The trademarks of recruiting--dark suits, conservative ties, and anxious expressions--have infiltrated the Square once again.

For the last two weeks, Harvard Law School (HLS) students have filled hotel lobbies, fidgeting nervously just before 20-minute interviews with the nation's top law firms. At least seven months before the end of spring term is in sight, the summer job search has already begun.

It's a search that will not end until shortly before Thanksgiving, when most students will learn that they have received the private sector job of their dreams.

But until then, they face two more weeks of interviews, two more weeks of waiting for follow-up interviews and two more weeks of what the director of HLS career services described as unnecessary stress.

"For many students, it's more stressful than it needs to be," said Sally C. Donahue. "It's a process that takes on a life of its own. The market is really strong right now, and our students are wonderful."

"They shouldn't worry so much," she added.

Try telling that to the law students.

No Two Ways About It

Pound Hall yesterday afternoon was a hotbed of eager job seekers, with first-year law students seeking advice for upperclass students at a public interest job fair on the second floor and at least five upperclass students and graduate students looking into careers at Goldman Sachs just downstairs.

In both cases, the students said they were anxious about the job search and eager for it to be over.

"There's a herd mentality," said Ted Folkman, a second-year law student who is applying at 12 private sector law firms in search of a summer job. "Everyone wants to know where everyone else is applying, and then they apply to those places too. It just adds to the stress."

Mark B. Stein, the co-chair of the hiring committee at the Boston firm of McDermott, Will and Emery said his firm uses the performance of their summer associates to determine if they would make a permanently good fit with the firm.

Of the seven lawyers McDermott, Will, and Emery hired to start next September, five had worked at the firm the previous summer.

"Summer associates regularly have contact with clients," Stein said. "This is a great chance to see students in action."

Folkman, who worked for the U.S. Attorney General's Office in Cleveland, Ohio last summer, says his job search has become more competitive this year as students vie for private sector internships that could turn into post-graduation job offers Stein's firm promises.

"The offer you receive the summer after your second year at law school is most likely where you will work and that adds to the pressure," he said. "I'll be glad when it's all over."

The pressures are somewhat different for students interested in spending a summer working with the Legal Aid Society or the American Civil Liberties Union.

Public interest and government jobs rarely translate into a job offer, said Nicholas J. Walsh, a second-year law student and present of HLS's Student Public Interest Network.

"Most people interested in public interest law will still apply to firms to have a fail-safe option," said Walsh, who spent last summer working in the criminal division at the Department of Justice. "But once you have a job that's paying you $1,800 a week versus a job that doesn't pay at all, there's some pressure for you to leave behind public interest."

Other law students like Joe S. Patt, a third-year law student interested in a career in finances, says the real pressure in the job search is felt by students not pursuing legal careers.

"As far as law firms go, it's a piece of cake to get a job," said Patt, after attending the Goldman Sachs information session. "It's ridiculously easy. The non-legal tracks are much harder to pursue."

Nothing to Fear

But for all the different tracks the law students pursue, several law students who have survived the job search and directors of career resources at HLS who organize the annual job search say all students share one common trait.

They worry too much.

"Most of our students get the job of their dreams," said Alexa Shabecoff, director of the Office of Public Interest Advising at HLS. "Searching for a job is not where the stress comes from. Most of them are still trying to decide what they want to do, and we just try to help them make those choices."

Donahue says the chances of a student not getting the summer job of their choice is "very slim," adding that the law firms that recruit at HLS are often the most prestigious in the country.

"Our students are so sought after," she said. "There's far too much anxiety. If students just focused on picking where they wanted to interview, the would be a lot calmer."

According to information published by HLS's office of career services, their students have even more success post-graduation.

Graduates pursuing careers in legal services receive about $32,000-a-year in terms of their median salary while the median salary for graduates interested in government positions, including judicial clerkships, is about $36,000.

Pursuing a career in a private sector law firm is even more lucrative with $72,000 as the median salary.

With such high chances for success, recent HLS graduates like Doug S. Brooks, an attorney with Goodwin, Procter and Hoar in Boston, says students are directly responsible for any stress they feel throughout the job search.

"It's stressful only because students don't know how many opportunities they have," Brooks said. "The nature of students at Harvard is that they are overly competitive. That's probably the number one reason the job search becomes so stressful."

Brendan M. Schulman, a third-year law student, said he realized only after the job search, how he could have made the process much smoother.

"I interviewed at too many places, and it became very time consuming," said Schulman, who worked last summer at Ropes & Gray, one of the largest firms in Boston. "A lot of [second-year law students] will be saying that two weeks from now."

"They're all great places to work," Schulman said. "If you're hired by one of them, you're already doing far better than most other lawyers in the country."

--Joyce K. McIntyre contributed to the reporting of this article.