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hey guys,

So I'm a 1L at a T10 thinking about next summer. I've already emailed my desired market's 15 largest firms (only 5 responses so far - all not hiring), sent letters to 40 judges (two not hiring responses, no word from the others) and despite the lack of success I'm still optimistic.

My question involves what to do should I actually get hired by one of them. I am pretty sure that the firms won't yield anything, but I am applying to a 30 or so firm diversity program which wouldn't make their law firm job offer decision until March. By then I figure one of my judicial internship letters will have panned out (if I don't hear anything by mid-January I might send another 20-30 to another nearby market).

So my question is: how bad does it look if I had a job offer from a judge, but then got an SA gig through a diversity program and left the judge hanging? Is that a reputation killer? Should I just suck it up and accept with the judge rightaway rather than gamble on the diversity program?

If anyone has faced a similar situation or has any general advice I would be very appreciative. Thanks.

When a judge gives you an offer, you have to ask the judge. Some won't care if you later turn down the offer because you got a firm gig. Some will ask you to stop your summer job search.

My school's Career Services told us about 18 times not to do this because of the "reputation killer" thing. We also had a strict policy that if you got a judicial internship through our program, you had to immediately stop your job search and notify all employers with pending applications that you had accepted an offer, so you might check with your CSO. Generally, it's considered bad form to continue a hunt after you've accepted an offer (in and out of the legal industry), but I've seen other advice to the contrary on similar threads. I think your best bet, as the last poster suggested, is to be frank with the judge and ask him/her when they give you an offer.

(No need to make the OP anon, BTW)