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How would i go about doing this. How do you find if a specific firm pays salary.

Specifically "bracewell giuliani" Austin location. Other locations? Does a firm always pay the same no matter which office location? (in the U.S)

With all of these schools "Averaging $160,000), some firms must being paying a fair amount more. How do I know which ones?

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The starting pay at a firm's various offices seems to be pretty uniform, but the raise scales can be quite different.

I didnt realize that the firm was so small, 2 2L's and only 1 got an offer. I thought that bracewell giuliani was much larger

There are websites that list the firm, it's location, & it's lock-step raises. Sorry I didn't bookmark one (I'm just assuming there's more than one, but there's def at least one).

Search!

NALP is your FRIEND, FRIEND.

jt1341 wrote:I didnt realize that the firm was so small, 2 2L's and only 1 got an offer. I thought that bracewell giuliani was much larger

Don't plan on getting a job in Austin unless you're from Austin and you are a terrific person all around. I know that sounds a little corny, but the local firms get some cats with the top grades, graduate degrees, work experience, great interviewing skills, ties to the community, you name it. You cannot guarantee yourself a big law job in Austin no matter what you do, barring making best friends with the hiring partner, I suppose. Even then, market forces or the hiring partner's supervisors could intervene.

Well i go to UT now, will be attending UVA in the fall (but will of course still have my connections to Austin). My girlfriends parents live here, and are VERY good friends with an associate there. I was hoping this could get me into at least an interview and maybe some help getting a job, but i guess not! Then again i will have to see what my grades turn out like before i assume anything.

I had no idea Austin was so competitive... Is it just because there are so few jobs here?

jt1341 wrote:Well i go to UT now, will be attending UVA in the fall (but will of course still have my connections to Austin). My girlfriends parents live here, and are VERY good friends with an associate there. I was hoping this could get me into at least an interview and maybe some help getting a job, but i guess not! Then again i will have to see what my grades turn out like before i assume anything.

I had no idea Austin was so competitive... Is it just because there are so few jobs here?

This, and because it's such a cool place that many people want to stay here. I'm not sure what your chances will be coming out of UVA. While UVA is a respectable school, you'll be giving up opportunities to network with the Austin attorneys. They frequently host happy hours or lunches. I'm really not sure who got the Austin Bracewell job this summer (probably someone from UT). I wouldn't be surprised if they post on this forum. I interviewed with Bracewell in San Antonio, and I really liked the firm. Good luck to you. If you have a connection, milk it. Even if he can't get you something in Austin, just getting your foot in the door with ANY Bracewell office is worth the effort. You just never know how much you'll need those connections down the road.

Edit: The hiring market is very tight right now. Forget what you heard. You MUST be at the top of your class, and you MUST develop connections and people skills, starting NOW. I wish I could go back and do it again. I managed to land on my feet, but things could have gone oh so different. Bracewell didn't hire me.

AP-375 wrote:With all of these schools "Averaging $160,000), some firms must being paying a fair amount more. How do I know which ones?

lol

Which schools are "averaging $160,000"?

There are firms that pay more than that for first-year associates. I managed to get an offer from such a firm, but it would be unwise for me to name the firm on TLS. I'm not even sure how you could go about researching something like that because NALP doesn't have statistics for every firm, particularly the boutique firms that are likely to pay above market. I heard about my firm's salary by talking to law students who live in the larger markets. Oh, and I got insanely lucky. There's always that.

AP-375 wrote:With all of these schools "Averaging $160,000), some firms must being paying a fair amount more. How do I know which ones?

Nah bro.

$160,000 is the median among those who report their income.

It's a lie bro. A lie.

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dood wrote:there are some special boutiques that will break out of lockstep above market. edelson is rumored to give out $200K bonuses on top of market. plus they got wiis and ping pong tables.

- but for the most part its lockstep at big firms which is $160K, or a model that very very closely resembles lockstep but "accounts for performance". bonuses vary from $5K to $35K for 1st year associates.

- then there are some mid law firms in regional 2nd tier cities like cleveland, milwaukee, pitts, philly, orange county (CA), northern VA, jersey, etc that pay around $100K

- finally there is shit law solo practioners or insurance defense which, as far as i know (i have not researched this area of law), pay either with poatatoes or $40K a year with no benefits. so at this point u shoulda just stuck with engineering, BRO.

I was an SA for an insurance defense firm in a major city that paid $125K for first-year associates. It was a small, two-office firm, but it was very difficult to get hired there.

dood wrote:i predict within 3 years: NYC to $190K, for real. in 2001/2002, after 9/11 and the tech bubble bust, they said the job market would never recover to like 97/98/99 levels, but by 03, ny was indeed at $160K.

hahahhahahahahaa. hahahaha. ha. hahaha. haha. ha. haa.

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dood wrote:

JazzOne wrote: I was an SA for an insurance defense firm in a major city that paid $125K for first-year associates. It was a small, two-office firm, but it was very difficult to get hired there.

i stand corrected.

Just to clarify, I have also heard from partners at other firms that insurance defense work has been drying up. One partner in particular told me that many firms have moved into labor/employment law to compensate for the shift away from insurance litigation. All of this pertains to Texas markets, so if you live anywhere else, you should probably just ignore me.

ITT: people at the top of the class at UT pine for Bracewell & Giuliani.

Yowza. Things must be rough down there.

RVP11 wrote:ITT: people at the top of the class at UT pine for Bracewell & Giuliani. Yowza. Things must be rough down there.

We were mostly talking about the Austin office, which is much tougher than the firm overall, but yeah, things are rough.

Edit: Also, I should mention that I am much happier with my actual offer than I would have been with an offer from Bracewell. So, it's not really fair to say I'm "pining" for Bracewell. I was definitely disappointed, though.

What about firms not in NALP? A lot of them are sketchy, but some elite firms (especially smaller ones) apparently just don't list in NALP because they don't want to bother paying the fees. I suspect the answer is mostly "if not in NALP, probably way below market pay", but is there a way to use Martindale or something to find good-paying smaller firms? I'm an offer-less above median T14 student sobbing to myself as I page through midlaw/small-law. My hope is that there is some subset of firms that pays well but is still hiring. (Optimistically, one advantage of way-underperforming stats due to lousy market selection and the like is that I might theoretically be especially competitive for remaining positions which are mostly being targeted by those who are below-median or otherwise got shut out by stats.) I want to go into government or public interest, so I don't even necessarily care much about prestige (because ideally I'll never have to lateral), but I want the monies to make my negative monies go away.

dood wrote:i predict within 3 years: NYC to $190K, for real. in 2001/2002, after 9/11 and the tech bubble bust, they said the job market would never recover to like 97/98/99 levels, but by 03, ny was indeed at $160K.

lulz

RVP11 wrote:ITT: people at the top of the class at UT pine for Bracewell & Giuliani.

Yowza. Things must be rough down there.

umad?

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