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Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 4:26 pm
by Anonymous User
Anyone have any insight into the market for clerks returning to their law firms, particularly Big Law in NYC? Have any firms been declining to give return offers/rescinding return offers? TIA
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 10:38 am
by moxcoal
Can confirm this happened to several mid levels who I would’ve considered in it for the long run
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 11:22 am
by Anonymous User
Was NYC particularly bad this year? I had a rough time getting bites there and accepted in DC.
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 11:27 am
by Anonymous User
Had no problem with K&E New York letting me defer my start date to do District+COA clerkship.
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Thu May 11, 2023 2:52 am
by Wild Card
Anonymous User wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 11:27 am
Had no problem with K&E New York letting me defer my start date to do District+COA clerkship.
The problem really concerns those who worked at a firm for 2-4 years, left to do a district court clerkship, and hope to return. It's not always guaranteed. This makes little sense to me as firms should be making enough money to throw around.
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Thu May 11, 2023 4:48 pm
by Anonymous User
Sidley DC declined to take back at least two COA clerks that I know of.
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Thu May 11, 2023 6:53 pm
by Anonymous User
When people are being "declined" to be taken back is there like an outstanding return offer that is revoked or is it that htey left with a wink expectation that they could reach out and get re-hired. Because I know summer associates get "deferred" offers after clerkships so a revocaiton of that feels fairly extreme, but maybe when current associates leave they lack such explicit deferred offers.
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 11:00 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 6:53 pm
When people are being "declined" to be taken back is there like an outstanding return offer that is revoked or is it that htey left with a wink expectation that they could reach out and get re-hired. Because I know summer associates get "deferred" offers after clerkships so a revocaiton of that feels fairly extreme, but maybe when current associates leave they lack such explicit deferred offers.
Correct, it's the latter. I was "declined" after working as an associate and leaving to clerk. This was after multiple partners in my practice group had said things like "looking forward to your return," meeting/exceeding hours, and receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews. The firm supposedly just made the decision not to take back clerks.
Re: Market for Returning Clerks?
Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 2:02 pm
by Anonymous User
I sort of experienced the former situation with a NYC firm this year. I had an explicit return offer for after my clerkships. I asked the firm if I could transfer the offer to another office. I expected the worst possible response would be, "No, but we'd like you to come back to NYC."
Instead, they completely ignored me. It's not that they didn't receive my message. A recruiter sent me multiple emails about a recruiting event and promised to get back to me about the transfer request. Then they never did.
I'm interpreting that as a rescission of the offer.