The National Law Journal reports that in the upcoming recruiting season, 2Ls will have a deadline of 45 days to respond to law firm summer-associate offers. NALP says it's making the change to help out firms with smaller summer associate programs.

Adopted earlier this year by the NALP board of directors, the new guidelines have a 45-day rolling offer provision that includes a countdown ending on Dec. 30. A law firm's letter offering a summer position to a student determines the date when the 45-day period begins to run.

The old guidelines enabled students to hold on to five offers until Oct. 15. They could keep open four offers until Nov. 1, and three following that date. By Dec. 1, students could not hold on to more than one offer.

NALP decided to revise its guidelines, in part, because many schools have started their summer associate recruiting season earlier -- in August, before the fall semester begins. As a result, students in some cases held on to offers for nearly four months.

The new policy is being given a one-year tryout period before being made permanent. We're curious to see what you think in the comments.

Also on the topic of accepting offers, we received this email query about rescinding acceptance of an employment offer if a better one comes along:

My situation is this: offer #1 came and I accepted. Not big law, just a mid-size firm. Offer came last year around October and the job is to start in October of this year. Now, another job offer came (better $, firm size, practice, etc) and I really want to take this second offer. Don't know what to do at this point. Nothing has been signed between me and offer #1, just the letter I returned to offer #1 that I accepted their offer. I read the offer letter like a million times by now and it's in bold that the employment is at-will and either "you (me) or the firm can terminate at any time, with or without notice or cause." Offer #1 has not paid me any $, but they did send some goodies during exam time (bag, Starbucks card). What should I do?

I kinda hinted at [this situation in] the career services office, and they told me students who had done this in the past (rejecting the accepted offer to take offer #2) had lost both jobs and been reported to the state ethics committee. I find it hard to believe.

Decisions, decisions. Any one have advice to offer?

Law Students Had Better Think Fast [National Law Journal]

Back in this post, an ATL reader confessed to playing a little trick on Ann Israel, the legal recruiter who writes NYLawyer.com's popular Advice for the Lawlorn column. He wrote:

Love ATL's Advice for the Lawlame column. My friends and I have been reading NYLawyer.com's Advice for the Lawlorn with a sort of amused contempt for a year.

After a while, we grew tired of the formulaic cluelessness of the posts and the answers, so we challeged each other to get our fake submissions answered. I won, with this entry....

Well, it appears that Ann Israel got wind of this prank. And she's none too pleased about it.

Her fit of pique, after the jump.

It has been forever since the last edition of Advice for the Lawlame. In this feature, we take a question submitted to one of NYLawyer.com's popular advice columns, such as "Advice for the Lawlorn," and offer our own unique take.

Here's the condensed version of today's question:

I am a mentor in my firm to a couple of younger lawyers. My problem is that one talks to me too much about personal issues.

A sticky situation. When you're a partner, she's an associate, and you're having conversations about that "not-so-fresh feeling," you know it's time to redefine the parameters of your relationship.

The complete version of this question, plus our "advice" -- after the jump.

This actually isn't a new installment of our Advice for the Lawlame column (although one is in the works). Rather, it's a funny email we received from a reader who shares our fascination with NYLawyer.com's Advice for the Lawlorn column. Here it is:

Love the "Advice for the Lawlame" column. My friends and I have been reading "Advice for the Lawlorn" with a sort of amused contempt for a year. After a while, we grew tired of the formulaic cluelessness of the posts and the answers, so we challeged each other to get our fake submissions answered.

I won, with the below entry. Note how spectacularly lame the "author" of the submission was -- not only did he spend his law school career neglecting academics for drinks and rugby, but his team wasn't any good! Ann was almost on to me, but the voices of her better and more credulous angels won out.

I'll stay anon because I'm a partner at a big NY firm. Not to worry. No client was billed while I was teasing Ann.

Our reader's "winning" submission -- and Ann Israel's response -- after the jump.

Time for another installment of Advice for the Lawlame, the closest thing that Above the Law has to an "advice column." We take the questions submitted to NYLawyer.com's popular advice columns, including "Advice for the Lawlorn," and offer our own take on them.

(We've been at this for quite some time now. For the Advice for the Lawlame archives, click here, then scroll down.)

Here's today's query:

The partner I work with is seen as strange by the rest of the firm. How do I avoid being tarred by the same brush?

HA, tell us about it. Back when we were in private practice, we ended up as biatch to the weirdest partner in the whole damn place. So this is a question we're well-equipped to answer.

More details from the query, plus our "advice," after the jump (click on the "continue reading" link below).

Before you call us sexist and let slip the dogs of war, please note that the question in the title of this post isn't ours. Rather, it's a question submitted to one of the NYLawyer.com advice columns, by a female attorney. Here's the complete query:

I am a female associate, and I wonder if I’m alone in vastly preferring to work for male attorneys than female attorneys. It’s also easier to have male opposing counsel.

Many women I’ve worked for or had as opposing counsel have been humorless, driven, easily offended, easily threatened, and seemingly without the ability to relax and take it easy.

Men that I’ve worked for or had a matter with, by contrast, have been relaxed, not gotten upset about every little thing, have been unthreatened, and so forth. It’s just been a lot easier to get along with them.

I’d hate to think that women lawyers just aren’t very good at managing people or playing well with others, but that’s the experience I’ve had. What are your thoughts?

You can read career consultant Holly English's response here. Or you can read our less earnest reaction, appears after the jump.

One of our favorite features over at NYLawyer.com are the advice columns. There's Advice for the Lawlorn, a column by Ann Israel, a legal recruiter based in New York. And there's Crossroads, in which job consultant Linda Laufer offers insights on career direction and job transition.

In a typical column, some clueless correspondent writes in to Ann Israel, says that he has a 2.3 GPA from a fourth-tier law school, and asks if he can land a job at Davis Polk. Sensibly enough, Ann tells him he has a better chance of being in a three-way with Petra Nemcova and Madeleine Albright. She then suggests that he hire a well-regarded headhunter -- someone like herself, say -- to help him get a paralegal position at a personal-injury firm somewhere on Long Island.

Ann's advice is often sound, especially when it relates to her area of expertise: how to land a Biglaw job. But sometimes she's off the mark -- and sometimes she seems more interested in shilling for legal recruiters than offering actual insight.

So we've decided to offer our own version of an advice column here at Above the Law. We'll take questions submitted to "Advice for the Lawlorn" or "Crossroads," then offer our own unique take on them.

Here's this week's request for advice:

Dear Ann:

While on an interview with a BigLaw firm, the question came up about whether I was an attorney and passed the California Bar in July. The truth is that I passed in February; but I just agreed that I passed in July. The interview went really well otherwise and I expect an offer any day. I had no intention to not tell the truth - I just got caught up in the heat of the moment. What do I do if I am hired? I really need this job!

Our reponse to this legal Pinocchio, after the jump.