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I'm a judicial clerk and have received two offers from firms for a post-clerkship position. I accepted one of them, contingent on clearing conflicts. I'd like to wait until I am cleared through conflicts before declining the other firm's offer. Is this plan realistic? How long can I hold onto the second offer if the conflicts check takes awhile? Any other advice on how to manage this situation without offending the second firm (in the unlikely event that I do have a conflict with the first firm)?

Anonymous User wrote:I'm a judicial clerk and have received two offers from firms for a post-clerkship position. I accepted one of them, contingent on clearing conflicts. I'd like to wait until I am cleared through conflicts before declining the other firm's offer. Is this plan realistic? How long can I hold onto the second offer if the conflicts check takes awhile? Any other advice on how to manage this situation without offending the second firm (in the unlikely event that I do have a conflict with the first firm)?

Do you think, realistically, you can clear conflicts?

OP here. I'd say there's a 95% chance that I clear. The only real potential conflicts are from my 2L summer firm, but I only worked on a handful of cases. I'd assume that even if there were a conflict, I could be screened or get a client waiver. There's just a small chance that there is a more major conflict where a screen or waiver wouldn't be enough (I'm not exactly sure what sort of conflict this would be though).

I am in a similar position right now - I have a few offers but none completely official due to conflicts not having been totally cleared yet. I know which firm I plan on going to, and am waiting for the OK re: conflicts, but am not going to officially withdraw from other firms until conflicts clear. Whether or not they keep the offer open long enough is up to the other firm. That being said, I haven't met any associate who hasn't cleared when they lateral or join having summered somewhere else, but I know technically it can happen.

Anonymous User wrote:OP here. I'd say there's a 95% chance that I clear. The only real potential conflicts are from my 2L summer firm, but I only worked on a handful of cases. I'd assume that even if there were a conflict, I could be screened or get a client waiver. There's just a small chance that there is a more major conflict where a screen or waiver wouldn't be enough (I'm not exactly sure what sort of conflict this would be though).

Depending on the rules in your state, you should be fine. Comment 4 to ABA Model Rule 1.10 basically says that work you do as a law student can't be the basis for imputing conflicts to the firm. You'll need to be screened, but the firm should be able to take/continue the representation without any problems. If your state tracks the model rules at all, I can't see any reason you'd get dinged for conflicts.

I was in a similar position. When I accepted an offer (contingent on conflicts) I turned down the remaining firms at the same time. Conflicts ended up taking ~3 weeks. I guess I could have kept the other firms on the hook for that time, but some of the offers had already been open a long time. And I was not at all worried about passing conflicts based on one SA.