Fellowship vs Full-Time Offer Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have accepted a 2-year fellowship, but have also been offered a full-time position at a law firm.

Fellowship: It will help (significantly) with the ultimate career path that I want to get into. However, the pay is half of what I would get at the law firm. The fellowship is only for two years, but it could result in a full-time position with the office.

Law firm: I never wanted to work for a law firm, but it is a full-time paid position. It will not help with my ultimate career goal, but the pay is a lot more. There is no termination date.

I will be getting extensive litigation experience either way.

The question is which path do I take? I don't like the uncertainty of not having a job after two years. Nevertheless, I hope my credentials will help (law review, moot court, good grades from a top school, and extensive litigation experience: jury trials, appellate arguments, motions). Should I take the risk?

Thanks!

[daedalus2309]

Fellowship.

Firm jobs last 4 years or less for most people, at which point most people start looking for the opportunity you already have in hand. Debt sucks but you went to school to do this, right?

[Anonymous User]

Fellowship.

Firm jobs last 4 years or less for most people, at which point most people start looking for the opportunity you already have in hand. Debt sucks but you went to school to do this, right?

OP here. Yes the only reason I went to law school was to get into that office. Thank you for your input. I do have debt, which is why I was looking for the firm.

[Pokemon]

Can you describe more the fellowship and the likelihood that it will lead to your ideal career. Are you able to go for this route after biglaw? From the information presented so far, I would have personally gone with biglaw. I say gone cause you mentioned you already accepted fellowship and depending by how close this office is to your ideal career you might or might not want to burn the bridge.
Even besides that, it is very subjective deciding between money and job security on one hand and possibility of dream career on the other.

[Anonymous User]

Can you describe more the fellowship and the likelihood that it will lead to your ideal career. Are you able to go for this route after biglaw? From the information presented so far, I would have personally gone with biglaw. I say gone cause you mentioned you already accepted fellowship and depending by how close this office is to your ideal career you might or might not want to burn the bridge.
Even besides that, it is very subjective deciding between money and job security on one hand and possibility of dream career on the other.

The office will be fine with it because the funding is from elsewhere. And I have assurances from the office that it will not impede my chances in getting hired there. In terms of getting hired at the office, I would say it is a 50/50 chance.

The law firm is not BigLaw as I would consider it. It is near the bottom of the Vault 100. Unfortunately, I did not do OCI because of my career objectives. Either way, it is a lot harder to get into the office from any type of law firm.

[Nebby]

There's been no evidence presented to indicate any reason to go to the law firm. This seems like an easy decision. Fellowship

[sublime]

Chances of desired career after the firm? From what you have said, though the fellowship sounds like a better option

[Pokemon]

Yeah agreeing with others now. If you did not even do oci you would pribabaly be miserable at a firm. At a curiosity, how did you even get a firm offer? Did you start having second thoughts at some point?

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Thanks everyone.

I got the firm offer through LR meetings. Our LR forces us to meet with law firms, etc.

[zhenders]

It sounds to me as though you're sitting on a fence that you used to be on one side of. If you specifically chose not to do OCI, that suggests that you knew all along that you had a chance to interview for biglaw gigs but actively chose not to. The fact that you're considering a firm job at all suggests that your calculus has changed in some significant way.

Put another way, why is the firm job suddenly more appealing to you today than it was at the time when you actively chose not to participate in OCI?

My questions are hypothetical; I don't personally want answers to them, but it seems that you figuring out what changed (if anything has changed at all) is really what's important here. Are you genuinely more interested in a firm than you used to be, or are you just experiencing some hardcore endowment effects now that you have an offer in hand?

[Anonymous User]

It sounds to me as though you're sitting on a fence that you used to be on one side of. If you specifically chose not to do OCI, that suggests that you knew all along that you had a chance to interview for biglaw gigs but actively chose not to. The fact that you're considering a firm job at all suggests that your calculus has changed in some significant way.

Put another way, why is the firm job suddenly more appealing to you today than it was at the time when you actively chose not to participate in OCI?

My questions are hypothetical; I don't personally want answers to them, but it seems that you figuring out what changed (if anything has changed at all) is really what's important here. Are you genuinely more interested in a firm than you used to be, or are you just experiencing some hardcore endowment effects now that you have an offer in hand?

To tell you the truth, our school puts a lot of pressure on students to do clerkships or BigLaw. Additionally, I sort of stumbled on the firm job. I went to one of the LR meetings, and I got to know one of the partners well. I did not apply outright.

I am not genuinely interested in working for a firm. I believe I am deciding between the two not only because of debt, but also because where I live (living rates are high). Also, I am trying to move in with my S/O in a couple of months, which will add to my finances.

Nevertheless, I can live off of the fellowship. I think my main worry is being with the fellowship for two years, and then being unemployed. That is my primary concern.

[Jchance]

I think my main worry is being with the fellowship for two years, and then being unemployed. That is my primary concern.

I highly doubt that. If you never take the plunge, you'd never be able to find out what's next then what's after that.