If all the attorneys like a SA, but the recruiting staff doesn’t, then correct, the recruiter’s opinion isn’t going to result in a no offer. But recruiting staff members have more day to day contact with summers than almost any attorney does. And at any firm with a halfway decent summer program, those recruiting staff members will be reporting to attorneys who head the summer program and the hiring committee. They’re a filter, and they can shape how the attorneys perceive that SA. In sum, be courteous and professional to everyone, not only because your job may depend upon it, but also because it’s the right thing to do.

As for this sentiment that good firms give 100% offers… Nonsense. Some do, but most firms don’t give 100% offers, especially this year. Any many of the firms that say they gave 100% offers included some “soft/cold offers” in that tally to help their numbers.

The point of this is to ingratiate yourself. You write thank-you notes to your interviewers as a callback because it’s the right thing to do: not because they’re just doing their job, but because that’s what gentlemen do. Since when was etiquette all about social gain: it’s what you do because THAT’S WHAT POLITE PEOPLE DO.

And you just made $3,000 / week. The “save your cash” attitude when thinking about a $25 gift-card makes you out to be an ass.

Highly unlikely. But secretaries gossip, so a little hush gift may be reasonable.

“They don’t have direct input, either, but if you alienate them throughout the summer they can affect whether you get an offer by what sort of gossip they allow to be spread about you,…”

A law firm of any standing gives 100% offers. You don’t need to bribe recruiting for doing their job (esp. considering they will have 0% contact with you once you join).

Secretaries have absolutely no input into your offer, and do not have the ear of anyone higher than them. It’s also highly unlikely that they actually did anything to be truly helpful to you over the summer. They WILL, however, gossip about you when you leave, and if everyone else got flowers and they did not, your name will be mud when you return (even if you get someone else). And one of the most important things you learn is thus: do not alienate the support staff. Furthermore, if everyone’s secretaries’ get flowers and yours does not, it will be a visual cue to the rest of the firm that all the summers who had that secretary were a) unorganized and/or b) cheap and/or c) so self-important they couldn’t spend $25 on support staff.

With the recruiting staff, it’s much different. They don’t have direct input, either, but if you alienate them throughout the summer they can affect whether you get an offer by what sort of gossip they allow to be spread about you, as well as what kind of work you get and who you get to meet. But that’s all played out already by the end of the summer. The reason you get the recruiting staff a spa gift is because with 30-60 summers at a firm, just a few bucks ($10? $15?) goes a long way to showing your appreciation and everyone going in for a spa gift. And while you may not realize it now, the summer is the social life of the firm — the parties, the plays, the restaurants that you took for granted this summer are valued treats that are doled out to the deserving associates when you come back. Those deserving associates not only get to have fun with the summers and take roles of responsibilities, you get to mingle in a social way with partners and senior associates, when is a much more rare event when you’re actually working at the firm. So is THAT worth $10? Is that worth a five minute effort to write a thank-you note and do what you ought to be doing ANYWAY in life, being a gracious and polite person? You bet.