Open Thread: Are Deferred Associates Ready to Start Work?

It’s December. Bar results are out. Firms are compiling their end of the year numbers. Trees are being trimmed, candles are being lit. Is it time, finally, for in the incoming class of 2009 to start working?
Above the Law has been furiously covering all of the Biglaw deferrals this year. A lot of firms deferred their incoming class to December or January. Well, these months are upon us. And first years are ready to go.
[Cue foreboding music]
Or are they?
Above the Law has started to receiving increasingly nervous emails from would be first year associates. Many of them still haven’t had any significant communication with their firms about actually starting work.
Uh-oh.


This tipster expresses the general concern:

Elie et al,
[Tuesday was] December 1st, the day that many 2009 grads were supposed to start their biglaw jobs. As a 3L, it’s a day I’ve been nervous about, because it serves as a barometer of the health of firms — will they push back start dates again for incomers, or will they stick to the start date they provided and put 10-20 new associates to work?

Another tipster was even more nervous:

Hello,
I keep hearing from friends that their firms that deferred them to Janaury 2010 still haven’t heard anything from their firms — no confirmation of a start date in Janaury or another deferral. It’s already December, and the bar results came out a while ago. Is there any way you could do an informal poll to see what is happening with supposed January start dates?
Thank you!

Do incoming associates have anything positive to report? At this point, it would seem pretty cruel for a firm to pull the rug out from under incoming associates and extend their deferrals. It’s just awfully late in the game for a firm to pull that move.
But maybe incoming associates should still place a call to their employers before they sign any new leases. Not every firm understands courtesy with respect to its incoming class.
What are you guys hearing? Let us know in the comments.

Sponsored