Hiring junior lawyers is not what it used to be.
If you are hiring candidates with roughly three to six years of experience, you are looking at what we informally call the “COVID cohort.” These are lawyers who graduated from law school between 2019 and 2022 and began their careers in an environment that looked dramatically different from the traditional law firm training model.
For many of these lawyers, the early years of practice unfolded in a fully remote or hybrid world. Workloads were inconsistent as firms adjusted to economic uncertainty. Training was often fragmented. And many missed out on the informal mentorship and real-time learning that earlier generations absorbed simply by being physically present in the office.
Then the market changed almost overnight.
In late 2021, many large law firms experienced an explosion in demand. Firms suddenly found themselves competing intensely for associate talent. Signing bonuses and guaranteed bonuses became commonplace as firms raced to staff deals and cases.
The result was an unprecedented lateral hiring wave. Associates who might traditionally have stayed at one firm for several years were suddenly being recruited aggressively by competitors offering significant financial incentives and immediate opportunities.
Not surprisingly, the resumes from this cohort often look different from what you are accustomed to seeing.
Instead of four to six steady years at a single firm with predictable progression, many lawyers in this group changed firms early and more frequently. In many cases, those moves were driven by a unique combination of pandemic disruption and a historic hiring surge, not individual performance.
We sometimes see hiring managers pause when they notice “jumpy” resumes. The instinct is understandable. But the key point is this candidate profile is not an outlier—it’s the market.
That doesn’t mean your hiring standards should change. Strong legal departments still need lawyers who demonstrate sound judgment, strong communication skills, and the ability to grow into trusted business advisors.
What it does mean is that context matters more than ever.
When evaluating candidates from this cohort, it’s helpful to look beyond the surface of the resume and ask a few deeper questions. What type of work exposure did the candidate actually have? How did they seek out training or mentorship in a disrupted environment? Did they show resilience and adaptability as circumstances changed?
In many cases, the lawyers who navigated those early-career challenges successfully developed skills that are particularly valuable in today’s in-house environment: independence, flexibility, and the ability to operate without constant supervision.
As the market continues to evolve, hiring junior lawyers increasingly requires a more nuanced lens. The goal is not to lower the bar but to understand the environment in which these candidates developed and evaluate them accordingly.
With the right context, many lawyers from this cohort represent exactly the kind of adaptable talent that modern legal departments need.
What real work exposure did they actually have?
Titles and timelines may be misleading for this group. Ask candidates to describe the matters they personally handled, the level of responsibility they had, and how closely they worked with partners or senior lawyers. This helps separate resume noise from real experience.
How did they develop skills in a disrupted environment?
Many junior lawyers during this period had to be proactive about their own development. Did they seek out mentors, volunteer for projects, or find ways to build skills despite remote work and inconsistent training?
What does their trajectory tell you about adaptability?
Multiple moves during this period were often market-driven, not performance-driven. Focus on why and how the candidate navigated those changes—what they learned, how they adjusted, and whether their judgment and professionalism remained consistent.
Ultimately, the “COVID cohort” is more than just a byproduct of a disrupted era—it’s the future of the in-house legal profession. These lawyers have been stress-tested by a market that demanded immediate agility and independent judgment from day one. When you look past the “frequent pivots” on the page, you often find the exact brand of resilience and self-sufficiency that modern legal departments need to navigate the complexities of 2026.
