HP in-house department hires law school grads—and Northwestern's a beneficiary

If this is a sign of what's to come, it's huge news.  According to this ALM story, HP will be hiring law school graduates for its in-house department.  Typically, the in-house departments hire biglaw associates after a few years of training.  In-house departments usually lack the size, time, resources and varied work flow that lead to in-depth training.  So it's not surprising to me that two of the four new HP hires will come from Northwestern, which has focused on admitting students with prior work experience.

Comments

[David Hricik]

Go Wildcats!

Hricik (NULS, '88)

[John Steele]

David,

Time will be the judge, but I've been impressed by Northwestern's willingness to take a different approach. Btw, IIRC, they're one of the few schools that seen a significant rise in entering LSATs, and one of the key ways they've done that is through their interviewing of candidates. Bill Henderson's work has suggested that the interviews turn into opportunities for NW to sell the candidates on the NW approach.

[Law school grad]

Perhaps more law schools could focus on applicants to have prior work experience, either working under a lawyer or in a business that is related to the type of law they plan to practice. I realize the current system rewards law schools who focus on LSAT and GPA to the exclusion of other relevant considerations, but MBA programs typically require relevant work experience, so perhaps it is not out of the question for law schools as well.