What do you do with your BIG LAW salary? Forum

[Elston Gunn]

TBF DC is not awesome.

An contraire.

Before anyone complains about anon abuse, I also considered preserving my anonymity before admitting I liked DC.

If you like chain restaurants, generic mid rises, high schoolers on class trips, families and fat Midwesterners misunderstanding public transportation, swamps, and self-important interns, I am glad DC exists for you.

Thank you.

[Total Litigator]

TBF DC is not awesome.

An contraire.

Before anyone complains about anon abuse, I also considered preserving my anonymity before admitting I liked DC.

Haha.

Sorry, accidentally hit that anon button. But I really like DC.
Its significantly cheaper than MFH, lots of great bars, and always something going on every weekend. Also a great community of young professionals doing the kickball/soccer/flag football, etc. thing.

Also the only place in America where seeing somebody near blackout walking down the street at 4pm on Sunday is nbd.

Great place to be in your 20's to mid-30's I think.

[Total Litigator]

TBF DC is not awesome.

An contraire.

Before anyone complains about anon abuse, I also considered preserving my anonymity before admitting I liked DC.

If you like chain restaurants, generic mid rises, high schoolers on class trips, families and fat Midwesterners misunderstanding public transportation, swamps, and self-important interns, I am glad DC exists for you.

Very few chain restaurants in DC actually. As for the other things you mentioned, I just pretend they don't exist.

That being said, I also like DC because I get to work for the fed gov. If I was doing something unrelated to the Federal government, sure, a fair amount of other places I'd probably rather be doing it.

[rickgrimes69]

Also the only place in America where seeing somebody near blackout walking down the street at 4pm on Sunday is nbd.

not sure if srs

there are like half a dozen cities where that is nbd and all of them are better than DC

also not sure why that's a plus

[Total Litigator]

Also the only place in America where seeing somebody near blackout walking down the street at 4pm on Sunday is nbd.

not sure if srs

there are like half a dozen cities where that is nbd and all of them are better than DC

also not sure why that's a plus

Because it makes me chuckle.

[DELG]

Very few chain restaurants in DC actually. As for the other things you mentioned, I just pretend they don't exist.

That being said, I also like DC because I get to work for the fed gov. If I was doing something unrelated to the Federal government, sure, a fair amount of other places I'd probably rather be doing it.

Outted as not recognizing chain restaurants when he sees them

[Total Litigator]

Very few chain restaurants in DC actually. As for the other things you mentioned, I just pretend they don't exist.

That being said, I also like DC because I get to work for the fed gov. If I was doing something unrelated to the Federal government, sure, a fair amount of other places I'd probably rather be doing it.

Outted as not recognizing chain restaurants when he sees them

I guess I'm just not hipster enough to avoid any restaurant that has more than one location.

[DELG]

DC food has gotten a little better but it's mostly just generic and meh. Wilmington, DE has better food per capita. DC should be embarrassed.

[Elston Gunn]

DC food has gotten a little better but it's mostly just generic and meh. Wilmington, DE has better food per capita. DC should be embarrassed.

It's true. It is continuing to get better though.

[dresden doll]

I like DC.

[Total Litigator]

DC food has gotten a little better but it's mostly just generic and meh. Wilmington, DE has better food per capita. DC should be embarrassed.

Haha, well, I've never been to Wilmington, I live around U-street, and if I am surrounded by chain restaurants, then you are right that I'm not recognizing them. A fair amount of these restaurants have 2-3 locations in the DMV, but I don't consider that a chain restaurant.

[jenesaislaw]

I donate to LST of course! http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/donate

[DELG]

I donate to LST of course! http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/donate

I actually set up a monthly autopay to
http://moran-center.org
today.

[Dafaq]

I will never get the attraction of a BL salary in an expensive city like NY, DC or Cal in general. As everyone has seen, 140k goes so much further in Texas or the south. The beauty of having 1k every month in walking around money, plus a suitable place to live outweighs having the expensive big city lights,

[dresden doll]

The beauty of having 1k every month in walking around money, plus a suitable place to live outweighs having the expensive big city lights,

I guess I don't see as much attraction in walking around money if the place where I live is awful as hell.

[DELG]

Not every expensive place sucks though

If we could both get decent legal jobs in seattle, holy shit, we'd take that so fast

[094320]

..

