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I accepted my summer 2L firm's offer shortly after receiving it, and as a result received a bar stipend etc. I have since clerked for more than two years and have had some major life changes (read: had a child). As a result, I am reconsidering my original firm's offer, and am thinking about trying for firms in a different part of the country. If I did get a second offer, what would be the repercussions for accepting it? Would the second firm buy me out? What is the best way of doing this, if I wanted to switch firms? How bad of an idea is this?

Buy out? You're a fungible, at-will employee.
You almost certainly signed a contract requiring you to repay the bar stipend if you don't work at the firm for a certain period of time (probably 12 months). Other than paying that back, there would be no repercussions.

Cogburn87 wrote:Buy out? You're a fungible, at-will employee.
You almost certainly signed a contract requiring you to repay the bar stipend if you don't work at the firm for a certain period of time (probably 12 months). Other than paying that back, there would be no repercussions.

Sorry, what I meant was whether there was any possibility of firm 2 paying back the bar stipend (or give me a bigger starting bonus) rather than me having to pay it back myself out of the clerkship bonus.

doubt it but can't hurt to ask.

you should probably just pay back the firm you're screwing over

Anonymous User wrote:you should probably just pay back the firm you're screwing over

lol. yeah. how will they ever find a replacement attorney in this market?!

Anonymous User wrote:you should probably just pay back the firm you're screwing over

LOL

Anonymous User wrote:you should probably just pay back the firm you're screwing over

why was this anonymous? but I agree

runinthefront wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:you should probably just pay back the firm you're screwing over

why was this anonymous? but I agree

you're in for a wake-up call if this is the mentality you have towards the legal profession and big law in particular.

I've never heard of a second firm "buying out" the first firm's bar stipend/salary advance/whatever. What I (and others I know in this situation) have done is just use part of the clerkship bonus from the new firm to pay back the first firm's advances. To be clear, though, I then had my new firm cut me a check for my bar expenses, etc., so ultimately I ended up even financially.

As others said, there are no other repercussions. Firms know that a certain number of summer associates that clerk will not be coming back, even if they accepted offers at the end of their summer.

different, financially-strapped anon jumping aboard to ask if anyone has had the experience of a firm not seeking the bar stipend repayment from a clerk? i would like to take a fedgov position but no way am i just chucking back $15k to the firm on the paltry first-year bigfed salary. does anyone have experience with how aggressively and over what timeframe firm's pursue that money?

I was in a somewhat different situation in that I did not clerk, but I accepted an offer at Firm A, and they paid my bar expenses. After the bar exam, I accepted an offer at Firm B with a sign-on bonus intended to cover bar expenses. I wrote Firm A a check and took the money from Firm B when I started. I don't see any other way to do it, really.

I did this and firm 2 paid off firm 1's bar stipend. Not sure if that is typical or not. I went from NYC V10 to regional office of biglaw firm, fwiw

Anonymous User wrote:I was in a somewhat different situation in that I did not clerk, but I accepted an offer at Firm A, and they paid my bar expenses. After the bar exam, I accepted an offer at Firm B with a sign-on bonus intended to cover bar expenses. I wrote Firm A a check and took the money from Firm B when I started. I don't see any other way to do it, really.

Can you provide any details as to how you pulled this off, specifically applying to Firm B?

I held my summer firm's offer open when clerking, and I actually fronted the costs rather than take their bar stipend since I was planning to look elsewhere. (This of course placed them on notice that I was going to look elsewhere.) Then, when I got the offer from new firm, they just gave me a lump sum payment intended to cover previously incurred bar costs. Had I actually taken money from summer firm, I'd have used these funds to write them a reimbursement check.