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Here's the situation:
1L at a T2 school.
I had an offer in hand to spend this summer working for a small firm in my hometown. The position was paid and I'd be the only summer. I accepted this offer over winter break. Start date is Monday, 5/7 to work a full summer. I spent the last two summers working at this same firm ( < 10 attorneys) as an assistant / intern immediately below one of the named partners. It's been communicated several times that they would like me to come back after graduation and work with them.

Now, today I get a phone call from the partner that I've been talking to. He tells me that they've reevaluated their position for this summer and that they no longer have room for me, save a "project to project basis, part-time" in June and July.

This is a firm I would LOVE to work at post graduation. They pay well, work nice hours, and do interesting work. Should I take this as a sign that I should start looking for work post graduation.

More importantly, should I start looking for other work this summer? Skipped OCI because this was in the bag. I know it's way too late to get anything paid, but should I start mass-mailing or is that futile. Should I just take the work they have for me and deal with this next summer? I honestly can't believe they would call 5 days before my start date and drop this on me.

lbeeman2007 wrote:Here's the situation:
1L at a T2 school.
I had an offer in hand to spend this summer working for a small firm in my hometown. The position was paid and I'd be the only summer. I accepted this offer over winter break. Start date is Monday, 5/7 to work a full summer. I spent the last two summers working at this same firm ( < 10 attorneys) as an assistant / intern immediately below one of the named partners. It's been communicated several times that they would like me to come back after graduation and work with them.

Now, today I get a phone call from the partner that I've been talking to. He tells me that they've reevaluated their position for this summer and that they no longer have room for me, save a "project to project basis, part-time" in June and July.

This is a firm I would LOVE to work at post graduation. They pay well, work nice hours, and do interesting work. Should I take this as a sign that I should start looking for work post graduation.

More importantly, should I start looking for other work this summer? Skipped OCI because this was in the bag. I know it's way too late to get anything paid, but should I start mass-mailing or is that futile. Should I just take the work they have for me and deal with this next summer? I honestly can't believe they would call 5 days before my start date and drop this on me.

Call your OCS. Then call some profs and try to get an RA spot.

LawIdiot86 wrote:

lbeeman2007 wrote:Here's the situation:
1L at a T2 school.
I had an offer in hand to spend this summer working for a small firm in my hometown. The position was paid and I'd be the only summer. I accepted this offer over winter break. Start date is Monday, 5/7 to work a full summer. I spent the last two summers working at this same firm ( < 10 attorneys) as an assistant / intern immediately below one of the named partners. It's been communicated several times that they would like me to come back after graduation and work with them.

Now, today I get a phone call from the partner that I've been talking to. He tells me that they've reevaluated their position for this summer and that they no longer have room for me, save a "project to project basis, part-time" in June and July.

This is a firm I would LOVE to work at post graduation. They pay well, work nice hours, and do interesting work. Should I take this as a sign that I should start looking for work post graduation.

More importantly, should I start looking for other work this summer? Skipped OCI because this was in the bag. I know it's way too late to get anything paid, but should I start mass-mailing or is that futile. Should I just take the work they have for me and deal with this next summer? I honestly can't believe they would call 5 days before my start date and drop this on me.

Call your OCS. Then call some profs and try to get an RA spot.

why? unless u need the cash, just chill man. ur techincally still working there over the summer so you can still list it on ur resume as a summer internship. when dicussing this during 2L OCI just dont mention it was on a project to project basis.

LawIdiot86 wrote:

lbeeman2007 wrote:Here's the situation:
1L at a T2 school.
I had an offer in hand to spend this summer working for a small firm in my hometown. The position was paid and I'd be the only summer. I accepted this offer over winter break. Start date is Monday, 5/7 to work a full summer. I spent the last two summers working at this same firm ( < 10 attorneys) as an assistant / intern immediately below one of the named partners. It's been communicated several times that they would like me to come back after graduation and work with them.

Now, today I get a phone call from the partner that I've been talking to. He tells me that they've reevaluated their position for this summer and that they no longer have room for me, save a "project to project basis, part-time" in June and July.

This is a firm I would LOVE to work at post graduation. They pay well, work nice hours, and do interesting work. Should I take this as a sign that I should start looking for work post graduation.

More importantly, should I start looking for other work this summer? Skipped OCI because this was in the bag. I know it's way too late to get anything paid, but should I start mass-mailing or is that futile. Should I just take the work they have for me and deal with this next summer? I honestly can't believe they would call 5 days before my start date and drop this on me.

Call your OCS. Then call some profs and try to get an RA spot.

I would do both - RA and work for the firm. Lots of times a prof will let you RA remotely.

work for the firm. do good work. It's hard to reject a person once they know you and know you do good work.

Do an RA thing also if you want. Having both for 2L OCI would look good. Just make sure that whatever projects you do at the firm you do them well so you can get a positive recommendation out of them.

All 1Ls really need to do is to have a legal-related job their first summer, and sounds like you have that in the bag.
Also this situation can benefit you during 2L OCI. Now when asked why are you looking for a new firm after having worked with a firm your 1L summer you can honestly say that your 1L firm does not have the business to expand and take you on as a permanent.

I read this situation differently than the other posters. Delaying your start date by over a month & then labeling it as projects from time to time in June & July sounds like a hint that you need to start looking elsewhere. The firm may have just lost a steady client or two, or there may be a firm split forthcoming due to money matters.

"they no longer have room for me" save for "project to project basis, part-time" should be enough of a hint.

Thanks for the sound advice. I'll definitely look into an RA position. I hadn't considered it before with a full summer, but now it seems like it would certainly work.

CanadianWolf wrote:I read this situation differently than the other posters. Delaying your start date by over a month & then labeling it as projects from time to time in June & July sounds like a hint that you need to start looking elsewhere. The firm may have just lost a steady client or two, or there may be a firm split forthcoming due to money matters.

"they no longer have room for me" save for "project to project basis, part-time" should be enough of a hint.

This is what I was most afraid of. I know it's early to be thinking about post graduation, but it seemed like I had this in the bag and could remain worry free for the next two years. Now, I'm starting to think that it must be a serious problem on their end for something like this to come up so suddenly.

treeey86 wrote:work for the firm. do good work. It's hard to reject a person once they know you and know you do good work.

Do an RA thing also if you want. Having both for 2L OCI would look good. Just make sure that whatever projects you do at the firm you do them well so you can get a positive recommendation out of them.

All 1Ls really need to do is to have a legal-related job their first summer, and sounds like you have that in the bag.
Also this situation can benefit you during 2L OCI. Now when asked why are you looking for a new firm after having worked with a firm your 1L summer you can honestly say that your 1L firm does not have the business to expand and take you on as a permanent.

except that no one expects 1Ls to return to their firms so no one will ask him that.

and two years is a long time. you can't really speculate that far ahead, especially for a small firm. they probably don't even know what their needs are going to be. maybe they knew you'd just be doing interny stuff over the summer and didnt want to pay you a full-time salary for two months. who knows. either way, until you have an actual offer in hand, you should still be 'playing the game' and doing recruiting/oci/all that stuff anyways, regardless of what your 1L firm's intentions appear to be.