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Husband considering taking a job in New Haven. Coming from another part of the country, what prospects are there for litigators ~5 years out of law school, ideally in gov't, non profit world. AG's office. DAs. USAO. Any of these really good offices? Better to commute from Hartford? NYC?

Totally unfamiliar with the area, and guidance would help. Thanks.

Interested in the USAO in New Haven. Anyone have info on the office? Sense of the docket? The attorneys? Lifestyle?

I can't speak to the CT legal market, but w.r.t. commuting - why would you want to commute from either Hartford or NYC? New Haven's not an expensive place to live, and there are also many family-friendly towns close by - Hamden, Orange and Branford being three of the closest and most popular options. Are your own job options limited to Hartford/NYC?

Hartford is certainly closer to New Haven than NYC. It's 40 miles away, meaning if you were to live in the middle, you could each have a ~20 mile commute. Also, housing costs halfway between Hartford and New Haven - i.e., rural/exurban CT - are likely to be rock-bottom, even cheaper than living in New Haven.

By contrast, NYC is 80 miles away from New Haven, so even if you were to live in the middle, you'd still each have a ~40-mile commute. Also, the "middle" means Stamford or some other coastal Fairfield County town - all of which are surprisingly expensive (much more so than living in/near New Haven). (Or maybe not so surprising, when you consider that Stamford is next door to some of the wealthiest towns in the country - Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan.)

IMO, the only geographical advantage to living between NYC and New Haven is that it'd be possible to commute by train - either to NYC or to New Haven. You'd pretty much have to commute by car if you were to live between New Haven and Hartford. (There is a new commuter rail service linking New Haven and Hartford that just started a month or two ago, but the service frequency is, I believe, not great.)