Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is cutting the size of its 2010 summer associate class in half and adjusting its recruitment strategy by making all of its offers on a single day in late September, reports The Am Law Daily.

Skadden recruited 225 summer associates this year and expects to hire a little more than 100 next year, though the precise figure will depend on offer acceptance rates, said Skadden recruiting partner Howard Ellin.

The firm will not rescind offers to any of its prospective 2010 intake. Ellin said that if, for example, 150 of the intake accept, the firm will hire all 150 even though that number exceeds the figure it currently has in mind.

Ellin said: "[Rescinding offers] is unprofessional and a shock to our conscience."

Skadden in also offering full-time positions to 95% of of its 2009 summer intake, although they will not start at the firm until 2011.

Those that Skadden opts to keep on from its 2010 summer intake will receive their offers on the same day – 22 September, which the firm has dubbed 'Skadden Offer Day'. The firm will continue to give those who receive offers 45 days to evaluate them, in compliance with informal guidelines set by the National Association for Law Placement.

The change comes in response to the growing number of law schools who have pushed first and second-round interviews up to late August and early September, Ellin said.

Along with Carol Sprague, Skadden's director of associate and alumni relations and attorney recruiting, Ellin is currently interviewing at Harvard Law School, and the school's callback week starts on 11 September. Other top schools have moved to similar timetables, and more law firm recruiters have openly expressed their discomfort with a recruiting timetable that requires them to make summer offers almost a year in advance.

In the past Skadden has made offers on a rolling timetable that has extended in some cases into December, but the increasingly early interview schedule – plus the 45-day guideline – has created a situation where making the decision earlier is best for the firm, and, perhaps, for the students.

"The fact that schools are now front-loading in August and September has squeezed things so tightly that it made this an easy thing to do," Ellin said.

The Am Law Daily is the website of The American Lawyer, Legal Week's US sister title.

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