Should I respond? Obscene Rejection Forum

[lacrossebrother]

Don't out on TLS, ATL, or tell your CSO. Sorry this happened. They seemed to have fucked you over and that seems bad.
You should absolutely however send a polite email to your screener just explaining that this happened. Don't threaten or even call the firm names or say you think it's highly unprofessional. The point of the email should just be to let him/her know what happened so that he/her can have an opportunity to try to make sure it doesn't happen to someone else. He took the time to interview you and seemed to like you, so he'll be disappointed about the logisitcal failure. Add something about the fact that you're disappointed it happened, and thought he should know so he could potentially help fix it. I wouldn't add anything to the effect that you'd still be interested in a CB if one opens up because it would send a mixed message. If he's a practitioner in the practice area you'd like to be in, then the email could be useful to you down the road. If not, then at least you accomplished something by giving the person most likely to fix it an opportunity to fix it.

Retributive justice is shitty when you haven't been that fucked and you haven't even exhausted all normal channels.

[star fox]

Tell your CSO.

For those recommending this ITT, what do y'all think think that the CSO is going to do? Do you actually think the CSO would ban the firm (which probably regularly hires students from the school) from OCI?

Look, the firm was inconsiderate; they should have gotten back to the applicant by the end of the first week, like they said they would. I agree that the firm's conduct was unprofessional. But this kind of unprofessionalism—where you've got to follow up with someone who said they would get back to you—happens all the time. It will keep happening throughout your professional career in various contexts. Get used to it.

Probably nothing but it's good they're aware of it

[Devlin]

I don't see how the firm erred here. Like most firms, they probably extend CB's and offers on a rolling basis. They have a target number of students to hire, and they extend enough CB's and offers to hit that target. This firm hit their target, would not be making additional offers, and decided to stop interviewing. Would you really have wanted to interview with a firm that was no longer hiring?

Well, a callback is an invitation to be considered for a job. It's pretty bullshit they didn't even give OP that chance.

OP, tell your career services office. This is the kind of thing that they tend to be good about dealing with. Firms and top schools have long relationships.

I agree with this. While the firm screwed you, this is not outing to ATL level screwing.

Keep your head up and keep grinding.

I don't know, speaking as a biglaw associate, I think the fear of "professional repercussions" from outing a firm anonymously over ATL is overblown on these forums, particularly as OP has already stated that this office was located in Florida.

Like the idea that the recruiting staff at a Florida office of some firm is going to: (1) read the story on ATL and then look up OP's name, (2) write down OP's name, keep it on file for years until OP is ultimately trying to lateral, and then (3) share OP's name with the recruiting staff at whichever firm OP is trying to lateral to...it just starts to seem absurd.

I get the whole "hey, people talk..." caution, but I think it's difficult to overstate the sheer volume of people that come in to interview (even at the CB stage) at biglaw offices every year, how easy it is to forget all of them once the process is over, and how many years are likely to pass between this incident and the next time OP would be likely to interview again. On that last point, most people don't enter the lateral market until after their 2nd year, so we're talking about a minimum of 4 years (2 more years of law school + 2 years at starter firm) before this would even be an issue again. The idea that OP's name will be somehow remembered, cursed, and passed on to other recruiters, 4 years from now (as opposed to lost in anonymity midst a sea of law students) is somewhat fantastic.

I also know that the partners at my firm tend not to care very much about ATL--over time an attitude of "Well, they're just going to report on us no matter what we do..." has developed and it's hard to see this is something they take seriously anymore. Granted, I've heard this was very different during the recession when firms were desperately trying to hide news of stealth layoffs...but in 2015? This isn't going to cause waves, much less a tsunami of shame that will hurt OP in the lateral market years from now.

NB: I'm not claiming that this rejection is actually "ATL Worthy," I don't think this is a particularly egregious rejection compared to other shit firms do...but I think the whole "REPORTING ANONYMOUSLY TO ATL WILL RUIN UR CAREER!!!1!!" thing on these boards is terribly overblown, and that we all benefit more if stuff like this is reported more openly.

I did not mean it was not ATL worthy because I think OP should worry about their professional reputation. Instead, I don't think it is ATL worthy because this is not some huge ordeal. Sure it sucks, but come on.

[DELG]

I mean what are they gonna do. Either give you a fake interview knowing they can't offer, give you a summer offer knowing they can't offer their whole class, or not try to bring you back for a CB in case their class fills. None of those are good for you.

[Anonymous User]

Nope V50...Considering posting it on ATL... wonder what that would do to my professional prospects

curious as to what this "tip" would say.

[alicrimson]

This kind of stuff happens all the time. If a firm only has a couple of spots, they offer one of their high picks, and that high pick accepts early, a spot is full. If that happens a couple of times, there's no room. This kind of a situation never feels good, but shows why it is important to schedule callbacks as early as possible. I wouldn't out the firm on ATL or make a huge deal of it with HR. HR probably knows it happened. Just focus on the next one.