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.