As soon as you decide that you are not interested in a certain firm, call and cancel the interview. Employers would rather have you cancel than put their busy attorneys through the paces of an interview when you know you will not accept the job. With that said, you need to give as much advance notice of a cancellation as possible; we suggest at least a few days. However, if you receive the offer of your dreams the night before a callback, it is better to call and cancel than to waste the interviewer’s time.

If you have not heard back from a firm yet (either about a callback or an offer), but you are no longer interested, it is recommended that you call the firm and withdraw yourself from consideration. This helps the firm make its decisions and increases the chance that your fellow classmate will get a callback/offer.

If you are unable to reach the recruiter, leave a voicemail and then follow up with an email. You can let the firm know how much you enjoyed meeting them, thank them for the opportunity, and let them know that you have decided to accept another offer or are pursuing other opportunities (it is ok if you have not yet accepted a position).