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I'm in the fortunate position of having a number of offers at various V15 firms, along with a few smaller, lower-ranked firms that are known for their litigation prowess (I'm interested in being a litigator). All of these are in NY.

I'm having a really hard time deciding between the various places, as they all seem to have pros and cons about them.

But I'm thinking the whole "second look" thing would be useful to help make this kind of a decision, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it. All the firms I have offers at say that I can get in touch if I'd like to meet with anyone else, etc. They all seem to have offer dinners/receptions and that sort of thing as well. I'm trying to go to as many of those as possible, but I only have so much time.

More importantly, I'm not sure how to do the "second look". Basically, there isn't anyone I specifically want to meet with. And I'm pretty undecided about practice area, so there isn't even a specific area, other than litigation, that I can really hone in on. So I'm not sure how best to proceed. I guess I could just ask to come back in and talk to random litigators, but that feels sort of like it would be the same thing as my callback.

So I'm wondering how folks who have been through this before have handled this sort of thing and wondering if anyone has any advice for how to go about gathering the information that would help one make as informed a decision as possible.

I went for a second look this week at one of the firms and just asked the recruiter to set me up to meet with associates in a particular practice group and then I went out to lunch with a couple of associates. I wanted to remind myself about the feel of the office and the people. I actually felt like I could take notes this time since I already had an offer. I also was asking a lot of questions that were important to me that I wouldn't have asked without the offer. I'm going on another second look next week and am planning on doing the same thing at that firm. For another firm that I already have a feel of the office but want to just ask questions, I simply asked the recruiter for contact information of attorneys that graduated from my law school so I could grill them with questions. As you mentioned, I will also be going to the dinners, receptions etc.

Does anyone have experience with how associates and/or partners take it when you ask them the "hard" questions?

On the one hand, who cares if they are offended or put off, because you already have your offer, but I'm guessing that a) they could still rescind your offer, but more importantly b) these may well be your colleagues not too long from now, so I don't want to alienate myself from folks from the get-go.

But nonetheless, I feel like it's important to ask "hard" questions. So how do you navigate this? I went to an offer reception the other day and tried to ask some "hard" questions as tactfully as possible, but I felt like the associates I asked seemed a little put off by them. It was as though by questioning a particular aspect of their firm, I was calling into question their career choices and thus their existence more broadly. I would like to avoid that sort of thing, if possible, but still get the info I'm looking for.

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Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone have experience with how associates and/or partners take it when you ask them the "hard" questions?

On the one hand, who cares if they are offended or put off, because you already have your offer, but I'm guessing that a) they could still rescind your offer, but more importantly b) these may well be your colleagues not too long from now, so I don't want to alienate myself from folks from the get-go.

But nonetheless, I feel like it's important to ask "hard" questions. So how do you navigate this? I went to an offer reception the other day and tried to ask some "hard" questions as tactfully as possible, but I felt like the associates I asked seemed a little put off by them. It was as though by questioning a particular aspect of their firm, I was calling into question their career choices and thus their existence more broadly. I would like to avoid that sort of thing, if possible, but still get the info I'm looking for.

I'd be curious to know what questions you asked. I am also wondering what types of questions are OK to ask at a second look. In particular, I'm looking to compare life at an IP boutique vs. GP firm with a good IP practice. Everyone says they're SO busy with patent work but I wonder what will happen if that dries up at the GP firm. I'm also concerned because I told IP boutique that I am fully committed to IP while I told the GP firm that I'm also interested in commercial litigation. Are they going to call me out for bending the truth? (Truthfully I can't decide...)