Impact of Coronavirus / Market Decline on 2L Summer Hiring Forum

[Birdman1330]

Given the recent decline in the market, how likely are there to be cold / no offers for the summer class of V100 firms? Obviously there is time for things to change, but just curious based on previous events like 2008.

[Anonymous User]

Idk, but I've been freaking out about it all day. My biggest worry is that my SA will get cancelled and then I'll be thoroughly effed. I have no idea what to do.

[jackshunger]

Might be an issue at firms that were already having problems while the economy was going gang busters, but the top firms have been preparing for a recession for quite some time. Also, any market correction caused by exogenous factors like a virus (that will hopefully burn itself out by summer) and Russia/SA playing chicken with oil prices shouldnt be nearly as bad as the collapse of all the banks in 2008.

Long story short, barring complete disaster, I think we'll be ok.

[trebekismyhero]

Might be an issue at firms that were already having problems while the economy was going gang busters, but the top firms have been preparing for a recession for quite some time. Also, any market correction caused by exogenous factors like a virus (that will hopefully burn itself out by summer) and Russia/SA playing chicken with oil prices shouldnt be nearly as bad as the collapse of all the banks in 2008.

Long story short, barring complete disaster, I think we'll be ok.

Yeah, anecdotally it also seems like most big law firms were preparing for a possible recession by having slightly smaller SA classes than the previous few years. Law firms generally have a slight lag as well as to feeling the impact of a recession so your SA should almost certainly be ok and as mentioned as long as it is not a complete repeat of 2008 you should be ok for getting an offer as well.

[nealric]

Firms are going to be making most of their hiring decisions in 4-6 months, by then we will know a lot more about how much of an impact the coronavirus will actually have. Right now it's mostly fear and anticipation.

[MSUN5]

So I'm not super concerned about the economic slowdown -- most people think we'll bounce back pretty quickly, and hiring decisions are based on projected conditions in Fall 2021 -- but I am a bit worried about the immediate effects of the virus on the classes.

I have no idea what the firms will decide to do.