Student associates: if your firm paid for law school, how long do you have to work there for? How much do you pay back if you leave beforehand? Are you burning bridges if you leave soon after graduating?

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Every year on 12/31 my firm would forgive the previous year’s loan. So I had to stick around until 12/31 of the year after graduating law school.

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My big law firm paid for 100% of my tuition and there was no post graduation work commitment. To incentivize people to stick around, they gave a bonus if you were still with the firm one year out.

I don’t remember any of the big law firms having post graduation commitments for their patent agents turned associates when they paid for their law school, they typically (1) required you worked for them for a year or 2 before you could apply to law school on their dime, (2) gave you credit towards partnership (eg start as a 3rd year associate instead of a first year, so you’d lose out on pay if you went somewhere else and became a first year, or (3) gave bonus retentions.

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My last law firm had you committed to work 2 years after graduation before it was paid off, but they only paid for half of the tuition. If you left you paid back a prorated amount of the tuition minus $1k/month you worked there. My current firm paid my entire last year of law school and there is nothing in my offer letter about paying it back, but I'd imagine I owe them something if I left soon. I graduated in May but I am struggling here and think I want to go back to small law or possibly to a big law firm with litigation opportunities, but I'm not sure if that means writing my firm a $50k check.

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