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Hey all,

I'm looking for some help here. I am a 2l with offers for next summer at K&E NY, STB NY, and Jones Day Dallas. I am interested primarily in litigation...

I am in Washington University in St. Louis. I have family in NY (both mine and wife's) although that's as much of a selling point as a turn off. The cost of living in Dallas is way cheaper and that means paying off student loans way sooner. Jones Day also has a program where its associates are lent to the prosecutor's office once a week for 9-12 months (i think in their 2-4 years or so) so that they can do misdemeanor jury trials. K&E NY has excellent litigation training.

I am from Memphis and love the South. I never really planned on living in NY and truthfully dont really want to. I did my undergrad there and vowed I would not live there after law school. Of course, now I dont know if I can turn down V10 NY Big Law. Would I be stupid for doing that? I think I'll love Dallas but I have no idea if my wife and I will want to be there forever. Will I have mobility coming from Jones Day Dallas?

What to do? Please help.

If you are settled on litigation, Kirkland is your firm.

It really depends on your goals.

If you are a prestige-oriented, gotta be the best type, you should probably suck it up and pack for New York. On the other hand, if you're okay with giving up a marginally better shot at working on marginally more prestigious cases and your ire for New York is really that serious, make way for Jones Day. Jones Day is very respectable and, being BIG, even for a biglaw firm, the name recognition will carry.

If I were you, I'd run with Jones Day. But that's because I'm quite debt averse and very New York-averse. I don't think it's at all crazy, unless you know you need to be the next Cuomo or something, to pick JD-Dallas over two objectively more prestigious firms.

Does your wife have much of a preference as to place? If both of y'all have strong anti-NY preferences, I think it's completely reasonable to pick JD-Dallas.

You want litigation? Kirkland hands down. Suck it up for a few years, maybe you'll like it and decide to stay. If not, KE will give you excellent exit options. Kirkland pays above market, so the argument that you could pay off student loans sooner might not have as much weight if it were most other NYC firms. It does have weight though.

Not everyone is a fan of NYC but I find it hard to believe that you truly hate it. There's so much to do and see. Granted I've never lived there, only visited so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Anonymous User wrote:Hey all,

I'm looking for some help here. I am a 2l with offers for next summer at K&E NY, STB NY, and Jones Day Dallas. I am interested primarily in litigation...

I am in Washington University in St. Louis. I have family in NY (both mine and wife's) although that's as much of a selling point as a turn off. The cost of living in Dallas is way cheaper and that means paying off student loans way sooner. Jones Day also has a program where its associates are lent to the prosecutor's office once a week for 9-12 months (i think in their 2-4 years or so) so that they can do misdemeanor jury trials. K&E NY has excellent litigation training.

I am from Memphis and love the South. I never really planned on living in NY and truthfully dont really want to. I did my undergrad there and vowed I would not live there after law school. Of course, now I dont know if I can turn down V10 NY Big Law. Would I be stupid for doing that? I think I'll love Dallas but I have no idea if my wife and I will want to be there forever. Will I have mobility coming from Jones Day Dallas?

What to do? Please help.

Fellow WUSTLer who had a CB with K&E NY. Seemed fine, fancy and important and all that, but I got the impression that they were going to work me to death if I wanted to stick around for any length of time. Personally I'd go south, COL's unbeatable, they probably won't work you aaaall the way to death, and JD's great for lit. Of course, I'm a southerner too and might be biased. Congrats on the results man, that's fantastic.

decaf735 wrote:You want litigation? Kirkland hands down. Suck it up for a few years, maybe you'll like it and decide to stay. If not, KE will give you excellent exit options. Kirkland pays above market, so the argument that you could pay off student loans sooner might not have as much weight if it were most other NYC firms. It does have weight though.

Not everyone is a fan of NYC but I find it hard to believe that you truly hate it. There's so much to do and see. Granted I've never lived there, only visited so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Absolutely right.

Plus, if you and Kirkland get along well, they will definitely take care of you. They're very good to rising star associates, and opportunities abound.