Legal Recruiting Assistant

Cleary-Gottlieb-Steen-; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 59,000 - 72,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Job summary

Cleary Gottlieb is seeking a Legal Recruiting Assistant to support law student recruiting, lateral hiring, and the Summer Associate Program. You’ll coordinate interviews, manage candidate communications, and track offers. You’ll also assist with onboarding, budgets, and program events, partnering with HR and firm leadership.

The role emphasizes strong organization, project management, and excellent communication in a fast-paced, professional services environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience required.
• Experience in a law firm or professional services preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal, client service, and written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong events coordination and organization skills.
• Ability to work independently and in a team, plan ahead, and meet deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate interview programs (CIP/OCI), callback interviews, and events with logistics.
• Serve as primary contact for law schools, career services, and candidates.
• Manage applicant tracking systems and candidate records with accuracy.
• Assist in planning law school fairs, networking events, and sponsorships.
• Support offer tracking, draft letters, and monitor deadlines.
• Coordinate full lateral interview process and liaison with search firms.
• Onboard incoming lateral attorneys with HR and talent teams.
• Track hiring metrics and prepare status reports for stakeholders.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Communication

Organization

Events coordination

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Word

PowerPoint

Excel

Zoom

Job description

Overview

Cleary Gottlieb is a pioneer in globalizing the legal profession. We have fourteen offices in major financial centers around the world, but we operate as a single, integrated global partnership and not a U.S. firm with a network of overseas locations. The firm employs approximately 1,100 lawyers from more than fifty countries.

Since 1946, our lawyers and staff have worked across practices, industries, jurisdictions, and continents to provide clients with simple, actionable approaches to their most complex legal and business challenges, whether domestic or international. We support every client relationship with intellectual agility, commercial acumen, and a human touch.

The Legal Recruiting Assistant supports the firm's overall hiring and talent processes including all law student, judicial clerks and lateral hiring efforts, as well as the administration of its Summer Associate Program. This role is central to delivering a positive, well-organized candidate experience across the full recruiting lifecycle and works closely with the Legal Recruiting team, hiring and talent partners, and attorneys firmwide.

Responsibilities

Law Student Recruiting

• Coordinate all interview programs (CIP/OCI), callback interviews, and recruiting events, including scheduling, travel logistics, and candidate communications.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for law school career services offices, student affinity groups, and candidates throughout the recruiting cycle.
• Manage recruiting databases and applicant tracking systems, ensuring candidate records, interview feedback, and offer statuses are accurate and current.
• Assist in planning and executing law school job fairs, networking receptions, pipeline events, and sponsorships.
• Prepare interview schedules, candidate packets, and briefing materials for interviewing attorneys.
• Support offer and acceptance tracking, including drafting offer letters and monitoring response deadlines.

Lateral Associate and Attorney Hiring

• Coordinate the full lateral interview process, including scheduling, coordination, and candidate correspondence.
• Liaise with legal recruiting agencies and search firms regarding candidate submissions and interview logistics.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date lateral candidate records, interview evaluations, and hiring committee materials.
• Assist with onboarding logistics for incoming lateral attorneys in coordination with Human Resources, and related talent teams.
• Track lateral hiring metrics and prepare regular status reports for Talent and other stakeholders.

Summer Associate Program Management

• Support planning and execution of the Summer Associate Program, including orientation, training sessions, social events, and mentorship pairings.
• Coordinate summer associate work assignments, midsummer and end-of-summer evaluations, and feedback collection from supervising attorneys.
• Manage program budgets, vendor coordination, and logistics for summer associate events and off-site activities.
• Serve as a day-to-day resource for summer associates, addressing questions and escalating concerns as appropriate.
• Track summer associate performance data and assist with return-offer decision materials.
• Prepare post-program surveys and summary reports to inform future program improvements.

General Legal Recruiting Support

• Maintain recruiting budgets, invoices, and expense tracking for hiring and program-related activities.
• Assist with the preparation of recruiting materials, presentations, and reports for firm leadership and hiring committees.
• Perform other duties and special projects as assigned by the Director of Legal Recruiting.

Recruiting Branding and Marketing

• Develop and maintain recruiting collateral, including brochures, presentations, and candidate-facing materials that reflect the firm's brand and culture.
• Plan and execute social media campaigns to promote law student recruiting, lateral hiring, and the Summer Associate Program across relevant platforms.
• Manage and update recruiting content on the firm's website, ensuring information about hiring programs and opportunities remains current and engaging.
• Partner with the firm's marketing and communications team to align recruiting messaging with overall firm branding initiatives.
• Monitor recruiting-related digital engagement and assist in evaluating the effectiveness of branding and marketing efforts.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent work experience required.
• Experience in a law firm or other professional services environment preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal, client service, and written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong events coordination and organization skills.
• Exercises good judgment, has excellent organization skills, and strong attention to detail.
• Able to work independently and in a team, plan ahead, push projects forward and meet deadlines.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Outlook and Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Zoom.

The estimated base salary for this position is $65,000 at the time of posting. The actual salary offered will depend on a variety of job-related factors, including skills, education, training, credentials, experience, scope and complexity of role responsibilities, geographic location, and performance. This role is non-exempt meaning that it is overtime pay eligible.

Cleary provides a comprehensive benefits package, including health care benefits. More information can be found here:Benefits

We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination based on any category protected by law. Cleary provides reasonable accommodations to enable otherwise qualified employees to perform the essential functions of their position, provided the accommodation does not pose an undue hardship to the Firm.