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A crude way of doing this would be a partner explicitly telling you not to accept the offer. A more nuanced way would be to impose extremely onerous, or impossible, conditions to the offer. For example, a US firm might say to a non-citizen that a federal clerkship is a condition precedent. Since federal clerkship is only available to US citizens, this effectively blocks out that candidate from joining.
Is this practice prevalent in India? Have you been cold offered by an Indian law firm, or do you know someone who has?
Obviously this is not an issue here because Indian law firms don't have a public offer-acceptance rate. It's only an issue on LI because some bored law student saw a US Instagram feed and decided to post about it here.
If the firm doesn’t give a summer associate an offer, it is like a chill spreads through the law schools that X firm might not hire you after giving you a summer associate position and potentially wasting your time. So talent tends to avoid the firm. Hence the concept of cold offers. They’re giving you an offer to hold up their reputation but not really because they want you in the firm
Not gonna happen in India. The market for legal services is so small (compared to the States) that Tier 1 firms have no need whatsoever to attract students, even from top institutions. Let's not even get into self-regulation within the legal profession lol.
https://thegirlsguidetolawschool.com/10/what-its-like-to-get-a-cold-offer/