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How likely is it that a V10 firm will extend an offer to its 1L SAs to come back for 2L summer? Is the offer rate for 1L SAs typically also 100% or close to it?

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It’ll be similar to 2L SAs, but with one potential important difference. If you don’t screw up the summer, they’ll offer for you to return for the entire summer, or you will be given the option to come back for a portion of the summer so you can try another firm for the rest of the summer. It’s usually called a touchback offer around here, and it’s usually 3-6 weeks, which will allow for you to split the summer and try another firm as well (along with not paying you for an entire summer when they likely know they want to offer you a post-grad job as well).

I don’t think any 1L summer SA I knew ended up without offer to return. A lot of us switched firms for 2L but I think we all had offers to return or told firm we’re going elsewhere before summer ended.

FWIW, my V30 office's summer class last year had 10 SAs total (6 1Ls and 4 2Ls). All 2Ls received full-time offers, but two of the 1Ls received "cold offers." One cold offer was made contingent upon the SA maintaining a certain GPA after 2L (which s/he could not reach without serious improvement). The other was more of a "we are giving you an offer for your 2L OCI story, but there is no job here for you, so do not accept our offer." In the end, only two of six 1Ls are returning to the firm.

The first 1L SA seemed to have accumulated three strikes: (1) butted heads with the recruiting manager on several occasions; (2) made an inappropriate comment in front of associates after drinking at a client event; and (3) grades dropped significantly second semester. Frankly I'm not sure that this trifecta warrants a cold offer, but it seemed like the hiring partner was trying to set a tone.

The second 1L SA made a work product mistake that was sent out to the client. I'm not sure of how critical the mistake was (it was SA work, after all), but the partner had to apologize to the client. There also may have been some issues of fit or future concerns of that particular practice group.

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My take is that firms can be pickier with 1L offers because if they don't like a 1L, they can simply hire a different 2L for next year. A lot of NALP data suggests high offer rates; some of it is skewed by cold offers.

Lastly, going through OCI revealed that many firms are not keen on SAs splitting firms during 2L. Perhaps this is a newer trend. Even if splitting is allowed, more firms are starting to require SAs to be present during the first half of the summer. If a majority of firms require SAs to do first half, the list of good options for the second half of summer becomes quite limited. Of course, second-half firms still exist, but I had to reorder my 2L SA preferences based on summer splitting requirements.

Hope this helps.

Congrats on your 1L SA. I received a 1L SA at a major NYC firm. I believe everyone was offered. Not sure about one person. He wasn’t there the second year….no surprise (or loss).

Also, some firms have an explicit policy of not giving out offers to 1Ls. MTO does this (though, of course, they ultimately do end up recruiting many of their 1L summers to join the firm).