Career Services For Employers

We invite you to participate in our on-campus interviews and see why Vanderbilt students stand out because of their excellent legal training combined with their leadership, communication, and social skills.

Each fall, employers have the opportunity to conduct on-campus interviews with second- and third-year students interested in serving as summer associates or in entry-level positions. On-Campus recruitment of 2Ls and 3Ls can be arranged any time classes are in session. If you are unable to come to campus to interview, we have video-conferencing capabilities for your convenience. Please contact us at 615-322-6192 to schedule or for more information.

Using the employers’ hiring criteria as a guide, students submit ranked bids for on-campus interviews. Their resumes are then made available to the employers for whom they bid. If there are enough slots on the employer’s interview schedule(s) to allow all bidding students to have an interview, all are given interviews.

If there are not enough slots on the employer’s interview schedule(s) for all bidding students to have an interview, the employer may preselect students to fill 50% of their interview slots. The remaining 50% of the slots are filled by students who submitted the highest ranked bids for that employer.

If an employer’s hiring criteria includes a required minimum GPA cut-off, the employer is not obligated to interview students who fall below this minimum requirement . Please note that Vanderbilt Law School does not rank students individually in their class and there are no published cumulative percentile rankings. The only mark of distinction published is the Dean’s List, which is a non-cumulative breakdown of the top 20% per semester.

Employers whose interview schedules are not filled by bidding students may get additional candidates through the Open Sign-Up process. This follows the bidding process whereby students are allowed to sign up for open slots on interview schedules after the bidding students have been scheduled for interviews. The same hiring criteria will be posted for these sign-ups as were posted for the initial bidding process. Employers who prefer to limit their interviews to those students who initially submitted bids for them may do so and bypass the Open Sign-Up process by notifying Career Services.

Typically, full day schedule times for fall OCIs are as follows:

• • 8:20 am – 4:20 pm [19 interview slots – 20 minutes each]
  • or 8:30 am – 3:40 pm [21 interview slots – 15 minutes each].
  • Both times include a 10 minute morning and afternoon break and an hour and 20 minute lunch break.

Spring OCI full day times are either:

• 9:00 am – 2:40 pm [14 interview slots- 20 minutes each]
• or 9:00 am – 2:00 pm [16 interview slots- 15 minutes each],
• a lunch break from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm.

Thirty minute interviews, ½ day schedules, or alternate times may be requested for both OCI sessions. Please indicate the latter two requests in the “Notes” section of the schedule request form.

Government and public interest employers, and law firms of 100 or fewer attorneys are exempt from registration fees.

$400 per schedule, per day, for firms with more than 100 attorneys firm-wide.

If you are unable to visit the Vanderbilt campus, we invite you to provide information about your employment opportunities or collect resumes from our students and/or recent alumni. Employers may submit a request online through Symplicity. From the homepage, under Shortcuts, click on 'Create Non-OCI Job Posting.'

Alternatively, if you're not on Symplicity, contact the Career Services Office at 615-322-6192 or email Mary Griffin to request a Non-OCI Job Posting Form.

We are pleased to provide you with online access to the resumes of our 2L and 3L students who are currently seeking employment. Through the Resume Book feature in Symplicity, you can connect with students with students who have agreed to participate in our resume collection program. Based on your search, you can view resumes, print them out, and contact students directly.

• Instructions for accessing our Resume Books through Symplicty.
• Access Symplicity.
• If you do not have a Symplicity account - please fill out a quick registration form on the website listed above. (At the sign-in screen, click on the "Register" tab and provide the information requested.) You will then receive a welcome e-mail message confirming your registration and containing your log-in information.
• Already registered, but forgot your password? To log on, click the "Forgot Password" tab and enter your email address. You will be sent a new password.
• If you have problems registering with our system or have any Resume Book questions, please email us or call 615-322-6192.

All employers wishing to interview Vanderbilt Law School students must adhere to our hiring policy: “The established policy of the Vanderbilt Law School is to promote employment of its students and graduates with no discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, military service, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.”

To promote a fair and ethical recruitment of its students, Vanderbilt Law School has adopted the following standards for the timing of employment offers and decisions:

• An offer of employment for the following summer made prior to the first day of Vanderbilt’s On-Campus Interview (“OCI”) program, either February 9th, 2024 for 1Ls or July 31st, 2024 for 2Ls, should remain open for 14 calendar days from the first day of OCI.
• An offer of employment for the following summer made after the first day of Vanderbilt’s On-Campus Interview (“OCI”) program, either February 9, 2024, for 1Ls or July 31, 2024 for 2Ls, should remain open for 14 calendar days from the date of the offer letter.
• Students may request that an employer extend the deadline to accept an employment offer until as late as April 1 if the student is actively pursuing positions with public interest or government organizations. Students should not hold open more than one private sector employer in such circumstances. Employers are encouraged to grant such requests.

Vanderbilt Law School encourages all employers to follow our guidelines but acknowledges each employer’s right to shorten or extend the period of time students are allowed to accept or decline an offer, as long as the policy is applied equally to all candidates and is communicated to the students in writing.

The established policy of the Vanderbilt University Law School is to promote employment of its students and graduates with no discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, military service, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, or disability. The school's career services facilities are available only to those employers whose practices are consistent with the policy as well as all applicable laws and regulations governing employment discrimination. An employer's use of our services constitutes an agreement to observe the principles of equal opportunity stated in AALS Bylaw 6-4(b).

The motivation for discrimination is irrelevant; a hiring decision, for example, based on perceived prejudices of an employer's clients is nonetheless discriminatory. In its placement practices, the Vanderbilt University Law School complies with AALS Bylaw 6-4(b):

A member school shall pursue a policy of providing its students and graduates with equal opportunity to obtain employment, without discrimination or segregation on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender preference, or disability. A member school shall communicate to each employer to whom it furnishes assistance and facilities for interviewing and other placement functions the school's firm expectation that the employer will observe the principle of equal opportunity. (American Bar Association accreditation standards require similarly non-discriminatory practices.)

Under the Solomon Amendment, the Law School is required to permit access to the military for recruiting purposes or risk the loss of federal funding. The School recognizes that the military’s recruitment policies are inconsistent with the nondiscrimination policy, and the faculty remains committed to eradicating discrimination.

All employers participating in on-campus interview programs thereby confirm that their hiring policies are consistent with the nondiscrimination policy of this law school and with AALS Bylaw 6-4(b).

Beyond this statement of policy, we wish to bring to the attention of interviewers some concerns expressed by students about the interviewing process. During the interviewing process, employers should refrain from soliciting information from students that, if made the basis for denial of employment, would contravene the above stated policy. Also, we urge interviewers to avoid questions or comments that, perhaps unintentionally, suggest discriminatory attitudes. Interviewers are entirely justified in seeking to assess the likely commitment of any student to the practice of law, a type of practice, a geographic location, or the particular employer. We firmly believe, however, that no category of students, particularly women, should be singled out for lines of questioning suggesting that the interviewer doubts any such commitment.