Winstead: Rescinds Offers to Two Incoming Associates Just Days Before Their Start Date

We have a Nixon Peabody situation, deep in the heart of Texas. Winstead has decided to rescind offers to two of their incoming associates who were set to start on Monday.
It just goes to show, you don’t have a job until you are actually sitting at a desk, performing work. Paycheck or it didn’t happen.
Above the Law received the following statement from Winstead management:

Winstead hired 9 of the 11 law students that were deferred. A portion of the group started last September and the remainder start with the Firm on February 1, 2010. The facts and circumstances relating to the 2 deferred law students that are not starting with the Firm are confidential employment matters and it is not appropriate for us to discuss the details.

We were shocked when Nixon Peabody re-deferred incoming associates 20 days before they were scheduled to start. I don’t even know what to say about having your offer pulled two business days before you’re supposed to start working.


Having your offer pulled just days before you start working makes me wonder if the incoming associates committed some kind egregious sin that Winstead just found out about. But the tipsters we’ve spoken to report no such sins, Winstead provides no further details as to why these people lost their offers, and I don’t have the time to scan police blotters all across the state of Texas.
So, in the absence of any evidence of misbehavior on the part of the incoming associates, we have to ask: WTF? What kind of nonsense leads a firm to pull offers on a Wednesday when the people are supposed to start Monday?
Honestly, I have to hope that these two people did something wrong, something to deserve this kind of treatment. I need to believe that, because I need to live in a world where firms aren’t going to no-offer people days before they start.
I guess what I’m saying is that, after I hit the publish button on this story, I’m going to pretend that this never happened.
Earlier: Nixon Peabody Deferral Extension: Can Somebody Check A Calendar?

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