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Will they just outright fire you because you're an at-will employee?

Is there a conventional time period after which they'll fire you?

Will the firm let everyone know that you're a cold-offer who accepted and/or give you other poor treatment to get you to quit ASAP?

If they extend a formal offer they're probably not going to prevent you from joining. Most likely, you'll come in with a bad reputation and some attorneys won't want to work with you. Perhaps you can find a way to bill 2000 hours and they'll forget about the cold-offer. Or it's possible they'll disfavor you in staffing decisions, especially if things are slow, and you'll be terminated after a few months of low hours.

I know of an associate who accepted a cold offer. I guess it wasn’t cold enough (and this person has zero social grace, so they may have actually not realized what they were doing.) It turned out that Cold Offeree had a clerkship lined up to begin 11 months after starting, so the firm actually brought them on and let them accept. No clue if that was done knowing that they wouldn’t welcome a post-clerkship return or not - I guess we’ll see.

Out of curiosity, how can you tell whether the offer you get is cold? Are there standard ways that is communicated?

aegor wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 26, 2021 3:19 pm

Out of curiosity, how can you tell whether the offer you get is cold? Are there standard ways that is communicated?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 06, 2020 9:27 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 06, 2020 9:16 pm

You would definitely know if you were getting cold-offered. From what I've heard, whoever does your exit interview will tell you that your performance was subpar and that, while they're giving you an offer, they really think you should consider going elsewhere.

Yes. Previously on hiring committee for my office. It's usually fairly direct, e.g., were giving you an offer but really think you'd be better off elsewhere, etc.

Thanks! What is the thinking behind a cold offer? If the person is that bad, why not just no-offer?

aegor wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 26, 2021 3:25 pm

Thanks! What is the thinking behind a cold offer? If the person is that bad, why not just no-offer?

to keep 100% offer rate on NALP so law students aren't turned off

they will put you in a shitty group nobody wants to be in, you'll be given little to no work, and you will be set up to fail with respect to the work that you're assigned.

they'll build up a case file on you and fire you in less than a year to avoid paying you a bonus. when you get the talk, they'll accuse you of all sorts of things, incompetence, laziness, lack of curiosity and drive, etc. they'll gaslight the heck out of you, in other words.

so, accept, join, and lateral ASAP.

Current 2L heading into a summer associate position this fall. Could someone define what a "cold offer" is? How can you tell if your offer is a "cold offer"? Thanks.

Prudent_Jurist wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:49 pm

Current 2L heading into a summer associate position this fall. Could someone define what a "cold offer" is? How can you tell if your offer is a "cold offer"? Thanks.

Top firms try to offer post-grad jobs to all 2L SAs because otherwise when they report hiring statistics to be listed publicly on the NALP website, it shows they did not give someone an offer. This makes them less competitive for top talent because everyone wants an offer and are less likely to go to a firm with no-offers. To get around this, they “cold offer” some SAs, basically saying we are offering you a job but don’t want you here. Then they get to report everyone got an offer.