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Legal Recruiting Assistant


Job Location:

Washington, DC - USA

Yearly Salary: USD 65000 - 65000
Posted: 7 October 2026 (3 days ago)
Application Deadline: 4 January 2027
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

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 1100 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 firms 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 firms 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 firms website ensuring information about hiring programs and opportunities remains current and engaging.
  • Partner with the firms 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
  • Bachelors 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 $65000 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.

Click on the following links to view theCalifornia Privacy PolicyandNotice at Collection for California Residents.


Required Experience:

Junior IC