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Hey so long story short . . . I am a 3L at a T14 (top 10%) and have a job lined up at a V50 firm in a large municipal area (sorry for the vagueness, trying to be anonymous). I've always been interested in sports (have a background in the sports industry, non-law related) and have only recently taken it seriously as a legal career. I definitely think I want to do sports transactional work, but the firm that I have committed to has ABSOLUTELY ZERO sports practice. I did my 2L summer at the firm I got my job offer from. I think I would be miserable there and would want to lateral eventually.

Have you heard of anyone lateraling firms before even starting at one? How would you go about doing this without the benefit of a 2L summer and also with no professional legal experience? Is it unethical to send out applications to other firms before telling the firm I have committed to?

If your advice is "you should have considered this before you picked a firm to summer at two years ago" I know, but I am trying to worry about things I can control, not dwell on the past. But, yes, you're right.

Thanks for any / all advice.

People upgrade (or at least try to) from their 2L summer firms all the time, whether it be through 3L OCI or directly applying. It's not as uncommon as you think. It's your career, so if you don't want to be at your current firm, send out some applications. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

yea it wouldn't really be a lateral hire. you just apply as a 3L for a job after graduation/bar.

OP here:

That's awesome news. I assume reaching out to a hiring partner in the target firm would be the place to start then . . .

yes. or whoever they say to send applications to on their website

All is fair in love and biglaw

Unfortunately the two are also mutually exclusive