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CCN student checking in. I recently interviewed with a capital defender office, and they sent me an offer this weekend with a Thursday deadline. I was not expecting such a fast turnaround, and it puts me in a slight bind. I know 1L summers generally don't matter that much in terms of the type of legal work when it comes to OCI in the fall (unless its a 1L SA) but I have a lead into an in-house internship with a top tech corporation in SF and it is the internship I would rather have.

The problem though is that they are still in the preliminary stages of setting up interviews so any decision would likely be a long way off, and I don't even specifically know what my relative chances are even if I may have a slight edge due to employee referral (It is apparently important there to get referred). I am considering asking for an extension on this capital defender offer, but I do not know how that would affect their stance on the offer as they seemed adamant about Thursday and were even pushing for an earlier acceptance. On a side note, I have applied to other in-house jobs and also interviewed at other PI jobs recently, but am still waiting to hear back.

With that background, here are some questions I have.

1) Is it bad etiquette to ask for an extension when they seemed so adamant on Thursday being the deadline?

2) In case I can't get an extension, do firms value quality in-house work over a capital defender job to the extent that it would be worth taking the risk to pursue it?

Thanks for any advice

Anonymous User wrote: 1) Is it bad etiquette to ask for an extension when they seemed so adamant on Thursday being the deadline?

2) In case I can't get an extension, do firms value quality in-house work over a capital defender job to the extent that it would be worth taking the risk to pursue it?

It might be poor etiquette to ask if they have already explicitly communicated that the deadline is firm. It sounds like from what you've said that they haven't exactly said that, so you could probably ask. But it also sounds like it's unlikely that they will give you an extension. The other issue is that you don't know how long until you'll even interview with the tech company, so it's hard to even specify how long of an extension you'll need. If I were you I would probably just take the capital defender internship and put your efforts into your coursework.

Biglaw firms do not care whatsoever what time or work you're doing as long as it's legal. One thing that might raise at least a minor question as to geographical ties is that the in-house internship is in SF, unless you plan to target that market for 2L OCI.

It is totally reasonable to ask for an extension. Express gratitude for the offer, say that you would like more time to think (or a better excuse like wanting to try to secure funding or housing if it would be applicable), and ask if it would be possible to have more time to consider the offer.

They will likely be unwilling to give you as much time as you would need to go through the whole interview process and get another offer, but it shouldn't hurt to ask.

(Also, NALP standards say all offers should remain open for two weeks http://www.nalp.org/fulltextofnalpprinc ... _Standards and there are at least some schools that require employers to abide by that. I have no idea how you would go about enforcing that though. You might want to check with your career services office though).

You can ask, but the risk is obvious.

CanadianWolf wrote:You can ask, but the risk is obvious.

What do you think the risk is? It's a capital defender office; it's not like they are going to rescind the offer just because a candidate asked if it would be possible to have a little time to try to secure funding/housing/whatever. There are certain kinds of employers that might give you a harder time, but in this context, for a 1L PI internship, it should be totally fine.

OP here. Just talked to a family friend who is a recruiter and they said that there is really no risk in asking for an extension. Probably going to send an extension request tonight and if they say no then I will just accept the offer. I do respect that I should probably just accept the internship in terms of OCI reasons but I would really love to work at this company over the summer.