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If someone rejects a firm offer, does that firm then provide that offer to someone who otherwise wouldn't get it?

Say the top 5 people get offers, and the best person rejects it. Is the offer then given to the 6th best person?

Yes, especially now that class sizes are smaller and the NALP rules allow students to hold offers open for shorter periods.

Renzo wrote:Yes, especially now that class sizes are smaller and the NALP rules allow students to hold offers open for shorter periods.

This wasn't true true at my (firm/school), but it will definitely be true at some. I can think of a few firms off the top of my head that made X offers, and intended to honor them but not make more if any were declined. I can also think of a few that were clearly coming back to the watering hole as rejections came.

thesealocust wrote:

Renzo wrote:Yes, especially now that class sizes are smaller and the NALP rules allow students to hold offers open for shorter periods.

This wasn't true true at my (firm/school), but it will definitely be true at some. I can think of a few firms off the top of my head that made X offers, and intended to honor them but not make more if any were declined. I can also think of a few that were clearly coming back to the watering hole as rejections came.

Curious in particular about Wachtell which has a small class size.

It depends on the firm. I worked at a smaller office of a V50 firm and the hiring partner told us that he expected only about half as many SAs as actually accepted. In previous years, the firm had a much lower yield rate but because it was doing pretty well for the economy, it's yield rate shot up quite dramatically. So in this case, if a person with an offer declined to accept, that offer would certainly not have gone to anyone else. I think this office's policy was to just offer the qualified candidates and see how it played out.

thesealocust wrote:

Renzo wrote:Yes, especially now that class sizes are smaller and the NALP rules allow students to hold offers open for shorter periods.

This wasn't true true at my (firm/school), but it will definitely be true at some. I can think of a few firms off the top of my head that made X offers, and intended to honor them but not make more if any were declined. I can also think of a few that were clearly coming back to the watering hole as rejections came.

They don't necessarily provide that offer to someone at the same school, but someone, somewhere probably got the offer. They just moved down the list to the next person they really liked. I got an offer like this; it came three weeks after OCI, so I'm sure that someone turned down an offer and I was on the reserve list.

For the firms with really huge classes, they probably have a historic yield rate and can safely put out a fair number of offers. But for firms hiring a smaller number, getting an extra three or four acceptances could really screw them (meaning no-offers, probably).