Offer revoked Forum

[Anonymous User]

Don't even know what to think or feel right now.

I got a callback from mass mail at a midsize firm in my home market. I had the callback last week, and it went very well. The hiring partner called me on Friday offering me a position to join them next summer, and I accepted on the spot and thanked him for the call. He said he would follow up with HR and I would receive a formal offer letter sometime this week. That was the end of the call.

My GF took me out that night to celebrate, I told friends and family and classmates about the offer because I was so excited. I even made living arrangements with friends for next summer. It was one of the best weekends I've ever had

The hiring partner called me back today and said that the firm would unfortunately have to "retract our offer." He said he was very sorry, but he said the firm couldn't hire me because HR said that I "didn't meet their GPA cutoff." Is this even a thing? I listed my GPA on my resume and sent them my transcripts in my mass mail application. Why would they invite me for a callback, much less extend an offer, if I didn't meet their GPA cutoffs? I paid for the travel myself because i told the firm I would be in the area

I don't have any more callbacks from OCI. I only one more screener lined up in September so far. I've mass mailed almost every firm I can think of.

I just feel so down and want nothing to do with law or law school or anything. I don't have social media, don't have anything criminally related at all in my background, they didn't ask for references....I just can't imagine why this would have happened.

Not really sure why I'm even posting this here, I just wanted to get it out. please don't quote

[Mullens]

This situation is one of the few where it makes sense to talk to your career services office and see what they say. If nothing else than to warn future students about this behavior.

[kellyfrost]

First off, I am terribly sorry for your experience and sorry you have gone through this. I can only imagine how upset and pissed you are. However, don't let this experience detract you from the law or interfere with your semester of school.

Do you know what the firms GPA cut off is? How close is your GPA? If you aren't close to the cut off, then I think you just accept it and move on. IF you are close to the.cut off, and you really want this position, I suggest you call back the partner that hired you and simply restate your case, that the firm had your transcripts, ect and then tell them "why" you want to work for that firm, I.e., home market, certain practice area, anything positive like that. I would conclude by saying if the firm can't budge on the GPA cut off that you fully understand you don't meet the criteria they are looking for on paper and you respect that, but that you are simply asking for some reconsideration by the firm because of your strong desire to work there.




If all else fails, this might be a good Above The Law story.

[foregetaboutdre]

This situation is one of the few where it makes sense to talk to your career services office and see what they say. If nothing else than to warn future students about this behavior.

Yeah first, contact your CDO/CSO and see what advice they'll give you. (they'll probably be extremely perplexed)

Second, do you have an offer in writing? (Not sure how this matters, but I'm just curious).

If you REALLLY want to get travel compensated, maybe you could send an e-mail to HR/the Partner mentioning how you are disappointed by the news and you spent money getting there and seeing if you can shame them into reimbursing you.

I'm extremely sorry this happened to you, it's shitty unless the firm is in some super dire situation.

[Anonymous User]

This is absolutely terrible of the firm to do. I'm so sorry you have to go through this.

Imo this firm deserves to be publicly shamed. What is the firm?

[Anonymous User]

I had an offer revoked through no fault of my own as well. I spent the entire day my offer was revoked devastated. My friends all knew about the offer and thought I was taking that job. I thought I was taking that job. It hurt. How did I move past it? I simply did. You'll get knocked down in life. It'll suck. But you have to be able to get back up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward. That's what I did. That's what you'll do. I threw myself into immediately applying for jobs.

What can you do? Accept that it's out of your hands. Take the anger, disappointment, and bitterness you feel and use it to motivate you for your job search. Set out to get another great job. Set out to get a better job and prove that they were the ones who fucked up. There's only one direction you can go...forward. You have a long life ahead of you. This one setback won't stop you from having a successful career. Don't let it. You blew them away. You can blow another employer away.

[Anonymous User]

Send this to above the law. Including firm. Out them and shame them.

[sublime]

Send this to above the law. Including firm. Out them and shame them.

Idk. If it is a smaller market, it may get around. And don't take any adverse action against the employer until you are absolutely certain that it won't hurt you in any way.


If there is no way to get an offer at that firm, I would attempt to guilt them into using their resources to try and find you something.

Most of all, I am sorry this happened to you OP.

[PeanutsNJam]

I think this kind of behavior warrants a reputation hit. Although, if you give Above The Law an anonymous tip, and the firm finds out, they'll almost certainly know it was you. Although what can the firm do to you anyway? They're in the wrong.

[Anonymous User]

This is exactly why I have no problem with students revoking their acceptance of offers or shopping around until the day they start at their firms (and beyond). Firms will not hesitate to pull the plug.

OP, I'm truly sorry to have this happen to you. Know that you'll land on your feet soon enough.

[lavarman84]

OP, I don't recommend outing the firm. The only person whose reputation might be hurt is yours.

[Anonymous User]

That is such bullshit; the firm likes you, gives offer, and HR kills it because of your GPA. GPA is so irrelevant and clients never even know about it. Astonishing.

I'll give you some tough love; get the fuck back out there and start blasting those emails. Don't give up. Wake up tomorrow and make it a goal to mail another 50 firms by days end.

