I think you're referring to R&T's respective posts for corporate and dispute resolution (investigations) Associate. I notice that post has been a recurring post on LinkedIn for the past 1 year, and I think HR or whoever's in charge just probably forgot to disable the function.

I have had many friends (legal execs / those who did not get retained by their firms) who see it as a glimmer of hope - hence the 200+ applications EACH time the post gets re-posted.

But I highly doubt HR would view your application through LinkedIn given:

1. None of my friends (some even submitted each and every time the post comes up), got the notif from LinkedIn saying the poster had read their application.

2. HR is already dealing with more than sufficient applications going in through their recruitment email.