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Brand new lawyer here. Been working at *unpaid* fellowship for 7 weeks, where I made a "3-12 month" commitment (but didn't sign anything). Now sworn in and have flexible full time offer from small firm. I worked for the firm before during law school, and they will let me work part time until I am ready to come on full time.

My question is, do I need to stick with the fellowship for 3 months? If not, is 2 weeks notice enough? Again fellowship = unpaid, so I don't feel that bad about it. Just looking for professionalism advice. Thanks!

I'm not sure this needs to be quite as formal as giving notice in biglaw. You might get better results by just letting them know you have a full-time paying offer, and see where it goes from there. IME, with unpaid jobs or whatever, typically when someone gets a full-time paying offer, everyone is happy to let them go off and start earning money. Also, people generally don't want to force someone to stick around who clearly doesn't want to be there anymore.

You did make a 3-12 month commitment, so if they ask you to stay for 3 months, I'd probably do it to avoid burning bridges. You've already been there for 7 weeks, 3 months is what, just another 5 weeks? If they ask you to stay longer, you could remind them that you committed to 3-12 months and would be happy to finish those 3 months but that's it.

lolwat wrote:I'm not sure this needs to be quite as formal as giving notice in biglaw. You might get better results by just letting them know you have a full-time paying offer, and see where it goes from there.

I agree that this is the way to start the process. It's possible that they'll respond by saying something like "well, you promised us at least three months"--in which case you can turn to the other advice offered by lolwat. But it's also possible that they'll just say "congrats," wish you well, and then work something out where you roll off your projects within the next week or so.

You're not getting paid; I wouldn't even feel bad about not showing up the next day. Congrats on getting a full time job!