[Anonymous User]

This is exactly why I have no problem with students revoking their acceptance of offers or shopping around until the day they start at their firms (and beyond). Firms will not hesitate to pull the plug.

OP, I'm truly sorry to have this happen to you. Know that you'll land on your feet soon enough.

I am sure you see how this is nothing like someone shoping their offer up until the last moment (not saying whether or not that is okay). It really sucks but the only harm here was getting the OP's hopes up over a weekend. It's not like he or she turned down other options as a result of recieving the verbal offer (and that's assuming it was an actual offer and not sufficiently qualified by the lawyer when made).

[rpupkin]

The hiring partner called me back today and said that the firm would unfortunately have to "retract our offer." He said he was very sorry, but he said the firm couldn't hire me because HR said that I "didn't meet their GPA cutoff." Is this even a thing?

No, it's not. I've never heard of a law firm where HR tells the hiring partner whom he can or cannot hire. It's the other way around.

My guess is that the real reason for the retracted offer has nothing to do with your GPA. Perhaps the firm realized today (or over the weekend) that it had overhired and/or was in economic trouble.

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior seems more common with midsize firms. I can't imagine a big law firm behaving like this. I'm really sorry.

[eyeofvigilence]

Out them on ATL. This is totally unethical, and it has nothing to do with your GPA.

[Anonymous User]

The hiring partner called me back today and said that the firm would unfortunately have to "retract our offer." He said he was very sorry, but he said the firm couldn't hire me because HR said that I "didn't meet their GPA cutoff." Is this even a thing?

No, it's not. I've never heard of a law firm where HR tells the hiring partner whom he can or cannot hire. It's the other way around.

My guess is that the real reason for the retracted offer has nothing to do with your GPA. Perhaps the firm realized today (or over the weekend) that it had overhired and/or was in economic trouble.

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior seems more common with midsize firms. I can't imagine a big law firm behaving like this. I'm really sorry.

This is definitely plausible. Managing partner being limited by a BULLSHIT reason from HUMAN RESOURCES? Don't think so.. Firm probably had an unexpected amount of other people accept their offers (were expecting 50% yield, but got 100% for instance).

[spyke123]

OP, don't out the firm... that won't help you in any way

[daedalus2309]

Maybe ask itbdvorm?

[Danger Zone]

Is this a NALP firm? I don't think they can pull an offer like this.

[Bilb0Baggins]

If you don't out the firm, and it's in a smaller market, consider posting non-Anon (via throwaway account) so people considering that market/firm can message you privately.

[Toni V]

The hiring partner called me back today and said that the firm would unfortunately have to "retract our offer." He said he was very sorry, but he said the firm couldn't hire me because HR said that I "didn't meet their GPA cutoff."

Curious. How many attorneys are employed at this firm?

[Anonymous User]

I agree with the others--outing the firm will hurt your own reputation more. Plus you don't need to waste time and energy doing so.

If you really like the firm, call back the partner to express your interest and ask him to reconsider. There's no downside. The worst that can happen is a rejection. I know this is easier said than done, but it's in your best interest to stop dwelling on this and keep contacting firms.

For what it's worth, take this as an affirmation of your interview skills. You did well enough to garner an offer and other firms will also likely extend offers once you get your foot in the door. At the end of the day, all you need is one firm to say yes. Keep your head up and grind away.

[RaceJudicata]

This is some bullshit. I'm sorry you have to go through this. IMO, the HR line was a complete, utter BS line. Its more likely they over-hired or someone they liked better than you accepted. Either way, its not a good look for the firm.

I don't think the revenge of outing the firm is worth it in the long run. But I do think its worth it to go to the firm and tell them that you turned down other offers because of this (even if not true - they got in the mud first, might as well join them). Probably won't lead to an offer, but may make you feel better to make them (potentially) feel like crap.

Head up, and keep hustling. Things will work out in the end...and looking at the bright side, you might have dodge a bullet by not working at a firm that would do this.

That said, there are reasons for revoked offers... i.e. horrible financial condition, financial meltdown, etc...but "GPA cutoff" - especially when its on your resume - is not one of them.

[NoBladesNoBows]

First of all, I'm so sorry OP. This is absolutely horrible, and fuck that firm. Like others have said just keep pushing forward. If you got an offer there I'm sure you can find one somewhere else as well.

Second of all, I'm inclined to urge you to out the firm. If it's a small market that you're still primarily targeting then this advice changes, but otherwise what are they gonna do? Mass email all biglaw firms being like "Oh yea we totally fucked this kid over and he told people about it online, what an asshole right?" Again, in a small market (or super specialized practice group) this might be something that could actually happen (although probably not via email), but in a large one not so much.

Also consider that outing a firm isn't solely for the sake of revenge, although I'm sure that aspect of it is satisfying. It also serves to warn other people to either avoid the firm entirely, or at least approach it with more caution than they would otherwise. All that being said, I would totally understand if you weren't comfortable outing the firm anyway. But I still encourage it.

[dixiecupdrinking]

Don't out the firm. It won't help you. To the extent other employers are able to connect the dots, it will call your judgment and discretion into question.

This is a truly shitty situation but I don't see much to do about it other than press on and be glad the firm didn't lead you on for a lot longer before dropping the bad news.