Good questions to ask in Second Looks Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just looking for general questions. I know vacation, offer rate etc are typical questions, but what else?

[GoneSouth]

How you get work, process for choosing practice groups at the end of the summer

[BlueParrot]

Is it appropriate to ask about offer rate? Can't you normally figure this out from the NALP forms?

[2014]

Is it appropriate to ask about offer rate? Can't you normally figure this out from the NALP forms?

Basically any question is appropriate, while people are always judging you no attorney is going to remember that you asked a question verifiable online. It's not a great use of your limited time to ask these questions but if you are 22 minutes into your half hour and conversation is strained you are way better off asking things like this than sitting there awkwardly.

The best questions IMO are those that either explicitly or implicitly get at actual points of differences between firms instead of questions about the practice of law in a big firm generally. The former is why you are conflicted the latter is important but better questions for a mentor away from the OCI circus.

Examples of good questions (IMO) would be like:
"I understand you receive work via a free market system while some peer firms may have centralized staffing, what drew you to your system and how does it work in practice?"
"I understand you have a minimum billable requirement to get a bonus/advance class years - in your experience this something that you/others worry about? Does it effect how you spend your weekends or vacations?"
"Associates are assigned to groups immediately as first years while other firms have rotation systems or allow associates to maintain a generalist practice while junior, what do you see as the pros and cons of specializing early?"


Really whatever information you think you need is fair game. The only truly off putting second look I can recall was an interviewee leading with "oh I'm going to accept I just like to meet more people" and then having no questions to speak of other than about like summer social events. Being eager to meet people is great, not during August/September when associates are already giving up much of their free time to recruiting undecided folks.