Interview Programs

Yale students and graduates seek employment experiences both within and outside of the legal profession: in private practice, from large firms to solo practices; in federal, state and local government; in public interest settings, and in corporations and businesses; and in non-profit organizations. To facilitate this process, CDO organizes two interview programs in early August and February.

Our Virtual Interview Program (VIP) provides a great avenue for employers to recruit upperclass students at YLS for summer and permanent employment. All recruiting fees are waived for public interest employers. See tab below for registration information.

2022 Winter Interview Program (WIP)
We are planning to hold The Winter Interview Program (WIP) for first-year students (some second- and third-year students also interview at this time), date TBA (most likely mid-January of 2022). This program will be open to private sector and public interest employers. We will distribute registration information at the end of October.

Interviews scheduled through VIP and WIP are assigned by a lottery algorithm based on student bid rankings and availability. Employers are not permitted to prescreen candidates.

Our Public Interest Interview Program (PIIP) is an exciting recruitment opportunity for employers looking to hire upperclass students who are passionate about pursuing a career in the public sector. PIIP is exclusively for non-profit organizations, government offices and public interest law firms. The program typically takes places throughout a two-week period in mid-September. There is no recruiting fee for participating employers. See tab below for registration information.

Additionally, Yale Law School participates in the Equal Justice Works Career Fair in Washington, DC, and cosponsors both the NYU Public Interest Legal Career Fair and the Columbia Overseas-Trained LL.M. Student Interview Program both in New York City. If you would like more information regarding these events, please contact CDO at 203-432-1676, or cdo.law@yale.edu.

Employers participating in Yale Law School’s interview programs are required to agree to the Nondiscrimination Policy Statement when they request a schedule on Symplicity.

STEP 1 Complete the VIP 2022 Registration Survey

STEP 2Request a schedule at https://law-yale-csm.symplicity.com/employers. Click on Interview Programs to get started. 

  • Interview Date: As noted above, returning VIP employers will be automatically assigned the next consecutive day of the week from our 2021 interview program. For example, employers assigned Tuesday in 2021, will be assigned Wednesday this year, employers assigned Friday in 2021, will be assigned Monday. New employers will be assigned based on availability.   
  • Application Materials and Transcripts: In order to streamline the interview process in a virtual setting, we will be instructing students to upload all application materials requested by each employer into Symplicity at the time of bidding. As such, please be sure to include any materials you would like for viewing as part of the screening interview process in your schedule request. You will be able to download a student’s resume and all other requested materials from Symplicity as part of a student’s interview packet after you receive your interview schedule(s) in July. If certain materials are required only for callback interviews, we kindly ask that you request those materials directly from the student at the time a callback invitation is extended. Student materials will not be upload into Flo Recruit for screening interviews.   

STEP 3 Review YLS Employer Recruiting Policies Every year we conduct a rigorous review of our YLS Employer Recruiting Policies by engaging with a wide swath of employers and our student community to evaluate our policies in light of the legal hiring market. In particular, we engage each year with Yale Law School’s elected Student Representatives about whether YLS should maintain our “No Pre-VIP Interviewing Policy” which states that law firm employer offices participating in VIP shall not conduct initial or callback interviews of second-year students prior to their assigned VIP date (with a few exceptions).  After careful consideration, our Student Representatives have reaffirmed our “No Pre-VIP Interviewing Policy” for VIP 2022. When requesting a schedule, you will be required to confirm your compliance with these policies. 

2022 Winter Interview Program (WIP)
We are planning to hold The Winter Interview Program (WIP) for first-year students (some second- and third-year students also interview at this time), January 25-28, 2022. This program will be open to private sector and public interest employers. We will distribute registration information at the end of October.

If you are unable to come to campus but would like to receive resumes from Yale Law students you may post your position opening through our online job posting system powered by Symplicity.

The employer registration period for PIIP 2021 has closed. Please look out for communications regarding PIIP 2022 in the spring of 2022. If you have any questions about PIIP please reach out to CDO Assistant Director of Administration Sahar Mirsepassi at sahar.mirsepassi@yale.edu.