To law school or not to law school

[UnicornHunter]

Keep in mind that your biglaw take home won't start at 160k if you're in Charlotte, and will be severely decreased by your student loan payments.

What are big law salaries like in Charlotte/South?

Biglaw salaries in Charlotte range. The high is NYC market rates, 160k starting plus 15k bonus for first years. Firms like Dechert, Mayor Brown, Cadwalader, and Winston Strawn pay this rate, with the first 3 at least paying competitive NYC bonuses.

The more typical big law salary range is 145k, with slower, non-NYC raise scales, at places like McGuire Woods, Moore Van Allen, etc. The next lower tier, still very respectable, is around 140k, like Parker Poe and Robinson Bradshaw. I'd say prestige roughly tracks with this tier scale, depending on the industry (with the highest paying guys concentrating on a few specific practice areas).

That said, 145k or even 135-140k in Charlotte puts you in excellent position to live an extremely comfortable life. extrapolate out for the associate positions that give you 175k.

How many total $140k plus first year jobs do you think there are in Charlotte?

[FlamingDragon]

How many total $140k plus first year jobs do you think there are in Charlotte?[/quote]

It's hard to say: the larger offices at the regional firms, so MVA, McGuire Woods, Parker Poe, etc. probably have about 6-8 summer spots each. The top-paying firms, have between 2-4 each, so Cadwalader, Dechert, Mayer Brown. I think Winston Strawn may only take 1 summer. Those pay 160k + NYC bonus

Then there are the national firms that don't pay 160k, who I believe pay 145k, so Alston Bird and KL Gates and maybe 1 or 2 others. I think they take on average 6 (KL more, Alston much lower). So, where does that get you? Maybe around 75, given there a probably a couple I'm missing?

Other "biglaw" positions are more like midlaw, and pay around 135k or so, such as Womble Carlyle. Firms like Hunton and Williams have Charlotte offices but don't have summers there.

[NoBladesNoBows]

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[ExBiglawAssociate]

To people who hate their biglaw job:

What was your pre-biglaw work experience?

BigTech

[Johann]

I hate answering questions like this because it fundamentally misses the point. Your work ethic does not correlate strongly with how you feel about big law. The hardest workers I know hate biglaw more than many others. They have strong work ethics from previous jobs and they were evident in school. Other who have way less work ethic and slacked and didn't prepare may like biglaw much better. The correlation of work ethic to biglaw sustenance is not strong. It's primarily luck of where you end up and who you're working under - which you have no control over for the most part.

[ExBiglawAssociate]

Also, it's really stupid to focus on the "work ethic" required for biglaw when there are so many other things about biglaw that are worse than the amount of work you have to do. Like, for example, the type of people you have to interact with on a daily basis.

[Johann]

Also, it's really stupid to focus on the "work ethic" required for biglaw when there are so many other things about biglaw that are worse than the amount of work you have to do. Like, for example, the type of people you have to interact with on a daily basis.

Yah this is what I meant.

[ExBiglawAssociate]

Also, it's really stupid to focus on the "work ethic" required for biglaw when there are so many other things about biglaw that are worse than the amount of work you have to do. Like, for example, the type of people you have to interact with on a daily basis.

Yah this is what I meant.

But it's not just the people you immediately "work under" as a junior. Clients usually treat attorneys much worse than attorneys' coworkers. Most juniors (at least in lit) are shielded from clients and don't have to deal with this. Worst of all is opposing counsel and, again, juniors are shielded from them in most cases.

[NoBladesNoBows]

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