Top Law Schools

During 1L SA, I did work for 3 partners who likes me to varying degree. The 1L SA did not come with automatic return offer. I'll ask the partners for a 2L SA at their office but it's a small office and the one 2L SA opening might be filled.

1. In case that doesn't work out, how effective are their recommendations for a SA position at other larger offices? As far as I can tell, none of them worked in those offices. I can't really tell if they have "clout" in the firm. None of them sits on firm wide hiring committee or board. One is a founding partner of the office.

2. Assuming the partners are willing to recommend me to another office, how should I proceed? Let the partners take the lead to reach out to recruiter/recruiting partners at another office? Ask them to forward my resume? I want to make sure I am not asking too much or too little.

3. Can I just call recruiters at other offices and ask whether they have filled their SA class? I don't want to waste the partners' time if there is no opening to begin with, this late in the cycle. I'll say "Hey, I was your 1L SA at another office. I wanted my old bosses to recommend me for a SA with you, but I don't want to waste their time if you don't have openings. Do you?"

I'm sorry my reply doesn't address your question more substantively, but isn't it sort of late in the process?

Yeah, it sounds like these would be good questions to ask about 6 weeks ago. Did your firm articulate any kind of internal process for this? Did you bother with OCI at your school?

Did you do OCI and strike out? Do you have a 2L offer in hand? This may be a difference between "I have no options other than coming back to your firm" and "After meeting people at other firms, I think your firm is the best," especially you are asking this late.

What do you mean that "The 1L SA did not come with automatic return offer"? So what else do you need to do to get a return offer? Does your firm allow 1Ls to return for the full 2L summer or just a few weeks? I was a 1L SA this past summer and I don't know how the discussion of a return offer (to the same or different office) did not come up in your end-of-summer review meeting with the hiring committee.

If I were you, I would ask people in the hiring committee (recruiting people or hiring partner) first to see if there are open slots before asking the partners. You can ask the hiring committee members who are in your office; they generally know the need of other offices as well.

Caveat: I'm a fellow 2L, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

strawberrieee wrote:Did you do OCI and strike out? Do you have a 2L offer in hand? This may be a difference between "I have no options other than coming back to your firm" and "After meeting people at other firms, I think your firm is the best," especially you are asking this late.

What do you mean that "The 1L SA did not come with automatic return offer"? So what else do you need to do to get a return offer? Does your firm allow 1Ls to return for the full 2L summer or just a few weeks? I was a 1L SA this past summer and I don't know how the discussion of a return offer (to the same or different office) did not come up in your end-of-summer review meeting with the hiring committee.

If I were you, I would ask people in the hiring committee (recruiting people or hiring partner) first to see if there are open slots before asking the partners. You can ask the hiring committee members who are in your office; they generally know the need of other offices as well.

Caveat: I'm a fellow 2L, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

OP here
I didn't get a review at the end of 1L SA other than a short email saying "oh everything I heard about you is great." I didn't apply during OCI because the firm didn't have a 2L SA program at cities I was interested in (including my 1L SA office). I just learned that the firm is hiring 2L SA in those cities after all. It's atypical, probably because the offices are small, and the 1L SA is a diversity position.

Thanks for the tip. I called and they have openings. I just need to figure out how to get recommendations.