Despite the skepticism of Above the Law commenters, David Post, writing for the Volokh Conspiracy, decided to do some research into possible legal claims available to deferred or laid -off incoming associates.

A particularly litigious incoming first-year will be happy to see the fruits of Professor Post’s efforts:

[I]t turns out things are a little more complicated than one might have thought (or than the folks on ATL might have realized, had they not been so busy mocking ideas into silence). Turns out there have been a bunch of cases on this very question, and the outcomes, perhaps surprisingly or perhaps not, go in both directions. A good ALR annotation collects the cases together [1 ALR 5th 401 (“Employer’s state-law liability for withdrawing, or substantially altering, job offer for indefinite period before employee actually commences employment”)].

It would be nothing short of fascinating if — instead of unleashing rats on the Lipstick Building on May Day — an associate actually took on their former firm based on a theory of promissory estoppel.

Not that anybody should actually try, but the best available arguments after the jump.