{"id":66,"date":"2015-11-18T22:51:20","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T22:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/careers\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2025-12-10T10:30:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:30:42","slug":"leap","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/careers\/resources-for-students\/leap\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitchell Hamline’s L.E.A.P."},"content":{"rendered":"

Legal Employment Accelerator Program<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The Legal Employment Accelerator Program (LEAP) is Mitchell Hamline’s innovative approach to connecting students with prospective employers through the Career and Professional Development Office. LEAP provides comprehensive preparation\u2014including application strategy, networking skills, and interview training\u2014before employer recruitment begins, ensuring students are fully equipped to compete in today’s legal job market.<\/p>\n

The program expands opportunities beyond traditional timelines and employer types, accommodating a diverse range of legal career paths throughout the year. Students can pursue multiple opportunities while receiving institutional support through application review, employer coordination, and interview scheduling, with interviews conducted both in-person at Mitchell Hamline and virtually through Zoom.<\/p>\n

Why LEAP Replaced the Traditional Recruitment Program<\/h3>\n

The legal hiring landscape has undergone a fundamental transformation. Traditional on-campus interview (OCI) programs, once the foundation of law school recruiting, have been largely abandoned by major law firms in favor of direct, early candidate engagement. This shift created particular challenges for Mitchell Hamline’s diverse student body\u2014including part-time, non-traditional, and first-generation law students who benefit from structured, school-supported recruitment.<\/p>\n

LEAP addresses these challenges by preserving the institutional support and structured pathways that made traditional OCI valuable while adapting to modern recruitment realities and serving the full spectrum of student career goals across the legal profession.<\/p>\n

Who participates in LEAP?<\/h3>\n

Students<\/span><\/strong>: All Mitchell Hamline students are invited to participate in LEAP and should carefully review the participating employers and their respective position descriptions and eligibility criteria to determine to which positions they would like to apply.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n