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Recently received a 1L SA offer from a non-market firm in a small(er) city. I’m trying to decide whether to accept or to pursue something else to keep more doors open during 2L recruiting.

I need to be in this small(er) city post-graduation for family reasons. It’s a small enough place that a lot of the firms’ partners/associates know other firms’ partners/associates very well. I don’t want to ruin my reputation in this city by making the wrong choice here.

Ideally, I’d want to end up at a firm that pays closer to market in 2L. My concern is that, if I accept this 1L SA offer, I can’t apply to other firms because my firm may find out. And, of course, there’s no way of knowing that I’ll definitely secure a higher-paying offer in 2L, so I don’t want to burn bridges for no reason. But at the same time, there’s a very significant difference in pay between this firm and others.

What should I do here? This isn’t a biglaw firm with several 1L SAs—the firm would definitely expect me to return if I worked there this summer. Would it still be acceptable/expected for me to apply elsewhere during 2L? Or should I just decline the 1L SA offer and do something else to avoid this conflict?

Can you split your summer? That’s what a lot of 1L SAs seem to do.

nixy wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 13, 2022 2:18 pm

Can you split your summer? That’s what a lot of 1L SAs seem to do.

I’d be interested in that. Would that upset my 1L summer firm?

And how does that process work, exactly? I imagine that I’d probably receive a return offer from my 1L summer firm before finding another firm through 2L OCI. Would I accept the return offer from the 1L summer firm, then come back to them once I have another offer and ask to split? Or do I need to ask to split before accepting a return offer from the 1L summer firm?

No first hand knowledge but I think about 90% of classmates who got 1L SA summered elsewhere 2L.

just split your summer, no reason to decline

I declined my return offer from my 1L SA. I was 100% sure I did not want to go back there (wrong city, wrong fit), so I declined the offer instead of stringing them out. I left some money on the table (could have done a quick 2 week look back in addition to my other 2L SA), but I didn't want to do that knowing I wasn't serious.

I did a 1L SA in a small city and the norm there was to do a 2L in biglaw, with a touchback at the 1L firm. You're not going to offend them, and after all if you want to you can make clear that you're just doing a biglaw 2L for the money/experience and planning on coming back.