How to describe the summer associate recruiting scene? In a word—stable.

Firms hired law students in similar numbers as the previous three years during last summer’s on-campus recruiting season, according to new data from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). By many accounts 2018 was a record year for large firm profits but that didn’t translate into a bump in summer associate recruiting. The latest numbers offer further evidence that summer associate and associate hiring has settled into a “new normal” that falls short of the more robust Big Law hiring practices that predated the recession.