Reneging Accepted Offer Forum

[Anonymous User]

I accepted a position to return to the V100 firm where I recently completed my 2L SA. Now, just a couple of weeks later, it appears significantly more likely that I may obtain an offer from a V10 firm in the same market. If I do receive the V10 offer, is it acceptable to renege on the V100 acceptance? I understand that if I renege I will never be able to work in the V100 again, but can this have further negative consequences on my future career? Alternatively, is it possible that the V10 firm would renege its offer if it found out that I had accepted the V100's offer?

[nickiolio]

That would be against my school’s regulations. You shouldn’t have accepted an offer while pursuing other options.

[Anonymous User]

There is literally a question like this every year. Renege. There is no legal obligation to follow through with your acceptance just like there is no legal obligation on your employer's end to maintain the offer. In other words, you BOTH can renege on each other with no penalty. Any school policy that forbids this is usually just looking our for the school's reputation, not yours. Also the "no renege" policy typically only applies to judges for obvious reasons. So yea, renege and don't look back. It's your life and career and no one can penalize you for that.

If it makes you feel any better. I reneged on a law firm after receiving a much better offer months later. It was literally a non event.

[QContinuum]

If it makes you feel any better. I reneged on a law firm after receiving a much better offer months later. It was literally a non event.

If OP reneges, they should be prepared to never go back to that V100 down the road. Aside from that, there won't be any real professional repercussions. Can't say for sure what OP's school might do but I imagine the worst they'd do is give OP a tongue-lashing - what else could they realistically do? They can't ban OP from OCI - that ship's already sailed - and an OCI ban is pretty much the biggest/only stick Career Services has over law students.

[Vexed]

That would be against my school’s regulations. You shouldn’t have accepted an offer while pursuing other options.

What the hell is the school going to do about it?