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If you ever work for a firm and they like you and want to hire you, would it be wise to put them down as a reference for another firm? This would be in the context of school hiring where you have summered for Firm A that probably wants to hire you and you are also applying to Firm B.

"Why yes," you answer, "since Firm A clearly likes you since you did good work for them"
But if they really liked you and wanted to hire you, would they trash you behind your back when used as a reference to Firm B in order to prevent you from getting hired into Firm B?

I'm just a 1L, but would like to keep this in mind for future references...

There is no such thing as using a firm as a reference. If firms ask for references, which is rare, they want individual names of references. If this is what you are asking about, you should not give the name of someone at a firm you summered at and have an offer from to a firm you are interviewing with in hopes of spurning their offer. It's not that they will bad mouth you - it's just in poor taste.

Now if you summered at Firm A, and then are interviewing at firm B, of course Firm A will appear on your resume, so there's nothing to stop Firm B lawyer from callling up a friend from Firm A and asking if they know anything about you. Keep in mind that this is unlikely to happen, as 3L interviewing is very limited, and usually you will have a short window to accept or reject an offer from a firm that you summered with, unless it's to pursue a clerkship or public interest work.