What do you do with your BIG LAW salary? Forum

[Blindmelon]

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.

I still actually like DC, but all Washingtonians should be embarrassed of how fucking shitty pizza is there. There is better pizza in West Virginia than in DC. (And no, a random brick oven place doesn't count. Everywhere has one of those.)

I've found two Pizza places in DC that I love. Try Vace in cleveland park and (though not DC) Stromboli's in Bethesda.

Pizza Paradiso is very good. To say otherwise is just incorrect. There's one in Dupont and Georgetown. This is a place where you sit.
For drunken slices there's that shady place on H Street that's cash only and no receipt. I forget the name of it but the slices are enormous.

Jumbo slice? Never go sober - its not good. Drunk, its delicious.

[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.

I still actually like DC, but all Washingtonians should be embarrassed of how fucking shitty pizza is there. There is better pizza in West Virginia than in DC. (And no, a random brick oven place doesn't count. Everywhere has one of those.)

The pizza in Delaware is just shockingly bad.

Ugh, now I want to fly 3,000 miles to get Track Town: http://www.tracktownoncampus.com.

We need to institute a rule against bringing up track town unless we're in Oregon already

[Holly Golightly]

Jumbo slice? Never go sober - its not good. Drunk, its delicious.

Yeah, jumbo slices are wonderful when wasted. But that doesn't make them good pizza.

I will have to check out those other places people have mentioned.

[rayiner]

I still actually like DC, but all Washingtonians should be embarrassed of how fucking shitty pizza is there. There is better pizza in West Virginia than in DC. (And no, a random brick oven place doesn't count. Everywhere has one of those.)

The pizza in Delaware is just shockingly bad.

Ugh, now I want to fly 3,000 miles to get Track Town: http://www.tracktownoncampus.com.

We need to institute a rule against bringing up track town unless we're in Oregon already

That's the thing about D.C. I go to Eugene, OR, twice, and I'm craving 2 of the 3 places where we ate there. I grew up in D.C. and there's one restaurant I'd go out of my way to go back to.

[dresden doll]

Thankfully, I'm a food prole so these sorts of things don't bother me at all.

[sundance95]

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?

This. If you could have worked in the secondary from the beginning, then you would never have had to prove that you could 'cut it' by working NYC hours in the first place.

[XxSpyKEx]

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

Lol you realize the likelihood that you'll be working in biglaw for more than 5 years is incredibly low, right? Probably makes more sense to think of biglaw as a short-term stint that allows your to repay your student loans/stash away cash for retirement. It's a lot easier to do that if you're in a biglaw in a lower COL city than in NYC. Also, I concur with what others said about it being silly to work brutal hours in a high COL city in order to have better exit options to the city you could have just started in.

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).

Chicago is reeallllyyy cheap compared to NYC or DC, so that's honestly not that bad. Plus your take home pay is a lot higher since you avoid state income taxes. If you don't own property and live in Texas, it's actually a really good deal.

Oh yeah, if we're speaking practically, I understand why people live in NYC/SF/Chicago instead of places like Minneapolis. You're gonna go where you can get a job. I was just talking about the merits of each sort of city. Assuming you could find a job in, say, both Chicago and Minneapolis, I don't think the merits of "big-city life" necessarily override the advantages of living somewhere like Minneapolis.

I don't think Minneapolis is significantly cheaper than Chicago. As long as you don't live in River North/Streeterville/a downtown highrise, living in Chicago is not very expensive.

Even if you do live in one of those downtown Chicago options, living in Chicago is still not very expensive.

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.

I still actually like DC, but all Washingtonians should be embarrassed of how fucking shitty pizza is there. There is better pizza in West Virginia than in DC. (And no, a random brick oven place doesn't count. Everywhere has one of those.)

There's a real lack of quality mexican food too. I only found one passable mexican joint while I was in DC, and it was way the fuck out of DC.

[brotherdarkness]

I haven't read all of the previous pages, but if we're debating major markets I think LA deserves mention. Sure, the traffic sucks, but (a) the weather is amazing, (b) there are tons of great restaurants, (c) there's always something to do, (d) COL is lower than NYC and SF, and (e) California.

[wiz]

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).

Where the hell are you living? Most apartments in Houston run you like 1-1.5k. Not to mention the cost of food/everything else is pretty damn cheap compared to everywhere else. And that sweet no state income tax.

TX biglaw ftw.

