NALP Foundation president and CEO Fiona Trevelyan Hornblower. (Courtesy photo.)

Fiona Trevelyan Hornblower has a unique vantage point on the legal employment market. She's a litigator who previously oversaw Bingham McCutchen's national recruiting operation. And she has spent the past seven years helping law students find jobs as the assistant dean for career development at Boston University School of Law. Hornblower is now bringing that experience to the NALP Foundation—which conducts research on the legal industry—as its new president and chief executive officer. She shares her thoughts on the power of data to pave the way for change in the profession. She also discusses her goals for the NALP Foundation and what's next for changing legal employment landscape. Her answers have been edited for length and clarity.

What is the mission of the NALP Foundation and how is that different from NALP? NALP created the NALP Foundation in 1996 to really focus on research. NALP serves a critical role as a trade association for law schools and legal employers, focusing on career services, recruiting and professional development. They provide specific information about that, which I think is key and helpful. The foundation's mission is to improve the quality and delivery of legal services by ensuring that community and society at large have a reliable, objective and affordable source of information. The foundation's focus is on identifying issues where we can either, independently or in concert with research partners, provide robust research and information to enable organizations in the legal profession to make tangible and informed moves that improve not only their own organization, but the profession as a whole.

What are some areas where the foundation conducts research? We've done research on associate attrition—we did the After the JD study. We've also developed new research projects as the economy and the profession have evolved. In the past couple of years, we've developed some programming to get this information out. For example, we have a really successful hiring partner conference that just had its fourth year.

What are your initial goals for the NALP Foundation? A key goal for me is to make sure the foundation is serving its function to provide research to the legal profession on critical issues. I'm really looking forward to broadening the number and types of schools and employers that are actively engaging with us and partnering with us to make sure our research and programming is as robust as possible and reflects the deep variety within our profession and provides them with the information they need.

Are there any new research areas that you'd like to see the NALP Foundation look into? There are so many interesting and really critical issues in the profession right now. Obviously diversity and equity is rapidly evolving in how folks think about it and address it. I think career trajectory and what the key influencers are for key cohorts is really interesting. Mental health is obviously an enormously important issue in both law schools and the profession. There is a really interesting set of questions about the impact of legal operations and legal services providers. Succession planning. Recession planning. Work-life balance. The impact of artificial intelligence. There are a lot of interesting questions that could potentially be explored right now.

What are a few areas around the mental health issue that we need to better understand? I think we need to understand the continuum between law school and folks entering the profession, and their longevity in the profession. Are there specific strategies we can be deploying in each of those time frames to make sure we are—early on—identifying mental health issues, successfully deploying strategies to help folks deal with what is a fascinating and high-stress profession for many practitioners. How do we make it a sustainable profession, both by being more open about mental health issues systemically and individually?

Diversity is always a hot topic and challenge. What role can the NALP Foundation play in improving diversity in the profession? Our role is twofold: One is research and the other is information sharing. On the research side: Thinking about and getting real data on how the real experience of diverse lawyers and law students may align with or differ from their peers, and what can employers and schools do about that, based on empiric fact. Then sharing and aggregating successful strategies so that employers have an informed sense of the waterfront and what may best suit their organization's culture and goals.

How has the law student employment world changed over the past five years? There has been an enormous amount of change—much to the good. On the school side, there has been an explosion around experiential education, and this has really helped students define their areas of interest and prepare for them much more effectively. There has also been increased scrutiny of employment data by the ABA and others, and that has led folks to ensure they are working with students early to understand what their career goals are and guide those conversations. There is a lot earlier focus at many law schools on thinking about career preparation in the 1L year. On the employer side, I've been really intrigued by the broadening interest of varying types of employers in bringing on new graduates. For example, there are more in-house positions for entry-level attorneys than there were just five years ago. Of course, with the elimination of the NALP principles and standards in December 2018, there have been lots of interesting developments—earlier OCI programs and the rise in "pre-cruiting" being the two most notable ones.

What can law schools do better to prepare student to get jobs? I think the best thing law schools can do is stay close to the market and to employers. Listen to what they need from folks joining their organization and bring that information back to the faculty and the leadership of the law school so it can be integrated into the students' educational experiences.