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Question for all the biglaw litigators out there. Would you forego biglaw for either of these city law departments? The first starts attorneys straight out of LS at 100-110K and people tend to work their way up to high 100s low 200s (at the very least) over their careers. A few high up supervisors make 300-400K. The second city law dept probably starts attorneys out of LS at 70-80k and then people usually progress to 100K around 5 years out. Salaries seem to get stifled around low to mid 100s, and supervisors make 150K to 250K. A few people make high 200s. Medium COL area (slightly less than Chi, slightly more than Hou, significantly less than NYC & DC). Other considerations: I have a huge debt load (like 300K) but my school has a good LRAP program that would help pay it down on a 10 yr plan until I fully commit to PSLF (albeit with me paying potentially significant amounts, depending on my salary, while I get the LRAP benefit).

I feel like the more substantive work, benefits, morale of public service, and hours would make up for the lost income. Any thoughts otherwise?

If I had 300k of debt, I would not want to work biglaw. Having to pay off 300k while in the junior years of an ultra stressful job sounds awful. I'd go to the gov't and not look back.

What I heard about the NYC Law litigation departments:

Hands-on litigation really early on but the issues aren't complex and quickly get routine/boring.
Stress level is actually pretty high. They seem perpetually understaffed, though not severely so.
Pay increases are nominal and opportunities for advancement are pretty limited.
Some people that went in planning to use PSLF/LRAP ended up leaving for a private firm because the pay gap is so big.

My own observation:
An annoying % of NYC Law mid-levels (from the ~C/O 2010) are very fond of reminding me they were victims of the financial crisis.
There is a not-insignificant number in the department who just really really wanted to litigate and gave up corp big law opportunities.

Probably easier to start in biglaw and end up in muni law, compared to the reverse. My county (Seattle) hires largely from biglaw for its civil division. Pay is more close to the second office you mentioned, we cap out at about $145k for deputies, start at $70k and have $10k raises every year for the first 4-5 years.

PLSF is nice, but if you change your mind about public interest partway into the 10 years, you'll be either trapped or screwed. My overall student debt has gone up since I went on IBR, and now I need to stay in government. I think you have more flexibility starting off in biglaw and then looking for muni/city/county/state government exit options after a few years. Also, there is a risk about PLSF not being funded by the time you need it in 10 years.

JOThompson wrote:Probably easier to start in biglaw and end up in muni law, compared to the reverse. My county (Seattle) hires largely from biglaw for its civil division. Pay is more close to the second office you mentioned, we cap out at about $145k for deputies, start at $70k and have $10k raises every year for the first 4-5 years.

PLSF is nice, but if you change your mind about public interest partway into the 10 years, you'll be either trapped or screwed. My overall student debt has gone up since I went on IBR, and now I need to stay in government. I think you have more flexibility starting off in biglaw and then looking for muni/city/county/state government exit options after a few years. Also, there is a risk about PLSF not being funded by the time you need it in 10 years.

OP here. While in a void I would go to biglaw first, the thing is my school has a LRAP program where, if you pay down a significant portion of your salary, they will give you an award that would cover the difference needed keep up on 10 yr payments. So if I made 100,000, if I pay in like 20,000 they will cover the difference needed to help me payoff my loans on a 10 yr schedule. And you can get out of the program and go into the private sector without paying back awards I believe (apart from clerkships, which are treated different). The down side is that the number you need to contribute starts to get significantly higher the more you make so after a few years I’d have to choose whether to roll the dice on PSLF (hopefully the negative amort would be minimal by then) or refi and pay down the 150-200K of debt remaining (which sucks but then again I’d probably be making 125-175 depending on which office).

Double post

That sounds like a decent incentive, but still locks you in for 10 years. Perhaps even more than someone who is only relying on the traditional 10-year PLSF. I'd probably look closely at how your school's loan repayment assistance phases out with income, and compare it to the steps/raises you'd expect to receive over the course of ten years at either muni law department. You might find that you're getting very little benefit after a few raises.

I think I'd still pick Biglaw for the career flexibility.