Big Law Forum

[JusticeHarlan]

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[Sandro]

Did you guys know the Pilgrims landed in NYC and that every other US city sprung up because people couldnt find biglaw jobs there?

[keg411]

2. If most of the biglaw jobs are in NYC - what are all the haters going to do when they live there? I love NYC so I am completely biased. But if you are not going to be happy living there, then you should target your school selection and job applications according - which I think would tend away from biglaw or, I guess, NYC biglaw, which is where most of the jobs are going to be found.

Your point seems to be that people who hate New York shouldn't aim for NYC biglaw. Which is pretty obvious. Everyone I know who doesn't like New York (including myself) didn't interview for NYC biglaw jobs. Luckily, few enough of us seem to hate New York that there seem to be enough biglaw jobs available in other primary and secondary markets.

Check out last year's OCI threads before you say that.
People who "struck out" targeted secondary markets and ignored NYC.

Getting a 2L SA >>>>>>> not getting a 2L SA.

[Other25BeforeYou]

2. If most of the biglaw jobs are in NYC - what are all the haters going to do when they live there? I love NYC so I am completely biased. But if you are not going to be happy living there, then you should target your school selection and job applications according - which I think would tend away from biglaw or, I guess, NYC biglaw, which is where most of the jobs are going to be found.

Your point seems to be that people who hate New York shouldn't aim for NYC biglaw. Which is pretty obvious. Everyone I know who doesn't like New York (including myself) didn't interview for NYC biglaw jobs. Luckily, few enough of us seem to hate New York that there seem to be enough biglaw jobs available in other primary and secondary markets.

Check out last year's OCI threads before you say that.
People who "struck out" targeted secondary markets and ignored NYC.

Getting a 2L SA >>>>>>> not getting a 2L SA.

I was only speaking for what I witnessed at my school's OCI. It was my experience, with very few exceptions, that people targeting non-NYC markets found jobs there. Then again, I didn't have any friends targeting DC or Chicago.

And I highly doubt I'm the only person who'd rather not have a 2L SA than have one in New York City.

[HeavenWood]

2. If most of the biglaw jobs are in NYC - what are all the haters going to do when they live there? I love NYC so I am completely biased. But if you are not going to be happy living there, then you should target your school selection and job applications according - which I think would tend away from biglaw or, I guess, NYC biglaw, which is where most of the jobs are going to be found.

Your point seems to be that people who hate New York shouldn't aim for NYC biglaw. Which is pretty obvious. Everyone I know who doesn't like New York (including myself) didn't interview for NYC biglaw jobs. Luckily, few enough of us seem to hate New York that there seem to be enough biglaw jobs available in other primary and secondary markets.

Check out last year's OCI threads before you say that.
People who "struck out" targeted secondary markets and ignored NYC.

Getting a 2L SA >>>>>>> not getting a 2L SA.

This is fair (especially since my LS mostly self-selects to New York). Worst comes to worst, I'll tolerate NYC for a summer. Who knows, maybe I'll even start to like it.

[bigben]

Also, ~30% of the salaries on that bimodal distribution chart land between $130,000-$60,000. So to say that there are not a lot of jobs in that range isn't really accurate.

You have to factor in the response rate, though. The '09 chart had fewer than 20K graduates reporting, out of about 45K, so your 30% probably drops below 15%.

http://www.nalp.org/salarydistrib

Correct! Finally someone got this right.

[bigben]

This thread has reminded me that most people don't see the correlation between higher cost of living and higher quality of life. There's a reason it costs a lot to live in NYC. It's because people want to live there. People want to live there because it's infinitely better than Cleveland fucking Ohio.

Strokes, folks, etc.

[Zabini]

lol at how this thread turned into a NYC vs the world debate. NYC is by far the most overrated city on the planet.

Naw that's London.

120, London is awesome.

[FiveSermon]

lol at how this thread turned into a NYC vs the world debate. NYC is by far the most overrated city on the planet.

Naw that's London.

120, London is awesome.

Serious? It cost just as much as NYC to live in but the food was terrible, the people were general pricks (even more so than NYC), and the weather made me wonder half of London's population didn't hang themselves from depression.

[Non-Chalant1]

lol at how this thread turned into a NYC vs the world debate. NYC is by far the most overrated city on the planet.

Naw that's London.

120, London is awesome.

Serious? It cost just as much as NYC to live in but the food was terrible, the people were general pricks (even more so than NYC), and the weather made me wonder half of London's population didn't hang themselves from depression.

The most pretentious people on Earth.

[FiveSermon]

They also put gravy on everything. It's revolting.

[Zabini]

lol at how this thread turned into a NYC vs the world debate. NYC is by far the most overrated city on the planet.

