Switching firms after 2L SA? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm currently doing a 2L SA at a V50. Culture at the firm is fine but there are other firms that have stronger lit practices than my firm in areas I'd like to work in so I'm considering contacting/interviewing with other firms and trying to figure out the process. I have a meeting with our career services office to get their perspective but I'd love to hear thoughts/experiences from anyone here who has actually done it.

Did you wait until you had an offer in hand to contact firms? (If so, would you do it the same way again?)
How did you go about reaching out to firms? Did you contact recruiting first or did you just send your resume/transcript and see if they got back to you?

Any and all perspectives helpful and appreciated.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in this as well.

[Anonymous User]

It's honestly not a big deal and fairly easy. I waited until spring semester and then reached out to a partner I had interviewed with at OCI at my desired firm and asked if they had any openings. Was a fairly easy process. I only waited until spring semester because my change was geographical and my reasons for needing to relocate weren't yet apparent until that time, so I wouldn't recommend waiting that long if you already know you want to switch.

[Anonymous User]

I am also in a similar situation. I am a URM and can already tell that my firm (regional biglaw) does not care about me and only wants me so that they can improve their diversity count (which is virtually nonexistent). How can I get out of this unbearable situation? I know most people say 3L hiring doesn't exist, but I feel like my career has finished before it started if I have to accept an offer with this firm.

[Anonymous User]

I'm currently doing a 2L SA at a V50. Culture at the firm is fine but there are other firms that have stronger lit practices than my firm in areas I'd like to work in so I'm considering contacting/interviewing with other firms and trying to figure out the process. I have a meeting with our career services office to get their perspective but I'd love to hear thoughts/experiences from anyone here who has actually done it.

Did you wait until you had an offer in hand to contact firms? (If so, would you do it the same way again?)
How did you go about reaching out to firms? Did you contact recruiting first or did you just send your resume/transcript and see if they got back to you?

Any and all perspectives helpful and appreciated.

I started with one firm as a biglaw 2L SA and ended up at another biglaw firm after, so hopefully this info helps you out.

I didn't wait to start making connections at the other firm, and I wasn't shy about letting them know I was interested in the jump. I set up a couple lunches / happy hours with an associate or two at the other firm over the summer, kept those connections tight, and ended up with an offer from the new firm before I had to accept the offer at my 2L SA firm.

From what I now know internally about how that process played out, there were two things that really made the difference in my getting a job with the new firm. The main reason I got a job was one of the associates there went out on a limb and fought for me to get hired. Without that associate on the inside, I would have been just another person submitting a resume. With that associate vouching for me and fighting for my hire, I was in. This only happened because of the personal relationship I had build over a few happy hours and career events. I was very purposeful about building that relationship. It didn't happen by accident! This was not a 3L OCI hire - I had an offer in hand from the new firm at the same time I had an offer in hand from my 2L SA firm. If that wouldn't have happened, I would have accepted the 2L SA firm's offer then reneged the moment I had the new offer. Thankfully it didn't come to that!

The second thing that got me hired was timing. Because I got in with them relatively early on in the summer, the hiring committee was able to consider me at the same time they were looking at their own summer associates. It's a lot easier to get a committee to add "just one more" new grad to the pile, rather than asking them to meet to just consider the candidacy of someone who hasn't even graduated yet. The particular office I had made friends in also had enough work at that time to be able to make the sales pitch to the hiring committee for making a new position for me, so that timing helped too.

[Anonymous User]

(Anon from above again)

I almost forgot to add - I never talked bad about the firm I was working in, and I worked hard to make sure I had an offer from them. If it wasn't clear I was going to get an offer from my 2L SA firm, I wouldn't have received an offer from the new firm.

[Anonymous User]

I'm currently doing a 2L SA at a V50. Culture at the firm is fine but there are other firms that have stronger lit practices than my firm in areas I'd like to work in so I'm considering contacting/interviewing with other firms and trying to figure out the process. I have a meeting with our career services office to get their perspective but I'd love to hear thoughts/experiences from anyone here who has actually done it.

Did you wait until you had an offer in hand to contact firms? (If so, would you do it the same way again?)
How did you go about reaching out to firms? Did you contact recruiting first or did you just send your resume/transcript and see if they got back to you?

Any and all perspectives helpful and appreciated.

Super easy and not a big deal. Reach out to people who you connected with throughout the pre-OCI networking, OCI, and call-back process, tell them that you realize you love litigation and now understand that their firm has better opportunities/whatever in that side of things, and that you'd be really interested in exploring that further.

[Anonymous User]

Not sure why everyone is saying it's so easy -- it's not.

There are very few 3L positions, and even if you had an SA during 2L, it is not guaranteed at all you can switch.