Splitting Summers Forum

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:46 pm

Hey all,

Can anyone speak to the pros/cons of splitting your summer between offices? I just got an offer from a NY firm that I'm very excited about but I also noticed that they have been expanding in CA in the past few years. I'm a CA native so I hope to return some day but I'm also not in a huge hurry. Might be interested in splitting with their SF office. Do I need an offer from both offices (same firm) to do this? Is it even worth bringing up?

How exactly does splitting your summer between two offices of the same firm work? If they like you, do they give you the choice between which office you want to work at post-graduation? Does it significantly hurt your chances of getting a permanent offer? If you split between two offices/same firm what was your experience?

Trying to get more information on the topic before I bring it up with the recruiter.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:29 pm

curious about this as well

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:29 pm

Some firms might be willing to do it. I would try and get a feeling for how flexible the firm is. For example, after speaking with people at Ropes and Gray, I learned that it is generally a very flexible firm in terms of geography. It was later confirmed when someone told me he split his summer between two offices.

OneMoreLawHopeful · Post by **OneMoreLawHopeful** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:42 pm

I know someone who did exactly this (offered at NY office, asked to spend a few weeks in their SF office) at a V20, and the firm let him do it.

However...it was also pretty clear from the start that working in SF wasn't something the firm was interested in having him do. They only let him spend a couple weeks in SF and the employees there never really acted like he was going to work there (they interacted with the other summers very differently).

The real issue here is the size of the offices. The NY office was large enough to have a summer class of ~20, while the SF office only took 2 summers. As a result, the SF office was super concerned with things like "fit" and weren't thrilled with HQ calling them up and basically foisting someone they had never met on them. They let him do the split, but they never would have let him stay in SF.

If you really want SF, and it's a smaller office (which it sounds like it must be if they "recently expanded" to CA), then you're really going to need to set up some meetings with the SF attorneys and let them see you for themselves. Try contacting the recruiter at the NY office and ask if they can pass your info along to SF so you can get a callback. I know from personal experience that at least some firms are willing to do this intra-CA (so, the LA office will contact the SF office on your behalf and ask to set up an SF callback), so it might be worth a shot from NY to SF.

Good luck!

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:26 pm

OneMoreLawHopeful wrote:I know someone who did exactly this (offered at NY office, asked to spend a few weeks in their SF office) at a V20, and the firm let him do it.

However...it was also pretty clear from the start that working in SF wasn't something the firm was interested in having him do. They only let him spend a couple weeks in SF and the employees there never really acted like he was going to work there (they interacted with the other summers very differently).

The real issue here is the size of the offices. The NY office was large enough to have a summer class of ~20, while the SF office only took 2 summers. As a result, the SF office was super concerned with things like "fit" and weren't thrilled with HQ calling them up and basically foisting someone they had never met on them. They let him do the split, but they never would have let him stay in SF.

If you really want SF, and it's a smaller office (which it sounds like it must be if they "recently expanded" to CA), then you're really going to need to set up some meetings with the SF attorneys and let them see you for themselves. Try contacting the recruiter at the NY office and ask if they can pass your info along to SF so you can get a callback. I know from personal experience that at least some firms are willing to do this intra-CA (so, the LA office will contact the SF office on your behalf and ask to set up an SF callback), so it might be worth a shot from NY to SF.

Good luck!

That's very helpful, thanks! According to NALP, their SF/SV offices look to take 3-6 people each so that's definitely an issue. Did you friend ever feel concerned about getting an offer from the NY office simply by spending more time in SF? I think that's the biggest concern for me. I wouldn't want to jeopardize my chance of getting a permanent offer just to move back to CA.

I've still got a few CBs in SF in the coming days so I'm trying to assess all my options.

OneMoreLawHopeful · Post by **OneMoreLawHopeful** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:36 pm

Anonymous User wrote:That's very helpful, thanks! According to NALP, their SF/SV offices look to take 3-6 people each so that's definitely an issue. Did you friend ever feel concerned about getting an offer from the NY office simply by spending more time in SF? I think that's the biggest concern for me. I wouldn't want to jeopardize my chance of getting a permanent offer just to move back to CA.

I've still got a few CBs in SF in the coming days so I'm trying to assess all my options.

It's tough to say if he felt like he was jeopardizing the potential NY offer, this was the summer of 2011 and most firms were still super-concerned with 100% offer rates. The unevenness of the split was also pretty significant, I think it was 8 weeks NY/ 2 weeks SF, but I'd have to ask to be sure, I remember the time in SF was REALLY short (he was hoping for at least 4 weeks), so with so much time in NY he felt like he got to know all the NY people and had a good shot at the NY office.

I don't think it hurt him any more than any other split summer, it was just awkward doing the split when everyone was pretty up front about him never getting an offer from SF.

anon168 · Post by **anon168** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:53 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Hey all,

Can anyone speak to the pros/cons of splitting your summer between offices? I just got an offer from a NY firm that I'm very excited about but I also noticed that they have been expanding in CA in the past few years. I'm a CA native so I hope to return some day but I'm also not in a huge hurry. Might be interested in splitting with their SF office. Do I need an offer from both offices (same firm) to do this? Is it even worth bringing up?

How exactly does splitting your summer between two offices of the same firm work? If they like you, do they give you the choice between which office you want to work at post-graduation? Does it significantly hurt your chances of getting a permanent offer? If you split between two offices/same firm what was your experience?

Trying to get more information on the topic before I bring it up with the recruiter.

It depends on the firm.

At my old firm they let you split in different cities (even cities in the same state), so they were very flexible.

But to get an offer, you had to get an offer at boh offices and then had a choice of which office you wanted to work at. If either office dinged you, you were SOL.

Splitting Summers Forum

Splitting Summers

Re: Splitting Summers

Re: Splitting Summers

Re: Splitting Summers

Re: Splitting Summers

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Re: Splitting Summers

Re: Splitting Summers

Register for access!