Legal News

Dear 2L: Think Twice About White & Case?s Summer Offer

By Dan Slater

Last week, we noted a letter sent to Michigan law students from their career services center urging them to jump all over any offers they’ve received. Susan Guindi, the assistant dean for career services at Michigan law, told the Law Blog: “I think most students are eager to accept, and I think that’s a good idea. There’s no reason to wait. If you’ve met somebody you like, start dancing with them.”

But Guindi’s newest missive to her students cautions against dancing with one New York-based law firm. Here’s an e-mail sent yesterday afternoon:

From: “Susan M. Guindi”
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:40:21 -0400
Subject: White & Case

Hi. It is my understanding that you have an offer from White and Case in New York. After talking to contacts in the New York legal market, it appears that White and Case may have over-hired for next summer and has a particularly large class. Therefore, it may be in your best interest to take another offer if you have one.

***

Let me know if you have any questions and in any event let me know when you have made your decision about where you will be working next summer.

Best,
Susan Guindi

When we called Guindi to confirm the e-mail’s authenticity, she said: “I’m not going to comment on it. This was a communication I had with my students and I don’t want to say more.”

A spokesman for White & Case told the Law Blog: “We don’t know, honestly, why a law school career services office would send out these letters. No one has talked to us about the situation, and we’ve certainly not encouraged anyone to send out letters to students.”

Frankly, we’re not exactly sure what to make of this. Are students to fear that the firm will rescind their summer offers? Or just that the offers following the end of the summer for permanent employment will be harder to get? LBers, any thoughts?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).