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any tips on how to decline an offer from my 1L firm? i loved the firm and the people and was pretty sure i was going back but just received an offer from a v10 that i can't decline. i feel pretty bad because i feel i may have led my 1L firm on and i developed some great relationships with people there. i feel especially bad because the v10 firm is in a market i didn't think i'd be interested in but after thinking long and hard i feel that taking the offer would be the best move career-wise. any tips on how to tell my 1L firm? should i e-mail my mentors and a few of the associates i worked closely with or should i just send an email explaining my decision to the recruiting coordinator. thanks again tls!

no thought into splitting?

not too comfortable about doing that ite and both firms require that you spend first half of summer with them.

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Your desire to be gentle etc. is sweet. I'm not sure they'll care much, you're over-thinking this. Send your see-ya letter and go with what makes you happy.

yellowjacket2012 wrote:Your desire to be gentle etc. is sweet. I'm not sure they'll care much, you're over-thinking this. Send your see-ya letter and go with what makes you happy.

+1. They might ask where you're headed and tell you to let them know how your summer goes. If anything, at least you have a bunch of contacts that you could use in the future.

Anonymous User wrote:not too comfortable about doing that ite and both firms require that you spend first half of summer with them.

Make sure that this is true before you tell them no. It seems to be fairly common for 1L firms to expect only 2 weeks of 'come-back time' during your second summer. (Work, e.g., 10 weeks at new firm, then 2 weeks at old firm.) The "first half of the summer" requirement may apply only to people who work for the firm for the first time. If you come back after a year, you don't need to go through all the initial training again.

Anonymous User wrote:any tips on how to decline an offer from my 1L firm? i loved the firm and the people and was pretty sure i was going back but just received an offer from a v10 that i can't decline. i feel pretty bad because i feel i may have led my 1L firm on and i developed some great relationships with people there. i feel especially bad because the v10 firm is in a market i didn't think i'd be interested in but after thinking long and hard i feel that taking the offer would be the best move career-wise. any tips on how to tell my 1L firm? should i e-mail my mentors and a few of the associates i worked closely with or should i just send an email explaining my decision to the recruiting coordinator. thanks again tls!

1L gigs exist purely to get reach candidates. ITE aside, you're by definition a candidate that they thought they would probably lose if they didn't try something extra. They gambled and lost.