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The OCI timeline for 1Ls has no national date at all, because the December 1 rule was NALP's own guidance rather than an ABA Standard and NALP rescinded it on December 12, 2018. Timing is now set by each law school's own policy. Verified July 2026.
No, and there has not been since 2018. The rule was NALP's own guidance, it was never an ABA Standard, and NALP rescinded it on December 12, 2018 and replaced it with guidance carrying no date; It was replaced in December 2018 by the Principles for a Fair and Ethical Recruitment Process, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
The old provision said employers should not initiate formal one-on-one recruiting contact, including applications, interviews or offers, to first year students before December 1 (https://www.uclawsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/NALP-National-Association-for-Law-Placement-_-Full-Text-of-NALP-Principles-and-Standards.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
NALP reaffirmed the no-date approach on April 8, 2026, asking employers to exercise particular care during the first semester and respect law school guidelines governing 1L recruitment (https://www.nalp.org/nalp-statement-on-law-student-recruiting), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
No. ABA Standard 304 is titled Experiential Courses: Simulation Courses, Law Clinics, and Field Placements, and it contains no mention of recruiting, summer jobs or December 1 anywhere in its text; That is a verified negative rather than an absence of searching. Verified July 2026.
Standard 304(b) defines a simulation course as one providing substantial experience not involving an actual client, and 304(c) defines a law clinic as substantial lawyering experience involving actual clients (https://law.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/02/ABA-Standard-304-Experiential-Courses.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
We checked the full Standards and found no Standard in any chapter governing student recruiting timing, summer job application dates, on-campus interviews or employer contact with students (https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/storage/documents/cites/2019-2020-aba-standards.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
Standard 508 requires career counseling and Standard 509 requires outcome disclosure, and neither sets a recruiting protocol (https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/storage/documents/cites/2019-2020-aba-standards.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
Whenever your own law school's policy allows, and those policies disagree with each other by more than a month. Northwestern and Harvard OPIA say November 1, Berkeley says the beginning of December; Northwestern sets November 1 and Berkeley sets the beginning of December, from each school's own recruiting policy pages, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
SchoolWhen its own policy lets a 1L be contacted or applySourceNorthwesternNovember 1https://www.law.northwestern.edu/career/employers/recruiting-policies/Harvard OPIANovember 1https://www.law.northwestern.edu/career/employers/recruiting-policies/ColumbiaNovemberhttps://www.law.northwestern.edu/career/employers/recruiting-policies/GWNovember to Aprilhttps://www.law.northwestern.edu/career/employers/recruiting-policies/BerkeleyThe beginning of Decemberhttps://www.law.berkeley.edu/careers/for-1ls/1l-faqs/DukeStill frames December 1https://www.law.berkeley.edu/careers/for-1ls/1l-faqs/
Duke still frames its guidance around December 1 even though the underlying NALP rule was rescinded, which is exactly the confusion this page exists to clear (https://www.law.berkeley.edu/careers/for-1ls/1l-faqs/), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
Find your own school's policy page before you plan anything. It is the only document that binds you, and it is not the same as your friend's at another school.
Earlier than most 1Ls expect, and some open before their own 2L windows. Covington opened 2026 1L summer applications on November 3, 2025, ahead of its December 1 2L window; Sidley Austin publishes that it generally considers 1L applications from November to February, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
EmployerWhat it publishes for 1L applicationsSourceCovington and Burling2026 1L summer applications open November 3, 2025, before its December 1 2L windowhttps://www.cov.com/en/careers/lawyers/north-america/law-students/applying-to-our-summer-programSidley AustinGenerally considers 1L applications from November to Februaryhttps://www.sidleycareers.com/en/northamerica/apply-hereCooley1L applications for the 2025-2026 year due January 9, 2026https://www.cooley.com/careers/law-students/us-1l-diversity-fellowshipGibson Dunn New YorkStates it does not plan to hire additional students for its 2026 1L summer programhttps://www.gibsondunn.com/careers/law-students/how-to-apply-to-gibson-dunn-new-york/US Department of JusticeFirst-year students who have not completed their first semester may apply for volunteer internships after December 1https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/volunteer-legal-internships
Cooley published a January 9, 2026 deadline for 1L applications for the 2025-2026 academic year (https://www.cooley.com/careers/law-students/us-1l-diversity-fellowship), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
Most firms publish a window rather than a hard open date, and many pages had not been updated for the coming cycle as of late July 2026, so the early-November claim is supported for Covington and Sidley specifically rather than generally. Verified July 2026.
Yes, at the Department of Justice. DOJ's own rule states that first-year students who have not completed their first semester may apply for volunteer internships after December 1; That is DOJ's own published rule on its volunteer legal internships page, retrieved July 31, 2026, and it is a genuine gate rather than a rescinded convention. Verified July 2026.
It applies to DOJ volunteer internships specifically. It is not a general government rule and it is not a law school rule.
This is the one place the December 1 date survives, which is probably part of why the myth has outlived the rule that created it.
