Law Students
New NALP Deadline for Accepting Summer Offers: 45 Days
Posted Feb 19, 2008, 02:10 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Under commonly accepted recruiting guidelines, second-year law students have been able to ponder several summer associate offers for months at a time. No more.
New guidelines adopted by NALP for a trial period now require second-years to decide within 45 days whether to accept a law firm's offer of summer employment, reports the National Law Journal. NALP's board decided earlier this month to adopt the 45-day deadline for one year, and will consider making the rule change permanent if it is well-received.
Law firm recruiters say an earlier deadline will make their jobs easier by helping them predict the makeup of their summer class sooner and tailor offers accordingly.
However, Daniel Suvor, who chairs the ABA Law Student Division, says it has an "upside and a downside." While students will no longer be able to stockpile offers for months, the new regime also "shortens a process that naturally takes a long time," he says.
NALP, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., was formerly known as the National Association for Law Placement.
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Comments
Posted by Andrew Flusche - 9 months, 3 days, 9 hours, 37 minutes ago
I wonder how this will apply for students who split their summers. It’s possible that you won’t have any offer decision from Firm 2 before the 45-day deadline for Firm 1 expires.
Posted by Graduating 3L - 9 months, 3 days, 3 hours, 41 minutes ago
I hope this new plan works - our school had many frustrated 2Ls who was waiting in line to hear from firms that had outstanding offers to 2Ls from more “highly ranked” schools. Granted that some students genuinely take a long time to decide between 2-3 firms at the top of their list, but students who were sitting on 6-7 offers at a time were being unnecessarily inconsiderate knowing fully well that they had no intention of accepting the offers from at least half of them.
Posted by NALP Elitist Organization - 8 months, 4 weeks, 2 days, 9 hours, 45 minutes ago
How about something that helps students besides the elite and connected get jobs?
Posted by interested - 8 months, 4 weeks, 22 hours, 10 minutes ago
It is against NALP rules to sit on 6-7 offers anyway. One problem will be that not all law firms recruit during a two week time-span, so while you may have an offer from an early participant, other law firms will not have even finished the office visit process.
Posted by bottom 3rd - 8 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes ago
boy, i wish i had 1 offer to ponder over…i should have gone to medical school.
Posted by 3le - 8 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 22 hours, 41 minutes ago
Isn’t this more like a real job offer or job for that matter. you need to make a decision quickly. welcome to the real world.