I’m a current 3L and summered at a west coast office of a big law firm. I accepted my offer at the end of the summer. I enjoyed my summer, but my long-term boyfriend accepted an offer at a public defender’s office in another state. My firm has an office there, but it’s definitely a satellite office.
I want to ask for a transfer to the office in the state where my boyfriend will be, but I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize my career. Do you think a firm would be open to me transferring? Is there a risk of rocking the boat before I’ve even started? Is this career suicide? I appreciate any advice.
Transferring Offices Forum
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Anonymous User
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Re: Transferring Offices
Speak to your recruiting contact. I would phrase it in the terms of asking about what the policy is, rather than explicitly requesting a transfer. If you wanted to be super-conservative you could even just say that the BF is thinking or interviewing for the move and you want to see if it's a possibility. They might say no dramas we do this all the time for people, they might say oh we can see but it's hard or they might say it's definite no.
You should be able to get a feel for how the firm will take it based on their response and you can go from there.
If it's a negative response you can just drop it and I doubt anyone will remember it by the time you start. If it did come up subsequently and you decide to stay on the West Coast, you could just say that he's working out there for experience and wants to move back to your city in a year or two - hardly a sign of failure to be sufficiently committed to your firm.
It would be useful to think about where you and your BF are going long term as well. If there is a career for him in the new state it might be worth pushing for it even if the firm gives you a neutral response. But if he's planning to come back after a year or two it's probably not worth risking it if it doesn't sound like it would be easy.
You should be able to get a feel for how the firm will take it based on their response and you can go from there.
If it's a negative response you can just drop it and I doubt anyone will remember it by the time you start. If it did come up subsequently and you decide to stay on the West Coast, you could just say that he's working out there for experience and wants to move back to your city in a year or two - hardly a sign of failure to be sufficiently committed to your firm.
It would be useful to think about where you and your BF are going long term as well. If there is a career for him in the new state it might be worth pushing for it even if the firm gives you a neutral response. But if he's planning to come back after a year or two it's probably not worth risking it if it doesn't sound like it would be easy.
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QContinuum
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Re: Transferring Offices
This also goes the other way, of course. Depending on OP's (desired) practice area, it may be that she is more geographically constrained than her BF. There are certain BigLaw practices that aren't really present outside the major markets. Work as a public defender, OTOH, can be found most anywhere in the country. I get that not every PD office is equally well-resourced, but OP mentions West Coast BigLaw, which I presume means CA. CA absolutely has great PI opportunities.Anonymous User wrote:It would be useful to think about where you and your BF are going long term as well. If there is a career for him in the new state it might be worth pushing for it even if the firm gives you a neutral response. But if he's planning to come back after a year or two it's probably not worth risking it if it doesn't sound like it would be easy.
So - if OP and her BF haven't had this conversation already - it may be worth discussing what makes the most sense for both of their careers. I got a sense from OP's post - perhaps inaccurate, perhaps unintended - that the BF made the decision to accept the other-state PD offer more or less unilaterally, and expected OP to follow him.
