Rescinding offers of at-will employment

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, David Post wonders whether law firms who renege on their at-will employment agreements with new associates are nevertheless liable for damages:

X offers (in September, 2008) to hire me beginning in September 2009, and I accept. They rescind the offer in April. I have damages, even though their promise to hire me would have allowed them to fire me immediately. I didn’t look for another job in the intervening six months. I rented an apartment in NYC. I don’t have health insurance.

The latter strikes me as potentially very important — if I’m hired and then immediately fired as an at-will employee, I have all sorts of vested rights — perhaps in the firm 401(k) plan, certainly in their health insurance coverage (which, once I’m fired, can’t be taken away from me, as I understand things, for one year, by virtue of COBRA). Now, because they never hired me in the first place but instead rescinded the offer, I’m uninsured beginning in September.

The post prompts a discussion with some interesting comments.

[Frank Snyder]