On March 14-15, 2019, 75 people gathered at Fish & Richardson at the beautiful DC Wharf for the first-ever NALP Reimagining Recruiting: A Design Thinking Workshop and #NALPathon. Among the attendees were NALP members, outside experts, and law students from around the country who came together to learn the principles of design thinking and apply those principles to real life recruiting dilemmas in an 8-team hackathon. The result was chaotic, insightful, educational, and rewarding. The 8 teams came up with creative and innovative solutions to some of our most perplexing issues in entry-level hiring and had a great time in the process. The results are outlined below. (Note that all solutions are just ideas! No actual products were created.)

The Faculty

Our facilitator and design thinking trainer was Erin Walczewski, a Lecturer on Law on the faculty of Harvard Law School who co-teaches an upper-level class on innovation. Erin serves as pro bono counsel for Cooley LLP, focusing on nonprofit counseling and low-income entrepreneurs. She started her legal career as a transactional attorney helping entrepreneurs start new businesses and helping venture capitalists invest in them. She earned her JD from Harvard Law School and graduated valedictorian from Truman State University. She served as the director of the Kirkland Pre-Law Program at Harvard College 2008 to 2018. She teaches negotiation, innovation, problem-solving, and advocacy and is a frequent public speaker and presenter.

The Prompts

Teams selected from a list of prompts such as "Making the Perfect Match" and "Keeping Summer Programs Relevant."
See the full list of prompts here.

The Teams

Blue Team – 1st place winner – Topic: No GPA? No Problem!

Burgundy Team – 2nd place winner – Topic: On-Campus Interviews

Orange Team – 3rd place winner – Topic: Making the Perfect Match

Gray Team – Topic: Keeping Summer Programs Relevant

Red Team – Topic: Focusing on Wellness and Well-Being

Purple Team – Topic: Engaging 1Ls

Yellow Team – Topic: The Callback Interview Process

Green Team – Topic: Diversity Among Lawyers and Law Students

The Results

Overview video

Watch the video highlight reel here

Want to see the full videos? Go here.

What Is Design Thinking?

Review this video and article for a basic understanding of the design thinking process:

• Video (8 min): ABC Nightline – IDEO Shopping Cart
• Article (7-min read): 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

If you have additional questions, contact Mary Beal at [email protected]