Top Law Schools

I'm staying anonymous, since there is a non-negligible chance someone at my current firm/law school can identity me from my actual account.

Received an offer yesterday from an interview I had with a firm. To be honest, the offer came faster than I anticipated--or actually wanted, though I am glad--but I am still interviewing. Had an interview with a firm I really liked today, and which seemed to go well. Hoping to hear about a callback. I was wondering, since I'll need to make a decision likely by end of next week on the outstanding offer, what would the protocol be? Obviously, I can get rejected tomorrow, which would render this moot. But in case I don't hear back in the next few days/week, what would the protocol be? In a thank you letter to the partners (I know the consensus here is no--but that seems to conflict with the general consensus which seems to be in favor, though I don't get it, personally), would it be recommended there? Would I contact recruiting next week? Just trying to plan in case this happens.

Thanks!

Assuming you're not working with a recruiter who can handle this for you, I would let the recruiting person at the firm you interviewed with today know that you have another offer and you'll need to get back to them by the end of next week. Send them a note tomorrow saying you appreciated meeting everyone, blah blah blah, you have another offer and you wanted to let them know in case that impacts their timeline. They should then be able to take that back to the partners etc. and let them know, so they can then decide if they want to speed things up if they want to hire you, or just proceed on their own timeline and maybe risk losing you.

papermateflair wrote:Assuming you're not working with a recruiter who can handle this for you, I would let the recruiting person at the firm you interviewed with today know that you have another offer and you'll need to get back to them by the end of next week. Send them a note tomorrow saying you appreciated meeting everyone, blah blah blah, you have another offer and you wanted to let them know in case that impacts their timeline. They should then be able to take that back to the partners etc. and let them know, so they can then decide if they want to speed things up if they want to hire you, or just proceed on their own timeline and maybe risk losing you.

Agree with the above. Don't wait until your time's almost up before letting recruiting know - they won't be able to give you an instant decision, they'll need time to go to the partners and check to see what they want to do. Drop them a line tomorrow as suggested above.

And congrats on your offer!

Ditto as to the above. Whenever we are recruiting, we always ask candidates to let us know asap if they receive a competing offer so we at least have the opportunity to respond.

Even if the second firm can't give you an offer on time, they'll appreciate the opportunity to try. And if you just tell them that you accepted an offer elsewhere, you might burn a bridge, whereas if they just can't decide within your time-frame, there might still be a place for you there in future.

Thanks, all! I did just as was recommended and got a callback within an hour after I sent out the email, so I assume this is a good sign.

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks, all! I did just as was recommended and got a callback within an hour after I sent out the email, so I assume this is a good sign.

Congrats! Best of luck with the CB and with making your decision down the road.

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks, all! I did just as was recommended and got a callback within an hour after I sent out the email, so I assume this is a good sign.

there is no more attractive quality in a candidate than a competing offer.

BUT, you're not there yet. Don't do anything to risk your existing offer. If they don't give you a firm offer before the earlier offer ends, so be it.