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Received an offer from firm X a few weeks ago. They stated that while there is no specific time limit to respond back to them, they recommended two weeks.

Interviewed with firm Y two weeks ago and notified them of my offer and the deadline to respond from firm X. I heard back from firm Y and they stated that they would not have a decision made by my unofficial deadline to firm X. Not sure what to do.

Firm Y is my first choice and in my ideal market.

This is for 2L summer

Is this 1L summer?

Regardless, bird in the hand. If Y was really nuts about you, they would have moved before your deadline.

This is tough. I'd maybe give it a week, and then call Firm Y again and basically say, "I love your firm, I want to be here, but I can't just turn this offer down and hope for the best. I understand if you cannot move up the deadline, but I am going to have to accept this other position if I don't hear soon." Be polite and professional, but also somewhat direct. If they can't do anything for you, then go to the first firm. I definitely do not recommending the accept --> reneg move here, and turning down X and just crossing your fingers for Y would be absolutely stupid.

ETA: If this is your 1L summer I'd just take the job and be done with it, FWIW. If its 2L year its a lot more difficult.

2L summer

Right now you stand 100% chance of getting a firm job in the summer.

If you dilly-dally you could find yourself with a 0% chance. Don't let a bird in the hand slip through.

Firm X likes you, no question about it. You don't know what could be happening at Firm Y. There could be two partners using you as proxy in some office politics argument. Maybe partner A wants you and partner B wants someone else. Maybe partner A wins this battle but Partner B remains bitter and when final offers go out he nit picks you out of the group.

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Unless you're a near-lock for employment with Firm Y, you'd be a lunatic to gamble with a 6-figure job.

Obviously, trying to massage Firm Y for a decision prior to Firm X's deadline is ideal, but if they won't budge, you've got to look out for your near-term financial future.

Stay on Firm Y about making a decision sooner rather than later.

Before two weeks has expired tell Firm X you are waiting on one last employer before you can make your decision. Tell them that you are very excited about their firm but think it would be irresponsible of you to make such a huge decision before knowing all your options. Most likely, since they didn't give you a hard deadline, they will be okay with letting you have a little time.

If Firm X forces your hand and demands a decision at two weeks, accept. If this is what happens, and Firm Y offers you later, kick Firm X to the curb. In this scenario you have given Firm X an opportunity to be reasonable and considerate of your situation and they declined, so you should feel no compulsion to treat them any better.

Obviously, hopefully either the former scenario plays out or Firm Y gets back to you quickly.

Especially at this stage in the game I would accept the offer in hand unless Firm Y (your first choice) is significantly better than Firm X (your offer). I don't mean like V25 vs. V50, I mean like not even NLJ250 vs. VX/NLJ250, or you have no interest whatsoever in Firm X's practice (i.e. it's Quinn Emanuel and you know you don't want to litigate), or Firm X is in a city that you have absolutely no interest in living in.

You could try asking Firm X for an extension, but they're probably less likely to do that now because it's so late in the process.

As others have said, if Firm Y is really super interested in you they would have moved their schedule up.