Transferring to a 3rd office after 2L summer split? Forum

[rls154]

I got a 1L SA in DC at a BigLaw firm whose headquarters are in NY. They gave me an offer to come back for my 2L summer, but I requested and was approved for a split between their Palo Alto office and their DC office. The Palo Alto office is significantly smaller than the NY office.

I originally did this because I'm from Maryland (family is still there), and my SO was targeting the Bay for post-grad school jobs because she has a tech background. My SO unexpectedly got a really great job offer in NY, and nothing she has found in the Bay so far compares to the NY offer.

How and when do I approach this with my firm? I'm not sure of the timing and how to even approach the situation. We don't mind going long distance this summer, and my SO hasn't accepted yet because she feels a little bad about pushing me toward the Bay for 2L despite my whole life (college, family, friends) being on the East Coast. However, her NY offer blows her Bay Area offers out of the water, and I personally would prefer to stay on the East Coast long term.

[2013]

I would tell ask now to see what they say. You’re far enough from summer that they may just let you split DC/NY especially if NY is the home base (can absorb more SAs).

I know a couple people who waited until after summer and they ended up having to wait until March of the following year to move to the other office. Not saying that it will take that long, but it may be a significant amount of time.

[papermateflair]

Is your SO planning to continue to look for jobs in the Bay Area? Because I think it's harder to get big law in Palo Alto than it is NYC, so if there's a chance that she's going to work in NYC for a year and a half (your final year of law school + bar study) and then end up taking a job out west, then presumably you would want to hold on to this option. But otherwise yeah, I would just ask recruiting about switching to NYC, and I think it's ok to say that you want to switch because your partner just got an amazing job opportunity in NYC and can't turn it down. The worst thing they can do is say no, but it seems unlikely, and they'd probably rather not waste resources in a smaller office if there's no realistic way you're going to end up working there.

[rls154]

Is your SO planning to continue to look for jobs in the Bay Area? Because I think it's harder to get big law in Palo Alto than it is NYC, so if there's a chance that she's going to work in NYC for a year and a half (your final year of law school + bar study) and then end up taking a job out west, then presumably you would want to hold on to this option. But otherwise yeah, I would just ask recruiting about switching to NYC, and I think it's ok to say that you want to switch because your partner just got an amazing job opportunity in NYC and can't turn it down. The worst thing they can do is say no, but it seems unlikely, and they'd probably rather not waste resources in a smaller office if there's no realistic way you're going to end up working there.

She really does not seem inclined to do so, given that the job offer is really good and exceeds what she was even expecting to find in the Bay plus my family ties to the East Coast. (She's British and her whole family is in London, so NY would be more convenient than the Bay for her too.) It's not out of the question, though.

I'm worried that if I tell them I changed my mind about Palo Alto because of my SO and then they turn my request down, they'll think I'm a giant flake and no-offer me at the end of the summer. Or maybe they'd even pull my SA offer? Is that even a thing?

[thatlawlkid]

i think full transparency with them in explaining it would help you, because this all seems really reasonable and as someone else said, a NY office is most capable of absorbing extra associates.

they're not gonna pull your offer, but someone might get the impression you're jerking them around which is why explaining it should help. for the most part they probably wont care tho.

[papermateflair]

Is your SO planning to continue to look for jobs in the Bay Area? Because I think it's harder to get big law in Palo Alto than it is NYC, so if there's a chance that she's going to work in NYC for a year and a half (your final year of law school + bar study) and then end up taking a job out west, then presumably you would want to hold on to this option. But otherwise yeah, I would just ask recruiting about switching to NYC, and I think it's ok to say that you want to switch because your partner just got an amazing job opportunity in NYC and can't turn it down. The worst thing they can do is say no, but it seems unlikely, and they'd probably rather not waste resources in a smaller office if there's no realistic way you're going to end up working there.

She really does not seem inclined to do so, given that the job offer is really good and exceeds what she was even expecting to find in the Bay plus my family ties to the East Coast. (She's British and her whole family is in London, so NY would be more convenient than the Bay for her too.) It's not out of the question, though.

I'm worried that if I tell them I changed my mind about Palo Alto because of my SO and then they turn my request down, they'll think I'm a giant flake and no-offer me at the end of the summer. Or maybe they'd even pull my SA offer? Is that even a thing?

I think there's a difference from just deciding against PA for personal reasons, and what's going on here - firms understand that people have partners and that's usually the best/most respected reason to move offices. I can't imagine they'll pull your SA offer over this or even no-offer you - only if you were also somehow bad at being a summer and they wanted to come up with a whole list of reasons to no-offer you, but since you did well enough last year to be invited back, I wouldn't worry about it. Recruiting will deal with this for the most part, and recruiting doesn't really make decisions on who gets no-offered, so you'd somehow have to tick off enough people over this to make it into a thing, which seems unlikely. Plus memories are short anyway - folks in NYC probably won't really know you were originally splitting with PA. I can't even remember the names of the summer associates from last year, and this doesn't seem memorable enough to stick (if you wanted to switch to NYC so you could pursue a part-time career as a background actor on Law and Order or something equally wild that would probably create a different and more memorable impression ).