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Firms could have people working from home full-time soon, and it would be pretty hard to run a summer program from home. At what point should incoming 2L summer associates start to worry? Any chance that firms cancel their summer programs amid coronavirus fears? How scared should we be about a recession that results in no-offers and layoffs?

They're not going to cancel the summer program.

You should be about as worried as normal about a recession, which means you shouldn't assume that your summer ends in an offer. But other than that, there's not much point in speculating about what would actually happen in the event of a recession.

If things go the way of Wuhan and Italy in late May/June, it's possible summer programs get canceled, in my view. It's simply not feasible to run a summer program where summers stay home. (If things go to hell in July, my prediction is summers are allowed to finish the program from home.)

That said, there is no indication yet that things will get that bad, let alone get that bad specifically in late May/June. There's also really nothing to be done specifically to prepare for the possibility/risk of a summer program cancellation, other than maybe not to spend in anticipation of getting the summer program paycheck.

cavalier1138 wrote:They're not going to cancel the summer program.

You should be about as worried as normal about a recession, which means you shouldn't assume that your summer ends in an offer. But other than that, there's not much point in speculating about what would actually happen in the event of a recession.

0/10 bro

It looks like so far, firms that have canceled summer programs have all made full time offers to the summers, though. So crappy on the one hand, but you’re not out of a job.