Nationwide No Offer Watch: DLA and Bryan Cave

We continue our series on no offers with new information from DLA and Bryan Cave.
First the good news. The reports on DLA Piper no offers seem to be exaggerated. We had heard that as many as 1/3rd of the of the DLA summer calls had been no offered. But DLA spokesperson Jason Costa assures us that the final number of offers will be “significantly above” 2/3rds of the class.
Costa reports that DLA’s summer associate review is still ongoing. Therefore there are DLA summers who will receive offers from the firm, but have not yet been contacted.
But we’re not living in the 90s and a 100% offer rate is probably a little too much to hope for. Costa emphasized that an “overwhelming majority” of summers will receive offers.
Costa also said that he was not aware of any summers that had been “wait-listed,” or received offers yet told to continue looking for other employment.
The people at Bryan Cave also emphasized the strength of their summer class, while admitting that not every summer associate would be receiving an offer.
After the jump, firms try to locate the magic number.


We had very specific information regarding surprisingly few offers coming out of Bryan Cave in both Los Angeles and New York, but Bryan Cave told us our reports were “substantially inaccurate.”

In some offices we extended offers to all of our summer associates and in other offices we extended offers to less than 100% of our summer associates. Overall, the Firm extended offers to nearly 90% of the participants in our summer program.

There’s that 90% number again.
For associates already at these firms, one thing that is comforting to know is that a 90% offer rate does not seem to indicate a whole lot about the financial health of any particular firm. The market seems to be setting this benchmark, especially given that so many firms have contested that their summer programs were “oversubscribed.”
On the flip side, it seems that summers need to be (or perhaps “should have been”) more competitive to make sure that they do not fall into the bottom ten percent of their summer class. The old understanding that you will get an offer so long as you do not pass out in a moist heap in front of the partners simply no longer applies.
How do you distinguish yourself during 12 weeks of lunches and fake work? The firms are still pretty tight lipped with those answers. But there is clearly some kind of special sauce firms want summers to bring to the table.
Is 90% the new 100%? It is still too early to tell, especially given that some firms (Willkie, Wachtell) are extending offers to their entire summer class.
Thanks for the tips and keep them coming. We will keep you updated as more information rolls in.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of no offers

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