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Hey yall,

I received an offer from a midwestern firm that is a regional biglaw firm that does a lot of transactional work but is barely in the NLJ250. I will be in the transactional group. The problem is that my significant other is in medical school right now and wants to do her residency and eventually locate out in the west coast.

Will I have career prospects out on the west coast after 2 or 3 years if I take a barely nlj250 firm?

Several years of experience anywhere, with a good pedigree, will give you options. It's hard to know where opps will be in advance, but you learn a ton during those years, and mid-levels are pretty valuable anywhere. You can teach them how to do things your way without hand-holding, and they tend to be cheap. The fact that it's NLJ250 also means that you will be exposed to fairly quality transactional work, and get a good base for a lateral elsewhere later.

This firm way overemphasizes the importance of prestige. Are you a 0L? Or a law school student? I'm a practicing lawyer in case you want to discuss this from that perspective.

What the above says is true and also remember that you've got an entire career ahead of you. If you do good work and acquire valuable skills, in 2-3 years you might lateral to someone like Squire Sanders or Bryan Cave in their midwest offices and then after another year or two, transfer to their west coast office. No guarantees on either step working as planned, but every goal doesn't haven to be achieved in one step.