A good friend of mine did something very similar as a 1L. The organization withdrawn from totally understood, picked another candidate, and the world did not end.Anonymous User wrote:OP here. Hypo became a reality. Does anyone with any sort of experience in the legal community have an idea of the real negative repercussions of reneging? Personal morals aside, how will this affect my career? I am probably just rationalizing here, but I just can't imagine that a human being would see this as the worst thing in the world if I explained the situation. I feel like he would see that the damage I'd be doing to the gov't is totally disproportionate the damage I'd be doing to myself.Anonymous User wrote:What is on the table is leading the gov't job on until you see if you get the offer, and giving the firm job pressure to hurry up and decide. Pretty slimy, but you'd have plenty of time to cry yourself to the bank while not looking for a 2L job next year.
You're taking a risk. If the original job has a vindictive self-important attorney in charge of hiring, and you go to a school with a hard-line career services office, you're going to suffer some real consequences. I know some schools state students who do things like this will be barred from 2L OCI.
But in the real world, most 1L employers would be disappointed but the drama would end there. Nobody here can handicap it for you though.
