No-offered Big Law Summer 2025 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I was no-offered this summer at a pretty prestigious (upper half of the Vault 100) Big Law firm.

No, there's no real story. I'm just socially inept occasionally and pissed someone off. And the economy is bad so they were probably looking for an excuse to axe someone. So I got the axe.

I've essentially been fucked. I've had federal clerkship interviews and other Big Law interviews. But the fact that I have to disclose my no-offer (I don't know if I could get away with lying, but I'm not going to try) or why I "chose" not to go back to firm has really hurt me. And other public interest opportunities just aren't biting for some reason. Maybe I'm overqualified or something, I don't know.

Could use advice or help, or maybe a hopeful story from someone similarly situated. Right now I'm doubting I'll be able to practice law upon graduation, even with good grades from a well ranked school.

[Anonymous User]

Apply to DA’s offices and state AG honors programs. You can push your way into appellate litigation and be a more attractive clerkship candidate, and from there, you can go into biglaw.

[Wild Card]

Do not disclose that you were no-offered unless a prospective employer directly and explicitly asks you whether you were.

[Anonymous User]

Do not disclose that you were no-offered unless a prospective employer directly and explicitly asks you whether you were.

I mean, it sounds like that’s what has happened and what the OP is struggling with.

OP, re: public interest options - the big issue is that you probably don’t have a lot of demonstrated commitment to public interest on your resume (I’m assuming based on you being in biglaw this summer) and public interest employers want someone with dedication to the cause, not someone who sees it as a backup after biglaw didn’t work out.

If you want to pivot to public interest (not sure you do, but just for reference), you would need to start getting experience in anything public-interest-relevant that you can - volunteer, internships, etc. Go to talks/lectures and talk to the speakers, go to bar organization groups or similar, talk to profs in public interest fields that interest you. If your school does public interest fellowships for the year after graduation, talk to the people who run that immediately. (I don’t mean something like the independent named public interest fellowships where you propose a project in a specific area and which are intensely competitive; I mean that some schools have pots of money to help place unemployed grads with an org for a year to help them get experience.)

There are also a lot of employers who don’t hire this far out, especially smaller firms. Those kinds of employers don’t know their needs 10 mos in advance and may want to wait to hire until you’ve passed the bar. It kind of sucks if your classmates all have jobs lined up and you have to kind of sit in limbo to see what happens in the future, and potentially wait until after you take the bar, but I say this mostly to assure you that you’re not foreclosed from practicing law at all.

The other thing is to just start talking to anyone who might be able to help. Did you connect well with anyone at your summer gig? Ideally a partner, but senior associate or associate as well. If there’s someone you liked, who seemed to like you and/or who praised your work in some way, can you reach out to them and ask for advice about moving forward? Do you have good relationships with profs (who wrote your letters for clerkship applications), and can you go ask them for help? (And of course your school’s career office, although I know they often feel less than helpful.)

I’m not going to lie, it will probably feel really awkward to do these things, but it will feel more awkward for you than for them. For anyone associated with your school, look at this as part of their job. For people outside your school, approach them in a way that gives them an out - don’t send an e-mail dumping all your concerns, but say you enjoyed working with them, you’re still really interested in the kind of work they do, and do they have time to meet over coffee or a call where you could talk with them about other ways to get into the field? (Or something along those lines - my wording may not be great.) Some people really enjoy giving advice, others just won’t have time/interest, so make it easy for them to say no, that way no one feels pressured/guilty, and some people will say yes. If you meet with people from your firm or other firms (law school alumni perhaps?), ask them if they know people who were no-offered and how they handled it.

This stuff feels awkward and for those of us who are socially inept (I definitely am) it kind of sucks, but once you are off the biglaw track (at least for now), generally the way forward requires being proactive and actively reaching out and making connections, rather than simply responding to the opportunities law school hands you through OCI etc (not to minimize what you have/haven’t been doing since this summer, of course).