How to back out of offer? Should I? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 1L who is median at a t13 school. I recently accepted a public interest position in a market I don't want to work in long-term. I interviewed for a few 1L SA's and was dinged from all of them, but now I have gotten an interview (seemingly out of the blue) with a V50 firm. Normally this would be unlikely for me to land, but it's through a program at my school. I'd love to interview for this and get it, but my school has a policy of not reneging on employers; if you do this, you will not be able to participate at OCI. Not really sure what to do....should I talk to my career services office and see if an accommodation be made, or should I just move forward with the public interest job?

[Anonymous User]

Hi.

I was in a somewhat similar position, except I accepted my internship (a judicial internship with a Fed. Dis. Judge) after I had interviewed with all of the firms that gave me callbacks. After hearing back no from 3/4 firms and knowing the fourth firm had handed out offers to other students in my class, I didn't think twice about accepting the judicial internship. Well, a week later I got a call from the fourth firm and they made me an offer. Knowing that my school (t13) has the same OCI policy, I was upset that I would be turning down the firm offer. An older student suggested that I reach out to the judge and the judge's clerks and test the waters of backing out (Full disclosure––it helped that the clerk was a good friend from high school!). The clerk suggested that if the firm would allow me to split my summer then the Judge would allow me to start 2 weeks early. I got 5 weeks in with the judge and 7 weeks at the firm. I know that not all positions are this flexible, but the moral of my story is that it never hurts to ask. 90% of Employers are a lot more sympathetic than you think and completely understand that some students can't pass up the opportunity to earn SA $$ to help with debt!

[Anonymous User]

If you get the SA position and can’t work out a split y U should renege and take it. First, your CDO is not omniscient. If the PI employer doesn’t reach out to them there is absolutely no reason they have to know you reneged and honestly, I doubt the PI org would. I reneged on an accepted offer when I was a 2 L for a firm job and my career services office was non the wiser.

[Anonymous User]

This is a stupid policy designed to protect the school and hurt you. Obviously, the best way to handle the situation is to speak to the employer you're thinking of backing out on first (after you get the offer!). They may well be flexible and let you out anyway, especially if they're an organization that could easily hire someone else (pretty much any organization hiring 1Ls at a T13). But, if they say no, the V50 seems like a great result, one that would be at least as good as what you'd get out of OCI. Definitely back out, take the V50, don't do OCI and screw your career services' policy.