Autumn is for grades and for finding your own school's policy. Winter is for applying once that policy opens, and spring is for the judicial, government and academic jobs that never had a recruiting timeline at all. Verified July 2026.
The first semester genuinely is for grades, and that is not a timing rule, it is that your first-semester transcript is the only new evidence you will have.
NALP's current guidance asks employers to exercise particular care during the first semester, which is a request to employers rather than a restriction on you (https://www.nalp.org/fair_ethical_recruitment), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
By spring the firm windows have largely closed and the judicial, government and academic routes are still open. Most 1Ls discover that order backwards.
Yes, and the useful preparation is not interview practice. It is first-year grades, a resume with one real legal experience on it, and a faculty member who can write about your work; OCI screens on grades before it screens on anything else, and no amount of interview polish moves a transcript. Verified July 2026.
The second lever is having something to talk about. A judicial internship or research position gives an interviewer a subject other than your classes.
Our position is that a 1L who spends spring on mock interviews rather than on securing substantive work has optimised the wrong thing.
No, and treating it that way causes real harm. 2L recruiting screens primarily on first-year grades, and a 1L summer spent somewhere unglamorous is not a disqualification anywhere; The 1L firm summer is a scarce good rather than a standard step. Verified July 2026.
Gibson Dunn's New York office states it does not plan to hire additional students for its 2026 1L summer program at all (https://www.gibsondunn.com/careers/law-students/how-to-apply-to-gibson-dunn-new-york/), retrieved July 31, 2026, which is a useful reminder that these programmes are small and their absence is common. Verified July 2026.
Most students at most schools do not have one and go on to fine outcomes.
What matters is that the summer was substantive and that you can describe what you did. That is achievable in a courthouse, an agency or a professor's office.
Any aggregator that cites ABA Standard 304 as the source of a December 1 application gate. That claim is false, and a database repeating it is wrong about the thing it exists to tell you; Standard 304 governs experiential coursework and no ABA Standard governs recruiting timing, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
Firm and programme deadlines come from the employer's own careers page or they do not belong in a plan. That is the rule this page follows for every date above.
Where an aggregator and a firm's own page disagree, the firm's page wins every time and the aggregator has told you something about its own reliability.
Whether the schools that still frame December 1 will update, and what most firms will publish for the coming cycle. Many firm pages had not been refreshed as of late July 2026; The current NALP provision contains no date of any kind, so there is no national answer to converge on, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
That means the divergence between school policies is the stable state rather than a transition. Plan around your own school rather than around a national norm.
Check both your school's policy page and the employer's careers page. Those two documents are the whole answer for you specifically.
Every figure on this 1L recruiting timing page carries a Verified July 2026 stamp because a dated stamp is the only honest way to publish a number that moves. Each source below was retrieved in July 2026 and is linked in full rather than named vaguely, so nothing here is modelled, averaged or inferred.
What it supportsSourceNALP Principles and Standards, the rescinded December 1 provisionhttps://www.uclawsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/NALP-National-Association-for-Law-Placement-_-Full-Text-of-NALP-Principles-and-Standards.pdfNALP Principles for a Fair and Ethical Recruitment Process, December 2018https://www.nalp.org/uploads/PFERP/Principles_Full_Mailing_12-2018--.pdfNALP current recruitment guidance, no date of any kindhttps://www.nalp.org/fair_ethical_recruitmentNALP statement on law student recruiting, April 8 2026https://www.nalp.org/nalp-statement-on-law-student-recruitingABA Standard 304, Experiential Courseshttps://law.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/02/ABA-Standard-304-Experiential-Courses.pdfFull ABA Standards, checked for any recruiting timing rulehttps://www.lawschooltransparency.com/storage/documents/cites/2019-2020-aba-standards.pdfCovington and Burling 1L application windowhttps://www.cov.com/en/careers/lawyers/north-america/law-students/applying-to-our-summer-programDOJ volunteer legal internships, the one live December 1 rulehttps://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/volunteer-legal-internships
No. It was NALP's guidance, never an ABA Standard, and NALP rescinded it on December 12, 2018.
The current provision carries no date at all. Verified July 2026.
No. Standard 304 governs experiential courses, simulation courses, law clinics and field placements.
No ABA Standard in any chapter governs recruiting timing. Verified July 2026.
When your own school's policy allows. Northwestern and Harvard OPIA say November 1, Columbia says November, GW November to April, Berkeley the beginning of December. Verified July 2026.
Covington opened 2026 1L applications on November 3, 2025, before its December 1 2L window. Sidley considers them November to February.
Cooley set January 9, 2026. Verified July 2026.
Yes, at the Department of Justice. Its own rule lets first-year students who have not completed their first semester apply for volunteer internships after December 1. Verified July 2026.
Find your own law school's recruiting policy page this week. It is the only timing document that actually binds you, and it is probably not December 1. The Lovare Diagnostic takes about fifteen minutes and returns your own numbers against published school data rather than a single probability, and it is free.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026