Choate dumped 13 associates this week (ahem, excuse me, they've 'realigned their staffing') in a cost-cutting move. Perhaps in response to growing concerns about big firms cutting loose incoming associates left & right, the firm left their incoming class of 21 unperturbed.

If I were one of them, I wouldn't be breathing a big sigh of relief or letting my resume fester in a drawer! In a nod to the continued depressed outlook for next year (and probably the year after), Herrick, Feinstein, a Manhattan firm, (along with at least 10 other unnamed firms) has rescinded offers for next year's summers. That one's so ridiculous I need to say it again: the firm took back the offers it just gave out.

This goes beyond mere incompetence in hiring projections. These firms are at least toeing the line - if not tromping all over it - of dishonesty and deceit. It is completely disingenuous for them to protest that they received higher than normal acceptance rates; anyone with half a brain knew that acceptances would be through the roof this year.

Of course, law students normally face some kind of sanction if they attempt this sort of thing. The firms that do it are invited back to campus year after year. After all, they do pay the career folks tidy little sums for the honor of interviewing their future layoffees!

I say we mix it up a little. Let law students renege on their offers! It does (obviously) happen in the real world! Students are beholden to the jobs they get in the fall semester of 2L and don't even know what else is out there. Law firms have little incentive to clean up their acts, in both hiring and providing appealing work environments. It just doesn't make sense to enforce these rather arbitrary standards on law students if law firms don't abide by any similar standards and the career offices can't or won't penalize firms for breaking the rules. Students wouldn't be hopping around on offers left and right and searching for a job the entire year. For the most part, everyone would stay put, but it would give students working for firms that have poor track records a chance to vote with their feet.