What do I do now?

[2LandScared]

So I posted a while back about doing poorly last semester because of OCI/Callbacks and getting sick. Well it now appears as if I don't have to worry about my firm and grades: they just rescinded their summer offers.

So...what do I do now? I feel like I'm soooooooooo far behind my 2L friends in the job hunt, and it's like I'm in the ocean without a life jacket. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, because this situation has just been horrible.

[linquest]

I'm assuming that all the BigLaw firms are done hiring by now.  Start hitting up the medium and small firms that didn't go through OCI.  Small firms often don't start hiring until now anyway, because they don't have the fat to hire far in advance of knowing what their summer workload is going to look like. 

Is Career Services aware of the situation?  If they haven't already contacted you with suggestions, don't be afraid to be proactive and ask them what they can do to help.  When one of my friend's jobs fell through last March, our department started calling around and asking, "We have a great student whose offer was rescinded through no fault of her own.  Would you possibly need help this summer or know someone who does?"  One of the firms they called was ecstatic- the student they'd set their heart on had accepted an offer with a large firm, and they were worried that they were going to be behind on recruiting.  I'm not sure that every CSO is willing to do this, but I can't imagine why they wouldn't if you went and talked to them.

Start networking if you haven't already.  Ask your professors if they have any contacts or need research assistance this summer.

[TheTrier]

That's really unbelievable. Sorry to hear it.

This is probably the beginning of an industry-wide change. Hopefully not as bad as blackbooklegal.com reported, tho.

[2LandScared]

Yeah. It wasn't so much that they rescinded my offer, but they canceled their 2009 summer program altogether.

The firm isn't vault, but it's a medium sized firm that pays just shy of market. After reading abovethelaw today, it seems like firms are out of the question.

I talked to my CSO, and I was informed today that they were all brainstorming solutions to my problem. They were all very sympathetic and have all been extremely helpful, but the market isn't really helpful to people like me.

Also...I don't have any connections in the legal community. I've had a friend ask her company's legal depts (one of them even said the gen. counsel would take a look at my resume), but as of now, I've got nothing.

I still feel as if the floor was pulled out underneath my feet.

[botbot]

Similar thing happened to me last year as a 1L, 20-40 attorney firms were pretty receptive.