure, they were most likely to report pressure to select in-person screening or callback interviews.
Finally, Chart 4 presents student recommendations for interview formats in future recruiting cycles. Students were most likely to recommend offering future students the choice between in-person and virtual interviews for both screening interviews (48% recommend a choice) and callback interviews (55% recommend a choice). For students recommending one format over the other, students were more likely to recommend virtual screening interviews (37% recommend) but recommended in-person callback interviews (34% recommend).
Additional findings from the Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position are available in NALP's Perspectives on 2021 Law Student Recruiting.
Chart 1. Format of Second-Year Student Interviews for Summer 2022 Positions
Note: Percentages based on 1,249 student responses to the item regarding screening interview formats and 1,113 student responses to the item regarding callback interview formats.
Source: NALP’s Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position.
Note: Percentages based on 165 student responses to the item regarding screening interview formats and 193 student responses to the item regarding callback interview formats.
Source: NALP’s Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position.
Note: Percentages based on 61 student responses to the item regarding screening interview pressure and 189 student responses to the item regarding callback interview pressure.
Source: NALP’s Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position.
Chart 4. Second-Year Student Recommendations for Future Interview Formats (in percentages)
Note: Percentages based on 1,246 student responses to the item regarding screening interview formats and 1,111 student responses to the item regarding callback interview formats.
Source: NALP’s Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position.
