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I have offers from top firms in both Chicago and St. Louis. I like both cities and both firms a lot, so I feel like I'm basically weighing quality of life vs. quality of work/exit options. Are there any other factors I should be considering? Anyone else made this decision before? I don't have family in either city, so that's not a factor for me.

Also, I'd rather not post the firms bc I'm afraid I would out myself, but if someone thinks they can give much better advice with that, then I'd pm you.

Chicago is the best city in the world. No brainer.

fwiw....i live in St. Louis right now.

what type of law are you looking to get into?

in all honesty, nobody wants to come to a city like st. louis like the way they do to Chi, NY, DC, etc. there really isn't much of an appeal. most come here for the job. or if they have family.

with that said, you do have a lot of advantages in stl- MUCH lower cost of living. decent law firms with a lot of variety of practice areas; daily commute isn't bad. weather is a whole lot better than chi.

there are also a couple of good industries here; boeing for aerospace; monsanto for ag/bio-chem; decent start-up ventures

other things to consider- this is a baseball town, so if you are cubs fan, watch out

If the STL firm is Bryan Cave, I say take it. The benefit of Bryan Cave is that they get a lot of work from places like NY and DC farmed back to the STL headquarters. As a result, you get substantive work of the quality you would usually need to be a major market to find, but you don't have to work the crazy NY/DC hours. Combine that ability to have more of a work/life balance with the lower cost of living, and STL is the easy option.

At any other STL firm, though, you'll be doing pretty crap work, at least compared to Chicago.

Unless you have some serious StL ties or are married (or have kids) I think this is a no brainer.

StL is a very insular city. It's hard to meet people and there's a dearth of eligible, comparably educated singles. People in Chicago have way more fun. In StL, you'll need to pay to live in one of a couple select neighborhoods. It's not necessarily a ton cheaper than Chicago if you want any walkable amenities and want a secure place (or secure parking) in a good StL neighborhood for singles.

Unless you know you want StL, I don't see this as being a close call.

I faced the same choice. Pm me with specifics and I'll be happy to tell you why I made the choice I did.