Interviewing after getting full-time offer from SA position Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have been thinking a lot about this and I wanted to get some other opinions. After a long semester of interviewing, I ended up with an offer for a summer associate position with a mid/large size firm in my hometown (where I very much do not want to live after graduation). I know that I am lucky to get anything in this economy, so I accepted the offer and will be working there this summer.

My question is, what happens if they extend an offer to me for a full-time position in August or September, and I don't have any offers on the table so I accept, but then I get an offer in the spring with a firm in a better city. I know that the firm can't control my life but what kind of repercussions are there for reneging on a job offer?

Also, the firm that I will be working with is nation-wide, and they have an office in my preferred city. What are the chances of being able to lateral to a different office in a year or two?

Thanks!

[JusticeJackson]

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[LawIdiot86]

Go to the SA job and do a killer job letting everyone there know how much you love working with them in that city. If you get an offer and your firm follows the NALP rules, you will have until November 1 to accept. Spend whatever time between the offer and November 1 hustling every firm in your target city and every firm with better exit opportunities in any city you would live in. If you can't get something in your target city or with better options, take the firm you did the SA for. Stop looking for something after you accept and unless something falls in your lap, don't think of reneging. Go work for the SA firm in the city you don't like and wait six months to a year before mentioning that you like it there, but for whatever reason are also interested in the work they do in target city. Try to get work for clients serviced by both cities or in practice groups that maybe are small in your current city, but are much larger in your target city. That will make lateraling within the firm easier and also make it less unseemly looking to the partners.

[Anonymous User]

This isn't really a concern because of the rigid timetable for entry-level hiring, especially Mid- and Biglaw legal hiring.

Think about it. You have an offer now, and you'll work at that firm all summer. As a poster noted above, you have until 11/1 of your 3L year to accept that offer. The time when you're overwhelmingly most likely to get a job at another Mid- or Biglaw firm in your preferred market is during 3L OCI (which is generally a joke) or by mass-mailing during the OCI period (i.e. August and September). In that event, you would in all likelihood have your offer from the firm in your preferred market (if it's a Mid- or Biglaw firm that follows standard hiring practices) before the 11/1 deadline to accept the offer from your 2L summer firm. While Mid- and Biglaw spots do occasionally open up outside of OCI season, it's kind of a rare and random occurrence, so if you're looking for a Mid- or Biglaw job in your target market, timing probably isn't an issue. Now, if you're willing to take a job at a smaller firm, or a midsize firm that doesn't follow traditional hiring practices, then that's a different story.