Fenwick & West, Job Searches, No Offers, Summer Associates

Nationwide No Offer Watch: Fenwick & West Sends Letters of Endorsement, But Not a Lot of Offers

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On Wednesday, we reported that Fenwick & West paid $60,000 in “go away” money money to some members of its incoming associate class. Today, we have news about Fenwick’s 2009 summer program, i.e., the most recent summer program, and the firm’s offer rate.
Fenwick took on 36 2Ls and 3Ls this past summer. But the summer was only eight weeks long, and Fenwick’s summer salary was on a $145K scale instead of $160K.
Still, most summers probably would have been okay with Fenwick’s program if it had ended with a strong offer rate. But it didn’t. Sources report that the firm only made offers to 17 of the 36 summers. A tipster reports the breakdown:

Ultimately the firm extended 17 offers (47%): 8 litigation, 8 corporate and 1 patent.

During orientation the hiring partners told us those who did not receive an offer would receive a letter that they could show other firms as a means to explain why we did not get an offer.

Is anybody else interested in this letter that will explain everything to other firms? Let’s check it out after the jump.


Here’s the letter no-offered Fenwick summers received. Fenwick wants them to feel free to show it to other prospective employers, but the summers might want to correct Fenwick’s typo first:

We’ve discussed that some firms are reluctant to hire attorneys who were laid off. Does the same prejudice apply to summers who were no-offered? If so, is this letter enough to overcome that prejudice?
Fenwick really thinks that its letters will help. In fact, tipsters report that Fenwick feels it was looking out for the summers it was going to no-offer all along:

[At orientation] they told us the rationale for the high number of summer associates was that it would be easier for those who didn’t get offers post-summer to find jobs than if they rescinded the extraneous summer offers originally.

Well, we are now well into fall recruiting. Was Fenwick right? Are people who were no offered from Fenwick enjoying 3L recruiting? Let us know in the comments.
Earlier: Incoming Associates at Fenwick Take the Money and Run
Bad News for Laid Off Associates: Your Résumés Are Not Welcome

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