3L Chances and Proper Etiquette Forum

[holdadoor]

I am a rising 3L who recently started at my SA job. Unfortunately, I haven't had that great an impression. I know I should give it to the end of summer, and I do plan on giving it time. However, I would like to know what my options are with respect to getting hired at another firm as a 3L. At what point should I start (if I do) contacting other firms? What is the best way to go about doing this? Should I even bother participating in 3L OIC?

I hope I don't sound ungrateful. I'm extremely thankful for my summer employment. I just want to make sure that I am in the right place since this will likely be a long-term investment.

[Anonymous User]

I am a rising 3L who recently started at my SA job. Unfortunately, I haven't had that great an impression. I know I should give it to the end of summer, and I do plan on giving it time. However, I would like to know what my options are with respect to getting hired at another firm as a 3L. At what point should I start (if I do) contacting other firms? What is the best way to go about doing this? Should I even bother participating in 3L OIC?

I hope I don't sound ungrateful. I'm extremely thankful for my summer employment. I just want to make sure that I am in the right place since this will likely be a long-term investment.

I was in the same position last year. I summered at one V* but will be starting at a different V* in the fall. I realized pretty quickly that my summer firm wasn't a good fit—nothing wrong with the firm, but I was unhappy there nonetheless. Starting in mid-July, I sent my resume out to the recruiting departments at all the firms I was interested in, and I interviewed at the end of July, throughout August, and into September. Things worked out well, and I'm starting in the fall at a firm where I think I'll be happier.

A word of caution: Many of the firms I interviewed with called my summer firm (to see what my deal was and whether I'd been no-offered) before or immediately after I interviewed with them—i.e., while my SA was ongoing. I knew there was a risk that my summer firm might somehow find out I was looking elsewhere and that bridges would be burned as a result, and I accepted that risk because I was sufficiently unhappy that I thought it was unlikely I'd want to return and I knew I was a competitive enough candidate that I'd very likely get an offer somewhere else. However, I absolutely didn't expect other firms to contact my summer firm before extending a firm offer and without at least giving me a heads up. I'd talked to a few trusted people in the industry about my plans to consider other options, and they assured me that there was no risk that other firms would disclose the fact that I had interviewed to my summer firm without my approval, because getting a reputation for doing that sort of thing would make good lateral candidates reluctant to apply. NOT THE CASE—nearly all of the firms spoke with legal recruiting at my summer firm before making me an offer. When I found out they knew I'd been looking elsewhere, I felt extremely uncomfortable/guilty/bad, of course—as though I'd been caught cheating or something; even though my summer firm and I just didn't click, I was really grateful for the SA opportunity and I liked the people I had worked with. It probably was unprofessional of me to interview at other firms during the course of my SA, but I knew that my school's 3L OCI schedule looked pretty sparse, and I had no guidance about how to look for other options when you already are fortunate enough to have a great SA (that presumably will become a "permanent" offer), so I did what I thought I needed to do to secure an offer elsewhere. It turns out that I probably could have waited until after my SA ended to start looking, but some 3L offers were made at the firms I was considering before I even interviewed, and there are far fewer 3L openings than 2L openings. Timing your search is a tough call, but you might want to wait until you secure an offer from your SA unless you know that you don't want to return and you feel confident that you'll get an offer elsewhere or are okay with the possibility of not getting an offer elsewhere.

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but interested in hearing more insight (albeit anecdotal) to 3L job search to switch firms.

[holdadoor]

OP here.

I'm not entirely sure I'll be a competitive candidate. I bombed my second semester of 1L, which is one of the reasons why I am at the firm I'm at. I did better first semester of 2L, and hopefully, I will have done better second semester, too. (Grades aren't out yet.) I would, however, like to know whether I should wait till the beginning of August to reach out to other firms, so as to avoid the issue of firms contacting my current firm. Like you, Anonymous User, I don't see 3L OIC as being too great an option, since a lot of firms will be trying to fill their 2L slots. At the same time, I certainly don't want to face that awkward situation where these other firms will be contacting the firm I am at right now.

TL;DR? I'm at a top V30 firm. I bombed second semester of 1L so much so that even with a GPA boost, I'm not a competitive candidate. I'm sitting at a 3.5 right now, and I don't know whether I should take the risk of reaching out to other firms if they will presumably contact the firm I am an SA at right now.