As part of a session at the NALP Annual Education Conference, Flo set out to better understand how law students are experiencing Career Services in today’s rapidly evolving recruiting landscape.
Rather than evaluating performance, the goal was to gather perspective and to better understand:
- How students engage with Career Services
- How supported they feel
- What additional context or resources they’re seeking
Our Approach
We surveyed current students actively using Flo Forward.
- ~600 responses
- 130 law schools represented
To ensure responses were grounded in real experience, we also included questions about how frequently students interact with their Career Services Office and the types of support they’ve received. This helped provide context around their level of engagement, rather than capturing feedback in a vacuum.
While not statistically significant at the individual school level, the responses provide a directional view across a broad range of student experiences.
Key Insight #1: A Strong Foundation of Support
When asked whether their Career Services Office provides the support and resources they need:
74% of students said yes
This reflects the meaningful work happening across Career Services teams and provides a strong foundation to build on.
There’s a lot here that’s working, and that’s worth recognizing.
Key Insight #2: Earlier Recruiting Timelines Are Shaping Student Expectations
As recruiting timelines continue to move earlier, students are navigating key decisions with less time and more urgency than in previous cycles.
This shift is changing what students expect from Career Services, particularly around timely, relevant information that helps them act quickly and confidently.
Students are actively seeking out information from a variety of sources, but continue to look to their Career Services Office as a trusted source of guidance and context to help interpret what they’re seeing.
Key Insight #3: Themes in Student Feedback
When asked about their satisfaction with the support and resources provided by their Career Services Office, 85.7% of students reported being very or mostly satisfied, another meaningful data point that reflects the strong foundation many offices have built.
Among students who expressed neutral to lower satisfaction, several consistent themes emerged. These are not necessarily gaps, but areas where students are seeking additional clarity, context, or support as they navigate an increasingly complex process.
Clarity & Timing
Students are looking for:
- Earlier visibility into recruiting timelines
- Clearer expectations around when and how to engage
Personalized, Practical Guidance
Students value:
- Individualized advising
- Help translating experience into applications
- Interview preparation and feedback
Access to Employers & Opportunities
Students are seeking:
- Stronger connections to employers
- Networking and mentorship opportunities
More visibility into available roles.
Broader Career Path Visibility
Students expressed interest in:
- Public interest and mid-law opportunities
- Alternative and JD-advantaged roles
- Support tailored to diverse backgrounds and goals
Access to Information & Market Context
Students want:
- More insight into how recruiting works today
- Firm-level and market-level context
- Guidance that reflects current conditions
Important Context
Many of these themes reflect not only Career Services, but also the broader transformation of legal recruiting, including:
- Accelerated timelines
- Shifts from OCI to direct applications
- Increased competition and information asymmetry
This underscores that student sentiment is shaped by both institutional support and external market forces.
Final Thoughts
Students are asking for more clarity, more personalization, and more visibility as they navigate an increasingly complex process, and they are looking to their Career Services teams to identify trusted sources of information.
Career Services teams are already doing deeply impactful work, and that impact is being recognized by their students.
Flo builds resources like the Recruiting Tracker, firm insights, and event visibility to support that work, giving Career Services teams flexible tools they can use in the way that best fits their students’ needs.
If it would be helpful to explore how other schools are using these tools, we’d love to connect. Schedule a quick chat here. https://www.joinflo.com/request-demo