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Hi, I'm a 4th year at a V10. My younger sister is a 1L this year, and I was wondering if it's ethically appropriate to send her resume and other materials to recruiting, or ask a partner to review and recommend her to recruiting for a summer associate position? How about for upcoming OCI next summer: has anyone forwarded their sibling's materials to their firm for hiring purposes?

You can ask HR for their specific policy about the hiring of relatives.

Generally speaking though, what you are suggesting is not nepotism as your sister still has to clear all the hiring hurdles. Nepotism is when someone (generally a partner, as associates do not have much pull) gives preferential treatment to a friend or relative that is being hired. Since you have no power in the actual hiring decision, it would not be considered nepotism.

Anonymous User wrote:Hi, I'm a 4th year at a V10. My younger sister is a 1L this year, and I was wondering if it's ethically appropriate to send her resume and other materials to recruiting, or ask a partner to review and recommend her to recruiting for a summer associate position? How about for upcoming OCI next summer: has anyone forwarded their sibling's materials to their firm for hiring purposes?

It is 100% appropriate. I'm not even sure what you think is inappropriate about that.

some firms strictly prohibit relatives from working at the same firm though so make sure to check with policies on that

You are the sibling of the year.

Can you adopt me?

Have my doubts you are actually a 4th year if you think there is anything like a "nepotism policy" at a law firm...

Anonymous User wrote:some firms strictly prohibit relatives from working at the same firm though so make sure to check with policies on that

What? Pease name a firm that does this. That seem ridiculous and counter productive.

Right2BearArms wrote:Have my doubts you are actually a 4th year if you think there is anything like a "nepotism policy" at a law firm...

Some firms have anti-nepotism policies, though the ones I've heard about wouldn't apply to OP's situation.

It's not a stupid question.

Right2BearArms wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:some firms strictly prohibit relatives from working at the same firm though so make sure to check with policies on that

What? Pease name a firm that does this. That seem ridiculous and counter productive.

I believe that Latham has (or at least used to have) a rule that prevented spouses/relatives from becoming partners.

Right2BearArms wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:some firms strictly prohibit relatives from working at the same firm though so make sure to check with policies on that

What? Pease name a firm that does this. That seem ridiculous and counter productive.

You can't think of any non-ridiculous reasons why a business would prohibit close relatives from working at the same place?

3/3 on big law firms that i've worked at with anti-nepotism policies - i dont think any applied to siblings fwiw.

Quick call to HR should sort this out. I've heard of firms with very strict nepotism policies that would need management-committee approval to hire a relative. And it wouldn't happen for a generic 2L summer associate. I've also heard of firms with no set policies that have parent-child, husband-wife, or sibling pairs.

rpupkin wrote:

Right2BearArms wrote:Have my doubts you are actually a 4th year if you think there is anything like a "nepotism policy" at a law firm...

Some firms have anti-nepotism policies, though the ones I've heard about wouldn't apply to OP's situation.

It's not a stupid question.

Yeah they 100% exist.

Right2BearArms wrote:Have my doubts you are actually a 4th year if you think there is anything like a "nepotism policy" at a law firm...

Except for the fact that there are. A friend of mine's father was an influential partner at a biglaw firm, and his father had to retire before my friend could join the firm because of the firm's anti-nepotism policy.

My firm has one, although it's way less rigid than some of the ones described here (no spouses or immediate relatives in the same practice group, and under no circumstances can a spouse or immediate family member have a supervisory relationship over another on the same matter). I can think of at least one married couple who work in the same office, as well as a parent (very senior partner) and child (senior associate) who work at the firm.

Before law school I was thinking about paralegal jobs and the policy at my brother's biglaw firm was that I couldn't be hired to work in his office but I could work in a different office. So there are some nepotism policies that apply to siblings.

Anyway I'd just ask HR, but I just wanted to provide some info from personal experience.

Just put in a good word for your sister. In the unlikely event there's an anti-nepotism policy you will find out, and nothing bad will happen. You won't lose your job or anything. To the contrary, the hiring partner might give you a lead at another firm you can pass on to your sister.

Huh, learned something.

OP, check with HR, should be easy to clear up.

Right2BearArms wrote:Huh, learned something.

OP, check with HR, should be easy to clear up.

LOL @ your gratuitous advice. You're not going to apologize for mocking OP when you had no idea what you were talking about?