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Afternoon cb in another market an hours flight away (but total time from my door to firm is about 3.5-4h). Firm travel agency is looking at same day flights by default. Not quite comfortable w jumping from a plane to a cb, is it bad form to ask to come the night before (hotel on them)? It's a large firm. Or should I suck it up.

Anonymous User wrote:Afternoon cb in another market an hours flight away (but total time from my door to firm is about 3.5-4h). Firm travel agency is looking at same day flights by default. Not quite comfortable w jumping from a plane to a cb, is it bad form to ask to come the night before (hotel on them)? It's a large firm. Or should I suck it up.

Do the day (which is normal) or offer to pay for the hotel if you have a reason to stay there overnight (visit friends, etc).

completely normal to stay in a hotel the night before. hiring committee likely won't even see the bill....

Anonymous User wrote:Afternoon cb in another market an hours flight away (but total time from my door to firm is about 3.5-4h). Firm travel agency is looking at same day flights by default. Not quite comfortable w jumping from a plane to a cb, is it bad form to ask to come the night before (hotel on them)? It's a large firm. Or should I suck it up.

I say suck it up unless you have a really good reason. If they wanted to pay for your hotel, I imagine they'd offer.

For PM CB, definitely do the same day travel, unless there's no reasonable flight up in the AM (I consider flights before 8AM, and thus requiring you be at the airport before 7, to be unreasonable).

General rule of thumb (at least at my firm) is 1 hotel night for a callback, either the night before for an AM callback or the night after for a PM callback. Probably won't hurt to ask for 2 nights, but really, if there's an 8am or 9am flight out, just take it.

Sup Kid wrote:General rule of thumb (at least at my firm) is 1 hotel night for a callback, either the night before for an AM callback or the night after for a PM callback. Probably won't hurt to ask for 2 nights, but really, if there's an 8am or 9am flight out, just take it.

not looking for 2 nites. flying back after the cb for sure.

Anonymous User wrote:Afternoon cb in another market an hours flight away (but total time from my door to firm is about 3.5-4h). Firm travel agency is looking at same day flights by default. Not quite comfortable w jumping from a plane to a cb, is it bad form to ask to come the night before (hotel on them)? It's a large firm. Or should I suck it up.

Suck it up. In an email setting up a CB, a firm recently said to me that the standard policy (implied it was NALP policy) is not to pay for hotel/overnight stay if coming to NYC from a commuter city (which included cities more than 1 hour flight away). If the CB is important to you, eat the hotel cost yourself. If not, get a really early flight in to give yourself a bit of extra time.

Anonymous User wrote:

Sup Kid wrote:General rule of thumb (at least at my firm) is 1 hotel night for a callback, either the night before for an AM callback or the night after for a PM callback. Probably won't hurt to ask for 2 nights, but really, if there's an 8am or 9am flight out, just take it.

not looking for 2 nites. flying back after the cb for sure.

In that case, considering travel time is up to 4 hours, you can definitely try to get a hotel room. Even if they say no, it won't hurt you to ask.

Forgot to update this thread:

I ended up opting for the same day travel, and it was a mistake.

CB was at 2pm, so I booked a 9am-10:30am flight, leaving me plenty of time to chill before the interview. But the weather decided otherwise, and after multiple cancellations, I ended up getting there half an hour late. I regularly updated the recruiter on my situation the whole time.

I ended up interviewing with two different attorneys out of four. The one on the hiring committee, who I was most prepared to impress (specializes in a narrow field I read quite a bit about) was swapped out for another who was visibly distracted by email exchanges related to a 5 or 6pm filing deadline.

The whole thing was just a mess and the ding days later wasn't much of a surprise.

I won't blame the ding entirely on the hectic travel (I stumbled with some answers) but it certainly didn't help.

Arrive the day before if possible. It's also clear from speaking to the recruiter that they wouldn't have cared, and that students' squeamishness on this issue is misplaced. It's a hard lesson to learn. That was my most promising CB.

That sucks, and I second your conclusion that staying overnight is the way to go. Though I think nine times out of ten, the firm will offer to put you up in a hotel. I've never heard of this fly in ---> interview ---> fly out thing before. Sounds kinda TTT on the firm's part, IMO. If faced with the decision though, I'd just throw down $100 on a cheap hotel room and avoid the hectic travel.

The advice in this thread is terrible. Nobody at a big firm looks at expense reports that closely, certainly not the attorneys making the hiring decisions. You are never going to get dinged for billing an extra night's hotel room. Don't jeopardize your interview to save the firm a few hundred bucks.

Yea for future reference this thread was terrible. I booked a room the night before a PM CB and got an offer from the firm - my guess is nobody on the hiring committee knew anything about my travel schedule, nor did they care.

Did you seriously not even ask the recruiter? Worst they can do is say no, people.

Anonymous User wrote:Did you seriously not even ask the recruiter? Worst they can do is say no, people.

THANKS

Danger Zone wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Did you seriously not even ask the recruiter? Worst they can do is say no, people.

THANKS

Didnt see this thread before, sry bro.

I just did hotel night before but I drove rather than flight. So cost to the firm is probably $500-600 only.

Anonymous User wrote:Suck it up. In an email setting up a CB, a firm recently said to me that the standard policy (implied it was NALP policy) is not to pay for hotel/overnight stay if coming to NYC from a commuter city (which included cities more than 1 hour flight away). If the CB is important to you, eat the hotel cost yourself. If not, get a really early flight in to give yourself a bit of extra time.

Huh? I'm at Yale, which is about 2 hours from NYC by train, and every firm I interviewed with has been willing to pay for 1 night in a hotel -- even if the interview was in the afternoon. Career Services told us one night per CB is standard. I have friends who've done the same thing.

Also, most of the big firms out-source their travel department. It's usually just a travel agency, even if they use the firm name when answering the phone. I'm betting no one at the firm know anything about it until they get the bill, and even then the bill's probably not seen by attorneys. The only exception I know of is Davis Polk, which has a travel department in-house.

I once billed a firm for Friday night and Saturday night for a Friday callback so I could enjoy a weekend in LA. That was a little sketch on my part, but of course nobody complained and I still got an offer.