Birmingham Offer Rates Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have any post 2014 statistics on summer associate offer rates for the big Birmingham firms (Maynard, Bradley, Balch, Burr)?

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have any post 2014 statistics on summer associate offer rates for the big Birmingham firms (Maynard, Bradley, Balch, Burr)?

Was at Balch summer of 2017. All the 2Ls got offers and 3 of the 1Ls did not. 6 2L offers and and 6 1L offers. Of the 1Ls who did not, 2 are headed to big law and idk what the other's plan is--all great folks and doubt they did anything remotely wrong. Imagine this is lower than the normal 1L offers because they have to expect some folks not to come back (i.e. folks who actually prefer Atlanta or Texas or something but could conceivably make a pitch to get the Bham spot for 1L summer). Only 1 2L was not previously a 1L summer there and he was family of an important partner--the 1L program was really the pipeline, pretty much exclusively, for 2L spots. May have changed since.

Any of those firms are a ton of fun (assuming you enjoy drinking a lot) as a summer--they really (or at least did a couple years ago) go all out.

[Anonymous User]

Was at Bradley this past summer. All the 2L’s were former 1L summer associates except for two of the 2L’s I think. Two 2L’s did not get offers. One was due to “poor fit” (I think people thought he was maybe cocky or kind of douchey... seemed fine to me, was surprised). The other no offer was also a surprise, and the only thing I heard was that she did almost no work. I find that hard to believe though, because I did maybe 10-15 hours of work a week and was fine.

But, I do know that Bradley has strict GPA cut offs that depend on your school.

[Anonymous User]

Baker Donelson - Birmingham has a consistent 50/75% offer rate, despite what they will tell you during interviews.

[Anonymous User]

Wow.. why are offer rates so low? This seems crazy to me

[beeoBoop]

Wow.. why are offer rates so low? This seems crazy to me

I think Southern firms just have small classes and low offer rates. But once you get the job that hours are more relaxed than large class big firm counterparts

[Anonymous User]

Wow.. why are offer rates so low? This seems crazy to me

I think Southern firms just have small classes and low offer rates. But once you get the job that hours are more relaxed than large class big firm counterparts

The salaries are similarly low. When I was applying, Bradley had the highest at $110k, then the other “top firms” were all around $105k. I assume it’s close to the same now. Low cost of living, of course, but it’s good to keep in mind along with the offer rates.

[Anonymous User]

Wow.. why are offer rates so low? This seems crazy to me

I think Southern firms just have small classes and low offer rates. But once you get the job that hours are more relaxed than large class big firm counterparts

It's less crazy than bringing on someone you expect to stick around until partnership based on a brief callback--it's not like the biggest-of-law-firm up-and-out mentality down there, so there is not a constant need for short-term bodies. But yea, it would be anxiety-inducing as a 2L in particular.

Also most of the 1Ls and almost all of the 2Ls that were at Balch were splitting at Lightfoot or Starnes Davis or something so had two bites at the apple (at least a second bite for lit). Also the lower offer rates seem more focused on 1Ls than 2Ls, and those 1Ls were fine afterward. People elsewhere are not going to be surprised when you say you enjoyed Bham but Alabama was not the place for you long term (understandable, even though Bham is lovely in many ways). People, I think, at least in the southeast, also know the Bham offer rates aren't great so it's not necessarily the huge black mark it would be elsewhere if you must disclose you did not get an offer.

Pay is still quite low, especially considering the cost of living is supposedly about the same as cities that pay much, much more at top firms. I forget what they told us--maybe they'd raised to 110 or 115 recently and Bradley at the time was like 125. I'm not sure, it's covered in another Bham thread.

At Balch there was a 2000 hour "expectation" though it was framed as not being a do-or-die requirement.

It's amusing though their office is the nicest/most modern one I've ever been in anywhere-not what you expect if you come in with preconceived notions.

[Anonymous User]

Was at Bradley this past summer. All the 2L’s were former 1L summer associates except for two of the 2L’s I think. Two 2L’s did not get offers. One was due to “poor fit” (I think people thought he was maybe cocky or kind of douchey... seemed fine to me, was surprised). The other no offer was also a surprise, and the only thing I heard was that she did almost no work. I find that hard to believe though, because I did maybe 10-15 hours of work a week and was fine.

But, I do know that Bradley has strict GPA cut offs that depend on your school.

Do you know how many summer associates Bradley had last year?

[Anonymous User]

Was at Bradley this past summer. All the 2L’s were former 1L summer associates except for two of the 2L’s I think. Two 2L’s did not get offers. One was due to “poor fit” (I think people thought he was maybe cocky or kind of douchey... seemed fine to me, was surprised). The other no offer was also a surprise, and the only thing I heard was that she did almost no work. I find that hard to believe though, because I did maybe 10-15 hours of work a week and was fine.

But, I do know that Bradley has strict GPA cut offs that depend on your school.

Do you know how many summer associates Bradley had last year?

I think there were 20-30 summers at the Birmingham office, a mix of both 1L and 2L. Hard to remember since a lot of people split there summers, with some returning 2L’s only being there for two weeks.