[180kickflip]

How does Boston stack up to these places? From what I've seen, it's cheaper than NY. No city wage tax, decent places to eat, very walkable, lots to do.

[fountino]

This person complaining about Texas COL hasn't looked very hard for a reasonably priced apartment. Seriously, get on some generic apartment finder website and look for Uptown Dallas apartments in the $1000-$1500 range. You have your pick of two dozen very nice, new apartments within 2 miles of where most of the firms are located. Half these places have big kitchens with granite counters, walk-in closets, walk-out balconies blah-blah-blah. And these are summer prices, which tend to be higher than other times of the year.

[de5igual]

1300-1500 for a 1 br is cheaper than NYC but is still a far cry from "cheap" when you factor in the obligatory car costs

[03152016]

I pay $1500 for a surprisingly reasonable 1 bedroom by Sunset Park in Brooklyn. It's not hip or anything, but it's an easy commute into the city and it's way cheaper than Williamsburg or Park Slope

[rickgrimes69]

I haven't read all of the previous pages, but if we're debating major markets I think LA deserves mention. Sure, the traffic sucks, but (a) the weather is amazing, (b) there are tons of great restaurants, (c) there's always something to do, (d) COL is lower than NYC and SF, and (e) California.

The debate isn't over markets, it's over cities, and L.A. doesn't qualify

[dixiecupdrinking]

How does Boston stack up to these places? From what I've seen, it's cheaper than NY. No city wage tax, decent places to eat, very walkable, lots to do.

Boston is charmingly unhip. Nice place to live. Somewhat provincial though I think that complaint is overblown.

[84651846190]

NYC > SF.

I saw a bum in the middle of a nice part of SF taking a shit on the sidewalk. Oh, what a progressive, interesting city!

[ymmv]

NYC > SF.

I saw a bum in the middle of a nice part of SF taking a shit on the sidewalk. Oh, what a progressive, interesting city!

Name one great U.S. city where you won't find droves of homeless people doing homeless people things.

[BPLawl]

YMMV, but if your with a midtown firm you can still get reasonably commutable apartments/rooms in Astoria/Steinway for ~$1000/month.

[sundance95]

NYC > SF.

I saw a bum in the middle of a nice part of SF taking a shit on the sidewalk. Oh, what a progressive, interesting city!

Name one great U.S. city where you won't find droves of homeless people doing homeless people things.

Yeah, I'm not sure that one can distinguish NYC from SF on the basis of homelessness.

[rayiner]

NYC > SF.

I saw a bum in the middle of a nice part of SF taking a shit on the sidewalk. Oh, what a progressive, interesting city!

Name one great U.S. city where you won't find droves of homeless people doing homeless people things.

I'd see a few people asking for money on Lex near GCT, but they didn't look homeless. Not like the aggressive bums in SF.

[ymmv]

NYC > SF.

I saw a bum in the middle of a nice part of SF taking a shit on the sidewalk. Oh, what a progressive, interesting city!

Name one great U.S. city where you won't find droves of homeless people doing homeless people things.

I'd see a few people asking for money on Lex near GCT, but they didn't look homeless. Not like the aggressive bums in SF.

Well, TBF they've been pretty aggressively shipped out of any remotely touristy areas of Manhattan. OTOH there is practically a small town's worth of them in the area surrounding Bellevue, and you'll find plenty in the other boroughs.

[Hipster but Athletic]

Have any of you NYC bros thought about Greenwich or Stamford living? Or like, Rye, Scarsdale, etc...

[rayiner]

Have any of you NYC bros thought about Greenwich or Stamford living? Or like, Rye, Scarsdale, etc...

I lived in New Rochelle. If you work on the east side around midtown, and you're married and not trying to bring people home after a night cruising bars, it works pretty well. The Metro North runs like clockwork, and 32-35 minutes to GCT is about the same as coming in from Brooklyn, except you're in a more comfortable less packed train.

[Hipster but Athletic]

Ya I did new haven line for a summer and i preferred that hour each way to my 30 minute drive I do down here in the Dirty. Can either sleep or chill with coffee. Not sure I would have picked New Roc City but that does make the commute even easier.

Does big lawl not require you to live within a proximity of the office? I think someone told me that once.

It'd suck though if you were in the FiDi or another dumb place. Also it costs $300/month

[twenty 8]

House and furnishings and a car. Wondering if other first year (free-rider) associates also went this route or did you opt for something else? I am fortunate to live where there is no state income tax and not living in the reportedly expensive NE, so that helps.