Reneging on Summer Associate Position? Forum

[LordBeric]

If you are getting paid less than biglaw or not being paid, I think thats a perfectly acceptable reason to switch. When you sign an agreement to work at the firm, you are making a good faith expression that you will work there. I think there's no bad faith by OP if his firm is paying less. The OP agreed to work at a firm, the OP however did not take a vow of poverty to work there. In at will employment you have the right to move for greater salary and people do all the time.

Last, I've had plenty of friends at my T10 school do this. All of them did it not because they were selfish dicks, but because they are not in a financial position to turn down more money. Believe it or not, law firms also exist for one reason, make profit, and they not so surprisingly understand when students make the same decisions. For all the nightmares scenarios people are expressing, all smaller firms and public interest jobs were completely cordial to my friends, they understand that with over 100k in non-dischargeable debt, students are not in a position to turn down higher paying opportunities. If you use tact in this situation and explain this, nobody but a true asshole is going to hold it against you.

[Anonymous User]

i would love to know what big law firms are posting on a T30 for 2Ls in February.

[seatown12]

The no-offer analogy is inapposite. OP and the firm agreed that OP would work there as a SA. The comparison would be if the firm rescinded the SA offer without notice, before the summer began. A no-offer, while unfortunate, would simply represent a decision that the firm did not want to hire OP a second time (on a more permanent basis). The equivalent to that would be OP interviewing in the fall and landing a post-grad gig with a different firm.

This is not really accurate either because under the firm hiring structure the SA is more like an initial probationary period. The expectation is that unless the SA is a screwup they will be offered a permanent position after graduating. If this wasn't the case there would be significantly more 3L hiring, like in other areas of the law. Anyone signing on to be an SA is expecting to become a permanent employee of that firm, and is foreclosing possibilities with other firms.

In this context I don't see how OP switching firms in the fall would be any different than switching now, and in fact I think it is more respectful to make the switch as early as possible. The only way to see switching now as worse is if you think firms are bringing on SAs because they actually need the extra hand for the summer which I doubt anyone believes to be the case.

Besides, my point about employment at will was meant to counter the suggestion that there is a higher moral duty to keep "promises" to an employer. The work relationship is a purely economic one, and you can be sure that employers see it that way. The fact that SAs get no-offered through no fault of their own just proves this point. If firms felt a moral obligation to keep these "promises" they would just eat the decrease in profits when work slows rather than no-offering or laying off their employees, but of course that never happens.

[Anonymous User]

i would love to know what big law firms are posting on a T30 for 2Ls in February.