Turning down offer

[Anonymous User]

3L, going to be clerking in a big city where my firm is also located. I loved my SA experience, but don't know if I can commit to going back 2 years in advance of my start date. There is a good chance that I will want to return post-clerkship, but I don't want to shut the door to other options. Should I just decline now (have 2 weeks to decide) and let them know that I'm gonna reassess towards the end of my clerkship? How would the firm view that?

[nixy]

So, does your judge let you accept an outstanding offer? Some don't, so you should check on that.

If your judge does allow clerks to accept, why wouldn't you accept and then start looking around toward the end of your clerkship? You can always bail if you get something better. You may burn bridges with that firm, but you may not, and in any case people frequently go to a different firm after clerking.

[Anonymous User]

So, does your judge let you accept an outstanding offer? Some don't, so you should check on that.

If your judge does allow clerks to accept, why wouldn't you accept and then start looking around toward the end of your clerkship? You can always bail if you get something better. You may burn bridges with that firm, but you may not, and in any case people frequently go to a different firm after clerking.

How bad does it look to switch firms post-clerkship after accepting an offer? Do firms usually follow through on making you pay back the bar stipend, and/or does the new firm ever cover it?

[nixy]

I don't think it looks particularly bad, since lots of people do so (it may burn bridges with your first firm but it's not going to get you blacklisted in the legal community or anything). But I don't know about the logistics of the bar stipend etc.

[Anonymous User]

It's all very firm-specific. Sometimes the new (post-clerkship) firm will reimburse you for bar expenses. Sometimes the old (pre-clerkship) firm will still pay for your expenses even if you defer a year to clerk. TBH I don't think many V100 firms are going to try and claw back the few thousand dollars they spent on someone's Barbri course. Several law school colleagues got clerkships after they'd already accepted a firm's offer and billed a bar prep course directly to the firm, and none of the firms asked for their money back.