Naw that's London.

120, London is awesome.

Serious? It cost just as much as NYC to live in but the food was terrible, the people were general pricks (even more so than NYC), and the weather made me wonder half of London's population didn't hang themselves from depression.

cost just as much as NYC to live in - granted
food was terrible - your fault for eating British food. Ethnic food (of all stripes) in London is top top.
the people were general pricks - really? not my experience at all
the weather made me wonder half of London's population didn't hang themselves from depression - doubt there's a significant difference between London weather and NYC weather...but then again I'm a Californian so maybe "not CA" is all the same to me.

[bk1]

People have differing opinions on various metropolitan areas? Color me shocked.

[Sandro]

People have differing opinions on various metropolitan areas? Color me shocked.

I liked the one poster who tried to equate NYCs high COL with high QOL. Thats like saying Britney Spears is a quality artist because she sells a lot of albums, really.

[FiveSermon]

People have differing opinions on various metropolitan areas? Color me shocked.

I liked the one poster who tried to equate NYCs high COL with high QOL. Thats like saying Britney Spears is a quality artist because she sells a lot of albums, really.

I wasn't snorting coke man. I was just admiring its smell.

[Rock Chalk]

.

[071816]

Wow. This thread has turned into a bigger shit show than it already was...

[YaSvoboden]

Also, ~30% of the salaries on that bimodal distribution chart land between $130,000-$60,000. So to say that there are not a lot of jobs in that range isn't really accurate.

You have to factor in the response rate, though. The '09 chart had fewer than 20K graduates reporting, out of about 45K, so your 30% probably drops below 15%.

http://www.nalp.org/salarydistrib

Correct! Finally someone got this right.

I honestly don't know how much lawyers actually make, but are we assuming that everyone that didn't report is at 40k (or I guess 160, but who wouldn't want to report that?) Otherwise that 15% makes no sense.

[Aberzombie1892]

Also, ~30% of the salaries on that bimodal distribution chart land between $130,000-$60,000. So to say that there are not a lot of jobs in that range isn't really accurate.

You have to factor in the response rate, though. The '09 chart had fewer than 20K graduates reporting, out of about 45K, so your 30% probably drops below 15%.

http://www.nalp.org/salarydistrib

Correct! Finally someone got this right.

Yes and no. The $145,000+ peak would drop to about 15% or less of the total salary distribution for all graduates - I'm sure that much we can agree on (probably closer to 9%). The mid range ($60,000-$140,000) and low range ($0-$60,000) would likely increase.

Edited for clarity.

[rose711]

I don't know if this is helpful to have in this thread but earlier on I compiled from the NALP numbers an estimated total of jobs paying over 6 figures in NYC. I came up with about 2250 jobs -which may have increased in this cycle.

The post is here if anyone is interested: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3#p3873648

In the same thread thesealocust posted that the basic estimate of all big law jobs is a total of 5000 (of which 50% or so are taken by top 14 schools.)

If those numbers are roughly accurate about 45% or so of the law jobs paying over $100,000 are in NYC. The vast majority of the firms on the list pay $160,000 - but I went down to the level of $100,000 because I was calculating an estimate of the 6 figure starting salary jobs in NYC. So if you want to be conservative say 40% of biglaw jobs are in NYC.

Here is a link to that post: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3#p3869324

These numbers are not hard and fast, just trying to show that if you want a biglaw salary and are counting out NYC, then you are leaving out a huge percentage of total jobs available .

[thecilent]

Stopping by to say I wouldn't want to live anywhere in the country besides manhattan. It's worth it to me to pay 1800 for a studio to live there. Wouldn't want to be anywhere else. (but also I am pretty east coast biased.)

[keg411]

rose, that's pretty much what I've been trying to say. Thanks for doing the numbers.

[handlesthetruth]

People have differing opinions on various metropolitan areas? Color me shocked.

I liked the one poster who tried to equate NYCs high COL with high QOL. Thats like saying Britney Spears is a quality artist because she sells a lot of albums, really.

180

[handlesthetruth]

Stopping by to say I wouldn't want to live anywhere in the country besides manhattan. It's worth it to me to pay 1800 for a studio to live there. Wouldn't want to be anywhere else. (but also I am pretty east coast biased.)

Have you lived anywhere else? A smaller city for instance? (chicago doesn't count)

[thecilent]

Stopping by to say I wouldn't want to live anywhere in the country besides manhattan. It's worth it to me to pay 1800 for a studio to live there. Wouldn't want to be anywhere else. (but also I am pretty east coast biased.)

Have you lived anywhere else? A smaller city for instance? (chicago doesn't count)

Yeah I've lived in a smaller city pretty much my whole life.