No Time, There's Never Any Time
For all the 2Ls busy partying across the country (the four that I saw yesterday, great seeing you), there was an e-mail sent by Terry Galligan advising us that according to the NALP guidelines we can only keep 3 offers open. I think the NALP guidelines are absolutely essential to maintaining some sort of a uniformity in the job searching process for all law students. However, the deadline seems a bit contrived given that our school did not start OCIP until over a month after some (See, Harvard and Columbia). I'm too sleepy to offer anything concrete, but I just don't understand the point of a deadline that passes before our callback week begins. What a great way to make decisions that will only affect the rest of your life.
Labels: OCIP/Employment
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 6:29 AM
4 Comments:
I couldn't agree more! How do these rushed deadlines allow candidates who are, after all, still in school, time to revisit firms before declining them (perhaps for life!)?
How about an informal Boalt guideline moving the deadlines forward - 3 offers through Nov 15 (rather than Nov 1). Doesn't that feel like a better match with the timeline here?
As far as the technicalities, I have been looking over the NALP Principles and Standards and have not found answers to the following:
1) Do offers with 2 offices of 1 firm count as 1 offer (if you're planning to split)?
2) What is an "offer" - does one start counting down the precious week (to release other offers) from the oral extension or when an offer is received in writing?
3) Could someone please explain the logic of the argument that releasing an offer enables the firm to offer it to a classmate?Don't the firms tend to notify candidates within a week or two after their interview? Or are they waiting weeks to notify a list of 'alternates' as other candidates release offers? Or does this timeline only benefit those who happen to schedule callbacks shortly before Oct 15/Nov 1?
4) Is there a database out there keeping track of what offers we've received?
Oops- I now see that one can have 2 offers after Nov 1 only by promising the firms that one only has 2 (though of course more may come in after Nov 1, setting off the one-week deadline).
Hi Anonymous at 12:47 - Remember, please, these are _principles_ (guidelines) not rules. We might even consider whether NALP intentionally left the details fuzzy to give candidates wiggle room. Unless there is a database as you suggested (which I have never heard of), at the end of the day, it's left to your conscience. As it should be.
How come no one has said anything about this issue after the initial Anon post? This is a key issue.
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