Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer Forum

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Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:46 pm

Hi,

Before you give me an advice you might want the relevant information:
I am a 1L. I accepted (a couple of weeks ago) an offer to work in public interest; this week, I got an offer to work with a county prosecutor's office. Thing is, while I have heard it is bad form to renege on a previous offer (especially since I got both offers through my school's OCI), I really LOVE the idea of working in a prosecutor's office. Although my final goal is to work in Corporate Law (Transactions/Litigation) or IP (primarily IP litigation, but I'll get my patent bar this summer anyway), I see the prosecutor's office as a really cool opportunity with potentially great experiences. Finally, both places have made it pretty clear that they will not allow splitting the summer, as one requires that I stay for the full 10 weeks.

As far as the school's Career Office is concerned, I am strongly considering transferring (this would be to another market entirely), so burning bridges isn't too big of an issue.
What should I do? Should I stick to my previous acceptance or take the second one? How should I phrase my renegement letter to soften the blow as much as possible? Any thoughts/advice will be appreciated.

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:48 pm

If your goal is corporate work, then who cares. Renege and do what you think would be more interesting. It's not like the corporate folks would ever find out, unless your school's career office snitches on you (doubtful). Just tell the PI people that you got a more suitable offer, thank them for the opportunity, and they'll be over it in five minutes. It's March, I'm sure there are still a ton of desperate 1Ls looking for a summer slavery, er "work" opportunity, so they will fill your spot with no problem.

As for how to word your letter, well, you are going to have to write a lot of letters in your career in which you deliver bad news, so figure it out.

Anonymous User
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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:55 pm

Anonymous User wrote:If your goal is corporate work, then who cares. Renege and do what you think would be more interesting. It's not like the corporate folks would ever find out, unless your school's career office snitches on you (doubtful). Just tell the PI people that you got a more suitable offer, thank them for the opportunity, and they'll be over it in five minutes. It's March, I'm sure there are still a ton of desperate 1Ls looking for a summer slavery, er "work" opportunity, so they will fill your spot with no problem.

As for how to word your letter, well, you are going to have to write a lot of letters in your career in which you deliver bad news, so figure it out.
So you're suggesting that both the PI and the prosecutor's would have a negligible effect on improving my chances at corporate law so it doesn't matter which one I pick, right?

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Good Guy Gaud

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by Good Guy Gaud » Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:56 pm

I would do what you believe is going to help you the most in the long run. Sometimes that means reneging on an acceptance. Just know you're not the first person who is going to renege on an acceptance and you won't be the last. Chances are they will understand.

Good luck!

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2016 10:07 pm

Anonymous User wrote: So you're suggesting that both the PI and the prosecutor's would have a negligible effect on improving my chances at corporate law so it doesn't matter which one I pick, right?
More or less. Neither one seems to have anything to do with corporate law. Do whichever one you would have more fun with and focus on your grades and making law review.

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GreenEggs

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by GreenEggs » Mon Mar 28, 2016 10:11 pm

I would be careful with reneging unless 100% sure you will be transferring, you don't want to get some sort of penalty via your CSO
Last edited by GreenEggs on Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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rpupkin

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by rpupkin » Mon Mar 28, 2016 11:03 pm

Anonymous User wrote: What should I do? Should I stick to my previous acceptance or take the second one? How should I phrase my renegement letter to soften the blow as much as possible?
If you're going to back out of an offer you accepted, at least have the decency to call.

RaceJudicata

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by RaceJudicata » Mon Mar 28, 2016 11:16 pm

DCfilterDC wrote:I would be careful with reneging unless 100% sure you will be transferring, you don't want to get some sort of penalty via your CSO
First, give whoever you are reneging on a call. Second, I doubt they will even let your CSO know that you reneged. Don't sweat it.

Also, given the current employment culture, I doubt any CSO is going to actively penalize a student and try and prevent them from gaining meaningful employment. But CSOs suck, so who knows.

inter-associate

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by inter-associate » Mon Mar 28, 2016 11:48 pm

Maybe I'm overly risk averse, but why renege if they are both unpaid positions (if I'm assuming wrong you can disregard this post) and neither help with your long term goals? The only possible bad result is you getting on the wrong side of career services. Why take that risk just because something looks more "cool" (which is unlikely to be the case)? There is no guarantee that you can transfer until spring grades come out, so there is still a chance a poor decision here will come back to bite you.

Your situation is very different from a 2L summer associate offer or a permanent offer as a 3L. You have absolutely nothing to gain (because no law firm will care what you did your 1L summer) so why risk it?

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Re: Whether to Renege on a Previous Offer

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 29, 2016 11:56 am

I was in a similar situation - reneged on an accepted offer with a judge to go work in a prosecutor's office (this is what I want to do long-term). The judge's chambers were understanding and the internship ended up being the best experience I had in law school. My advice: burn the bridge and go do the internship you are most interested in.

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