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Hello. I am currently in the process of applying to jobs in a lateral move. I am curious to know whether it is normal to not get a response from the firm if I am dinged. The reason why I ask this is because I remember when applying to jobs in law school, I would more often than not get SOME response from the firm (even if it is a boiler-plate, computer generated "you have good credentials but no" response), and firms rarely radio silenced me. But now that I'm applying as a lateral, it seems that I'm just not getting any response period. Is this the norm for laterals?

When I was lateraling, it was fairly normal to get radio silence dings. That said, the recruitment cycle for laterals tends to move slowly than for law students - anecdotally, I had a couple places wait for 6 weeks or so after I applied before calling me for an interview.

I think radio silence dings are fairly standard, but I may be mistaken.

Have not applied as a lateral but got plenty of radio silence dings when applying as a 3L, which I suspect is more comparable to lateraling than OCI-type applications.

Anonymous User wrote:Hello. I am currently in the process of applying to jobs in a lateral move. I am curious to know whether it is normal to not get a response from the firm if I am dinged. The reason why I ask this is because I remember when applying to jobs in law school, I would more often than not get SOME response from the firm (even if it is a boiler-plate, computer generated "you have good credentials but no" response), and firms rarely radio silenced me. But now that I'm applying as a lateral, it seems that I'm just not getting any response period. Is this the norm for laterals?

My experience when applying to lateral is that many firms were uncertain as to whether they needed someone. They'd interview and then sit on the candidate while they decided on their needs. Even if they decided they didn't need someone, they might not outright reject, thinking they could always call up the candidate at a later date. By contrast, for 2L hiring, they generally accept they will be hiring people and they are on a fixed timeline, so they know when to send ding letters.

I got some offers and dings months after interviewing. It's just how things are.

Yes, this has been very normal for me. I've talked with my two recruiters about this, and I really feel that it is in poor taste. The annoying thing is that the firms keep telling my recruiter that I'm "in the mix" but are neither reaching out, nor dinging me. Just say no already.

(I'm looking at you, Mintz and King & Spalding and Cooley). I've also had this happen with slightly smaller firms as well.

Gibson Dunn sent me a nice snail mail rejection letter almost immediately after applying. It is hanging on my wall now.