United States · Law and investment banking/advisory · Official-source research
Do elite firms only recruit from target schools?
No, not in the reviewed official-source subset. Several elite firms combine formal campus recruiting with direct or informal routes. Skadden explicitly says it does not hire only from specified law schools, and Centerview says it recruits informally from a broad range of schools as well as formally on selected campuses.
Published routes beyond a formal campus channel
- Sullivan & Cromwell: where S&C does not interview at a candidate's law school, it directs candidates to apply directly. Official source · SIG-206.
- Wachtell: students use Career Services recruiting where the firm participates, while students from other law schools may apply directly. Official source · SIG-210.
- Skadden: the firm explicitly answers “No” when asked whether it only hires from specific law schools and says it actively recruits from more than 40 law schools. Official source · SIG-213.
- Debevoise: U.S. summer candidates may submit a direct application or meet the firm through their law school's on-campus interview programme. Official source · SIG-214.
- Paul Weiss: the firm participates in on-campus interviews and resume collections and also encourages qualified direct online applications. Official source · SIG-224.
- Cadwalader: published routes include on-campus interviews, resume collects, write-in applications and direct 2L applications. Official source · SIG-231.
- Centerview: analyst recruiting occurs formally at a number of undergraduate campuses and informally from a broad range of schools. Official source · SIG-259.
What this means
A formal campus relationship is not the only published access route at these reviewed institutions. That matters because “target school” is often discussed as though it were a hard eligibility rule. The official evidence is more nuanced: some firms maintain campus channels while also publishing direct, write-in or informal routes.
What this does not prove
Published access outside a formal campus route does not establish equal selection probability across schools, eliminate academic or institutional signalling, or show how recruiters weight school attended. This answer is about documented application channels, not equal outcomes.
Denominator: seven named institution/programme routes with canonical school-channel evidence reviewed on 14 September 2026.