If it's a 2 year program, you can do interviews in the spring or even after 2nd semester grades are in (forces the profs to accelerate grading, though), but with shorter summer programs anyway, there's plenty of time. Plus, when you're only considering candidates who have worked before school, that's a better indicator than 2 years of law school grades.

While I know third year with an offer can be a fun experience, my thought process always turns to my debt. My third year adds a significant amount of debt to what is already an overwhelming total. My time and money could be spent more productively, and I am a proponent for change in the law school system.

My ideas, while not refined, would accommodate the scheduling issue another poster mentioned for the recruiting process. Additionally, they may help alleviate the complaints of many law firms that students are not properly trained and require long periods of training (and lost billable hours).
Essentially, my idea is stolen from the model used in other countries. The first two years are filled with the core classes that bind most law schools and end up on the bar exams. The third year is spent out of school (so no additional debt) as a legal intern. Ideally, students have an idea of what type of law they are interested in at this point and seek internships in those areas. Regardless, students gain a significant amount of practical experience, and get the chance to work and be tutored by real attorneys. I can affirmatively say the most valuable part of my law school experience was the clinic and externship I did, which provided real-world experience and the chance to work closely with practicing attorneys.

If the third year provided this sort of experience, it could cut down student debt (allowing more students to enter public law), cut down on the training of new associates (more money for employers), and provide an additional forum for recruiting and training young lawyers on the cheap. Other countries (some in Europe and Australia) utilize a similar system to great success.

Typically, the recruiting schedule goes like this:
- After 1L grades come in, people start interviewing late summer/early fall for summer associate at BigLaw for after their 2L year.
- Summer Associate happens after 2L year.
- Kids goof off 3L year.

There would need to be some shift in that timeframe. Either: 1) summer associate positions are between 1L and 2L years or 2) immediately after the summer associate position after 2L, the kids take the bar exam, and then enter into the law firm.

The problems with that are:
Option 1 is too compressed of a time table. It's hard to get your 1L grades, then interview, then have the firms choose their picks, and then have the summer associate position start. I mean, I guess the summer associate position could start in early July and it wouldn't matter since some firms are shortening their summers anyway. But you'd need at least until mid-June for the interview process to work itself out.
Option 2 is a little bit more interesting, but you'd need the summer to study for the bar. So if you're doing the summer associate thing after 2L, when will you study for the bar?

The best option I can see is for law school to be 2.5 years. Summer associate happens between 2L and 3L. Then 3L is only half a year til Dec. Then you can study for the bar in Jan and take the Feb bar. Otherwise, 3L is a full year. Also, 2.5 years gives students three semesters to possibly do externships or clinics or whatever to get some experience. I did an externship in my 3rd year. Many of the externships from my school required some type of elective class. (for example, mine was environmental focused. I took Environmental as a 2L and then got the externship fall 3L. Others included things like working for the SEC or NLRB or IRS which required classes in securities or labor or tax.) Maybe it would be doable to have 2Ls take those courses in fall and then rush for interviews and the externships start in spring. But I'm not sure how doable that is.

In the end, i think the 3 year structure will stay. Possibly a 2.5 yr one.