No Offers

Nationwide No Offer Watch: Foley Didn't Get the Memo. 43% Offer Rate? Tastes Like Burning.

By  
on

Foley & Lardner. You’ve heard the rumors. We’ve heard the rumors. Foley & Lardner have heard the rumors and chosen not to respond. But the smoke screen cannot obscure the summer structure fire.
Multiple tipsters coalesced around these numbers: 9 of 21 Foley Chicago summers received offers. But six of those offers went to IP attorneys, leaving non-IP summers with a stunning 3 of 15 success rate.
I’m no mathlete, but that doesn’t look like the 90% offer rate like we’ve been hearing from other firms.
And as we’ve seen with other firms, going to a top school was no summer offer safety net. Again, thus far the firm isn’t talking so we can’t know for sure, but it appears that HYS summers went 0 for 4 at Foley Chicago.
Read what people are saying below the fold.


The tepid offer rate to ’08 summers has not gone unnoticed by full time associates at Foley.

[W]e are all pissed about this (and, frankly, wondering what it means about the financial health of the firm). Management has refused to respond to our concerns or even offer a credible explanation for what the hell happened. They need an immediate wake-up call.

Hope this helps.
If this caught the regular associates by surprise, imagine how the summers felt. According to one tipster:

Foley & Lardner’s Chicago office just seriously screwed over a ridiculous percentage of their non-IP 2Ls. … they no offered about 80% of the class with very little warning (a vague meeting that left summers reassured instead of freaking out).

Not that freaking out would have helped the non-IP summers, but fair warning is fair play.
Other tipsters have suggested that Foley is still “reviewing” candidates, ostensibly keeping some summers in the dark about their future just as OCI gets going in earnest.
One ray of light: if we know about what happened at Foley, and you do, then it is a pretty fair bet that hiring partners do as well. At least Foley isn’t making the case that 80% of its non-IP summers “underperformed.”
The no offered summers coming out of Foley didn’t get rejected, in a strange way they got laid-off, and that shouldn’t be a black mark on anybody’s resume.
Update: Foley & Lardner CEO Ralf Boer emailed firm lawyers on Monday, September 8th to tell them that Foley extended offers to 84% of their 2008 summer class. Read additional coverage here.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of no offers

Sponsored

Topics