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Hi all,

I am a third year associate in NYC looking to lateral back to my home market. I plan on sending applications out in July. For personal (e.g. my lease, and I have been busting my butt here and would really like some time off in between jobs) and professional (i.e. this is a bad time to leave the case I'm on) reasons, I really do not want to start until mid-September.

The way I see it, I have three options here: (1) wait until August to apply, (2) get an offer first and then negotiate a September start date, or (3) put in my cover letter/application that I am looking for a position that would begin in September.

Would it be really dumb to say something in my cover letter to the effect of "...my strong interest in an associate position at [firm] to begin this September"? That was my original idea, but I am having serious doubts.

Alternatively, if I do option (2), are firms generally amenable when it comes to later start dates?

If this changes anything, note that my market is a small market that I called home for almost all of my life (including college) and my career goals are very modest. I only say this part because I understand for people trying to lateral to another big firm in NYC, DC, SF, LA, etc. nothing is guaranteed in lateraling and an applicant should not be choosy in this way.

Thanks for any help!

Get an offer and then negotiate the start date.

nixy wrote:Get an offer and then negotiate the start date.

Agree. Also it wouldn’t be crazy for the process to take a significant part of that 2 months. It could take much longer. Just say nothing for now.

Agree with others. Because you’re moving (and taking another bar?) your start date will be able to be pretty far out. It’s fairly typical for firms to hire someone who isn’t going to start for months.

Agree with everyone else.

Get an offer first and discuss start date later.

Between the time it takes to do 2-3 rounds of interviews, complete conflicts, etc it will take a while for you to go through the process anyway. When I lateraled the firm asked when I wanted to start and I took 3 weeks off without getting any push back whatsoever. So even after you get through everything you still can push the date back.

Also note--firms are going to be focused on recruiting for future summers in August. Lateral searches practically shut down. So apply now/soonish. Reveal your long-planned "trip to Thailand" in August and see how it goes. This works, as far as I've seen! GL.