Why do it? Why shouldn’t you?
Last year around this time, it was all anyone could talk about. Are you applying, where to, what are your grades like, do you think you want to do corporate law, etc. Everyone has an understandable and deep personal desire to be the best, to stand out from their peers, and send a message that their choice to go to law school was the right one. What better way to prove yourself than to get hired in the most competitive recruitment process that Osgoode has to offer?
I get it, I really do. With that said, I remember feeling a lot of pressure to do the recruit, but I heard very little information about why not to. In hindsight, not getting a 1L job was one of the best things to have happened to me in first year, though getting an interview and actually going through the motions and experiencing the process were quite valuable too. Plus, it gave me something to work from when I was doing the next round of applications. There’s good and there’s bad to everything, but I did find the bad of the 1L recruit was not discussed adequately.
So, with that said, here’s why you shouldn’t do the 1L recruit. In no particular order:
1. You might get a job that you think you want, that you’ve just been told that you want, that you don’t actually want. It’s so easy to get caught up in this excited employment mill, and for good reason. Still, just because you’re offered an option this early in the game, does not mean you have to take it if it doesn’t feel right to you.
2. You don’t have to do corporate law! Even though formal recruits make it seem like the only way to be successful, this just simply isn’t true. It’s the first thing we learn about, it’s an enticing path because lots of people have debts to pay back and want to live comfortably, but please remember that it’s not the only way forward.
3. There are very few firms participating. Personally, I applied to four firms in January, and 22 in the fall. Almost all the firms I had applied to in January were also taking students in the fall. Unless there are exceptional cases (like Dentons this past year), you will not miss the opportunity to apply to the 1L recruit firms if you choose not to apply to them in January. Ultimately, you may find you wish you had more options to choose from. Your choices are very, very limited in February.
4. You will have to start your career this summer, even though it’s probably the last summer you’ll have for a long time where your experience does not necessarily have to be legal. While having legal experience is great, tree-planting is probably better for building character. Remember your passions one last time, and don’t pigeonhole yourself into a Bay St. firm just because you think you should. If you’re headed to Bay St., you will likely be spending a lot of time there anyway. 14 weeks less of that is okay.
5. You may find yourself somewhere you don’t want to be, and you will be forced to decide to leave a firm in favour of applying to others, later, that are a better fit. This is not common, and it’s completely possible you’ll do the 2L recruit and find yourself in the same situation. However, with so few options in the 1L recruit, the chances of this needing to happen are higher.
Since I have just spent some of your day trashing the process, I’ll admit there are some benefits to participating, some are more important to recognize than others. Again, in no particular order;
1. You’ll get to do a dry-run for the fall recruit in a no-downside environment. If you don’t get a job, no one is going to hold it against you next time you apply, especially since you have so few options for this round to even apply to.
2. The CDO will be more available during your application process than they will be when you’re applying for the actual recruit over the summer, so you can get help from both staff and students more readily if you’re doing these applications since it’s occurring during the academic year.
3. You may get a job, which is great, just as long as you know exactly what you want and you’re not accepting for the wrong reasons.
4. Lots of firms do the same kind of work, it’s about finding somewhere you’ll feel comfortable doing it. If you find that in 1L, you should absolutely go for it.
5. Taking a job now means you’ll likely not be applying in the fall. This saves you a ton of time of course, you’ll be able to have a carefree summer after your 1L gig stops.
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do, and I hope this brings a bit of clarity to what you are about to go through. Remember it’s not the end of anything, in fact, it’s literally barely the beginning of this thing called becoming a lawyer.
The members of the Obiter Dicta Editorial Board are available to support you throughout the application process. Reach out to any of us, whether you have questions about formatting, content, style, or the recruit overall.