[Anonymous User]

Peoples posts are incredibly short sighted here though. As someone in NYC big law and having a significant other in one of those market-paying but lower COL cities (i.e. chicago, texas, etc.) in identical practice areas, i can tell you that even though my s/o is of a higher class year, i've already had far more experience. In addition, i can at the snap of my finger (which was surprising to me bc i'm very junior) move to one of those markets where my s/o would have a much tougher time. In fact, this is the reason why my s/o can't come to NYC and i'll eventually be moving to my s/o's market.

You can't look at 160 in NY vs 160 in Chicago or Texas and look at it in a vacuum. It'd be like looking at a $10 stock the same way you look every other $10 stock without looking at growth prospects.

You work in NYC for future value not because you want to make 160k now. Once you spend a few years in NYC you'll have something on your resume that people will instantly look at and think "so he can cut it." which is ++++EV

[84651846190]

Peoples posts are incredibly short sighted here though. As someone in NYC big law and having a significant other in one of those market-paying but lower COL cities (i.e. chicago, texas, etc.) in identical practice areas, i can tell you that even though my s/o is of a higher class year, i've already had far more experience. In addition, i can at the snap of my finger (which was surprising to me bc i'm very junior) move to one of those markets where my s/o would have a much tougher time. In fact, this is the reason why my s/o can't come to NYC and i'll eventually be moving to my s/o's market.

You can't look at 160 in NY vs 160 in Chicago or Texas and look at it in a vacuum. It'd be like looking at a $10 stock the same way you look every other $10 stock without looking at growth prospects.

You work in NYC for future value not because you want to make 160k now. Once you spend a few years in NYC you'll have something on your resume that people will instantly look at and think "so he can cut it." which is ++++EV

This is only true for corporate, and maybe securities litigation (although I don't even really know about that). Any other kind of litigation is exactly the same in NYC as it is anywhere else and no one in other kinds of litigation would give a fuck that you're lateraling from NYC as opposed to any other market.

[de5igual]

I will never get the attraction of a BL salary in an expensive city like NY, DC or Cal in general. As everyone has seen, 140k goes so much further in Texas or the south. The beauty of having 1k every month in walking around money, plus a suitable place to live outweighs having the expensive big city lights,

Now that I live here, I'm realizing this whole Texas = ridiculously cheap thing is a big flame. Sure, you can get a giant mcmansion out in the burbs here for less than the cost of a shitty run down apartment in MFH, but chances are you're not going to want to live out in the burbs. If you're inside the loop Houston or uptown Dallas, your rent is as high as it would be in, say, Chicago (maybe even more since you need to factor in car costs).

[Anonymous User]

The above is somewhat true though I've heard if you're at a top litigation firm in NYC it absolutely does help being from NYC because people know you can put up with NYC hours and NYC demands so it's a badge of honor type thing - people know you have the work ethic.

[sundance95]

^ So "NYC = signaling that you are willing to work to death without complaint" is a good thing? If so I don't get it.

[rickgrimes69]

^ So "NYC = signaling that you are willing to work to death without complaint" is a good thing? If so I don't get it.

what don't you get about that

[Blindmelon]

Peoples posts are incredibly short sighted here though. As someone in NYC big law and having a significant other in one of those market-paying but lower COL cities (i.e. chicago, texas, etc.) in identical practice areas, i can tell you that even though my s/o is of a higher class year, i've already had far more experience. In addition, i can at the snap of my finger (which was surprising to me bc i'm very junior) move to one of those markets where my s/o would have a much tougher time. In fact, this is the reason why my s/o can't come to NYC and i'll eventually be moving to my s/o's market.

You can't look at 160 in NY vs 160 in Chicago or Texas and look at it in a vacuum. It'd be like looking at a $10 stock the same way you look every other $10 stock without looking at growth prospects.

You work in NYC for future value not because you want to make 160k now. Once you spend a few years in NYC you'll have something on your resume that people will instantly look at and think "so he can cut it." which is ++++EV

Working brutal hours in a high COL city in order to have better exit options to the city you could have just started in - sort if silly, no? Then again, corporate is weird. I'm in lit. and it depends way more what firm you work for than which market you work in.

As for salary, I usually pump 5k/month into stock, 1,200 or so/month in 401k. The rest is living expenses, etc. I save more permonth than I used to in my old job per year.

[First Offense]

I will never get the attraction of a BL salary in an expensive city like NY, DC or Cal in general. As everyone has seen, 140k goes so much further in Texas or the south. The beauty of having 1k every month in walking around money, plus a suitable place to live outweighs having the expensive big city lights,

You don't get how someone would not want to live in the South? I wouldn't care if TX/South paid double NYC/DC - I'll take those over the South every day and twice on Sunday.