As far as pay difference, Proskauer increases at 5K increments, whereas Jones Day has the black box system that still pays most people market anyway. So by the 3rd year, a JD associate is making 185K, whereas the NJ person is making 155. So it certainly isn't an entirely insignificant difference, though the COL of Jersey is obviously much lower.Blindmelon wrote:I'd go for Prosk. personally. While JD is a better name overall, its a bloated massive firm in which you may get that lost feeling as you said. It seems like you want to be in Jersey, and the COL difference will be decent enough to warrant a difference in pay (assuming its not huge). I'm biased though, as I wouldn't want to work in Manhatten (too annoying/expensive).
Something also to think about, if you work at Prosk, you will be able to do employment stuff - you may not be able to at JD. If JD's employment group is 20 people, they may not want new associates and there may not be enough work for another person. Just because a firm does a type of work, doesn't mean that you can do that work there.
Interesting point about getting into the labor & employment group. I will get in touch with the people I met to find out how easy it is to break into the group. Jones Day doesn't assign people to groups until about a year into their career with the firm, so I'd imagine that, if you spend most of your year forming connections with that particular group and it really matches your interests, they will bring you in. But needs of the firm would obviously trump all. So I will def look into this.
And its more that I am entirely fine with Jersey, rather than a particularized desire to be there. I'm intentionally framing the issue of geography as a neutral issue on which I have no opinion, and thats pretty reflective of reality.
