Bailing on an accepted job for another Forum

[Anonymous User]

Have a job lined up for summer and part-time during the following school year at a large DA's office, but the commute is about 40 minutes. Found another position and am interested in applying that is about 15 minutes away in medium law. What's the general advice here? I don't want to pigeonhole myself with the DA's office, but I've already made a commitment and the CSO is saying not to renege. (Also, there is a high possibility they will offer a full time job upon graduation).

[Anonymous User]

Have a job lined up for summer and part-time during the following school year at a large DA's office, but the commute is about 40 minutes. Found another position and am interested in applying that is about 15 minutes away in medium law. What's the general advice here? I don't want to pigeonhole myself with the DA's office, but I've already made a commitment and the CSO is saying not to renege. (Also, there is a high possibility they will offer a full time job upon graduation).

Well, you can probably apply to the other place and see what happens. There's a chance that you won't get the position. I think it's iffy to do so, but I wouldn't do anything with turning down a job without another offer in hand.

If it is just the matter of a commute (which is not small), you should consider how interested you are in each position and if the midsized has as good of a chance of full time employment. If it does not, I don't think that losing a good likelihood of employment is worth gaining 50 minutes/day.

I know people who have done similar in the past. I think it depends a lot on the situation, including the market and your specific conversations. Career services will likely always say absolutely no, but remember that they want the employer to look at your law school's students and are worried about the law school reputation. While they can be a good source of information in some regards (depending on the school), you do have to balance their advice with their interests.

[Anonymous User]

1L/2L? Medium law chances after graduation at the firm? My intuition is if 2L and if you don't want to be an ADA -> no question bail.

[hephaestus]

1L/2L? Medium law chances after graduation at the firm? My intuition is if 2L and if you don't want to be an ADA -> no question bail.

+1. CSO is telling you out of there pure self interest. But its not their career on the line, its yours.

[champ33]

If I've read you right, the DA's office may hire you after graduation. That in itself is reason enough not to renege. If you know that you do NOT want to be an ADA, though, and the mid law position has the possibility of a post-grad offer as well, don't even think twice about reneging. As another poster said CSO will always tell you not to renege in this situation, but DA's offices have tons of interns coming and going all the time - it will not be a big deal for them at all.

[Anonymous User]

If it is beneficial to you, reneg. I reneged on a job when I got something that was much better and no ones out there trying to ruin my life over it.

[Anonymous User]

If it is beneficial to you, reneg. I reneged on a job when I got something that was much better and no ones out there trying to ruin my life over it.

as did I

[shock259]

Renegging is fine. But don't make a huge decision about your career based on the commute for 2 months. Which one offers better chance of post-graduate employment? Which one do you want to do more? Think about those objectively and choose one.

[Anonymous User]

OP, here. Thanks for all the good points guys. What I've taken away is that I should see how applying/interviewing plays out with the mid law firm and take it from there (and consider things like post-grad opportunities, interests, etc.).

Anyone have any insight on what to tell the mid law firm if they ask about other jobs/offers?