Increase in SA class size -- return offer rates? Forum

[Anonymous User]

NALP says that last year there were only three summer associates in my satellite office the past couple of years (and only two in 2018), but this year there are seven. Is there any reason I should be concerned about return offer rates since they suddenly have so many more SAs? Or should it be a good sign that the office is doing well?

[aliciacflorrick]

Looking at the firm's offer-rate for previous years on NALP is more reliable. Does that satellite historically have a 100% offer-rate? Most firms probably wouldn't double their SA classes if they anticipate not being able to give that many offers. But disregard all of this if you're in some secondary/tertiary southern market where they no-offer half of the SAs regularly.

[Anonymous User]

Looking at the firm's offer-rate for previous years on NALP is more reliable. Does that satellite historically have a 100% offer-rate? Most firms probably wouldn't double their SA classes if they anticipate not being able to give that many offers. But disregard all of this if you're in some secondary/tertiary southern market where they no-offer half of the SAs regularly.

It's a California office, if that helps. I can only seem to access last year's information on NALP. It was a 100% offer-rate then, but it was only a single 2L associate (other two were 1Ls) so it feels like too small a sample size. Not sure how to change the directory year.

[aliciacflorrick]

I’m usually able to find old NALP data on Google by searching: firm name + city (if that firm doesn’t consolidate all their offices on one doc) + NALP + year. You’ll be able to find links to the PDFs that way - sometimes even on the firm’s website on some unlisted page.