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Rising 2L here. I'm going to interview with a firm my ex (3rd year associate) is currently working. Our interested areas do not overlap, and I'm fine with working with him if opportunity arises. That said, our breakup wasn't really nice, and he doesn't think highly of me, so at this stage I don't feel comfortable sharing my transcript with him. I know for a fact that he is not among the interviewers coming to our campus for OCI, and he did not graduate from my law school. But I'm not sure if my resume and transcript will be passed around among all the associates/partners before the firm makes a decision.

My ex and I have very similar backgrounds -- we graduated from the same college in the same year, we majored in the same discipline and we had similar UGPA. I took a couple of years off and he didn't. Given our similar background, I'm wondering if the firm will have him look over my profile. I have a feeling that he might say something very negative about me if the firm weighs in his opinion. I don't want him to jeopardize my chances of getting an offer.

I think it sounds weird if I ask the interviewers this question during the screener, or tell them not to disclose my information to a certain associate in their firm. So, if there are any associates or hiring partners on TLS, I'd like some insights in the hiring process. Thanks!

Edit: the firm is among Vault "Top 150 Under 150" and has the size of a smaller V100 firm, if it matters.

I think you probably just chance it honestly. To me it would be exceedingly weird to ask to withhold it from someone to the point where I would probably reject faster on those grounds than because one associate at the firm had 'bad' things to say about you. i think most people reasonably understand that breakups can end badly and unless you did something truly terrible (in which case that's really on you, unfortunately) then I think it would be sort of caddy of the firm to hold that against you if you're an otherwise good applicant.

idk sometimes life is unlucky/unfair and people from your past make a difference in your future. fortunately it's only one firm.

Absolutely do not mention it during OCI interviews. No way to do that without sounding nuts.

How big is the firm? How big is the office? If typical NYC sweatshop and you're in practice groups, you'll be very likely to never see the person.

As to the interview process, only folks on the hiring committee will have any involvement with resumes/transcripts/recruiting. The rest of the associates will just get the final names of the summer associates like 2 weeks before the summer program starts.

If there's someone that knows him well (like, knows his undergrad/year/etc.), they might mention it to him casually, as in "Do you know this person?". There, I would hope that even if the breakup wasn't great, he'd have to really hate you to try and torpedo your application. And I'm not even sure he could without sounding really unprofessional.

So, all in all, I wouldn't worry about it.

In my experience at several firms only recruiting, the hiring committee and anyone who interviews you will receive your resume, but this definitely varies by firm. Worst case you don't get an offer because of your ex, but more likely he either doesn't know you are interviewing or chooses to say nothing so he doesn't look unprofessional.

The best advice you are going to get here is the same to everyone who asks about issues in the recruiting process that they have no control over - just proceed with the interview as normal unless you would not accept an offer from the firm. You can only make the situation worse (if it was bad in the first place) by calling it out.

Unfortunately there is nothing foolproof you can do to avoid this. Firms often try to match up callback interviewers with the interviewee based on alma maters or practice area interest, or for smaller firms, availability. My suggestion would be to make your practice area interests known and so they'll try to have your callback interviewers in that group only.

At my firm, when I get asked if I'm available to interview someone, I'm not really given any info until a day or two before when they email me the person's resume and transcript. If he's on the summer hiring committee, he will also get access to the transcript and resume.

If my ex that I hated was interviewing at my firm, I would definitely tell everyone to auto ding her. Just hope he doesn't find out before the offer stage.