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"You Just Kinda' Wasted My Precious Time, but Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"

Pop quiz: what?s the appropriate number of times to think about a lover who has just walked out your door?

Correct Answer: ONCE.

But Dylan's advice has a corollary: If you know you're leaving, then the time to go is now. See, e.g., "It Ain't Me, Babe." Above the Law reported today that when Sullivan & Cromwell attepted to strong-arm 2L's into accepting their offers within two weeks, the Dean of Harvard's career services told Sullivan that unless it backed off, it could kiss its invitation to recruit at Harvard goodbye. NYU and Yale sent similar messages. Above the Law also suggested a while back that law students should collect and accept their offers -- all of them -- as soon as possible so as to have a full hand of options before making decisions.

Harvard's Dean impressed me, and ATL's advice disgusts me. Boalties: don't hoard offers. If you have more than one opportunity at your door, it's time to start making decisions, because the earlier you decline an offer the more likely it will redound to one of your peers. The same goes for callbacks. If you have fifteen callbacks this year, or even five, start thinking about whether you can do away with some or most of them. This will benefit you (nobody really wants to do that many callbacks), it will benefit the firm (no firm really wants you to jerk them around), and it will benefit your peers (believe me, there are plenty of people who would gladly take any of your callbacks off your hands).

I know that advice can be hard to follow. Law students hate risk, and they hate making decisions, just like law firms. That's why Sullivan tried to clamp down on the timeline. But just because you can get away with something doesn't mean you need to; the temptation to follow ATL's advice is strong, but like most temptation it's worth resisting. To hold six offers open, to attend fifteen callbacks, or to delay your decisions until the last moment NALP allows is to flirt with greed and self-indulgence. Not only that, but it will make you feel bad -- it eats at you to have these decisions hanging over your head, and I promise you that when you do pull the trigger and put OCIP completely behind you, you will feel a thousand times lighter.

Just like a timely breakup.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).