. Forum

[Anonymous User]

.

[Anonymous User]

I enjoy living in Florida and I don’t really have an interest in going to NYC, but I’m worried that I’m missing out on career opportunities. I know it sounds pathetic, but I’m self-conscious because this outcome is less prestigious than a higher-ranked Vault firm in NYC.

This depends on your career goals. If you have no desire to leave Florida, then I am struggling to understand why you would not take the Florida job. If you want maximum portability and intend to move across the country, then maybe the calculus would be different.

You say you are worried about missing out on career opportunities. Why? What benefit will those career opportunities provide you? If you do not intend to change markets, I am, again, struggling to understand why the choice here is not obvious.

Also, it is in general way easier to get a NYC job than a FL job given that the former are more numerous. Perhaps my perspective is different coming from Columbia/NYU, but a generic NY law firm (i.e., anything but Wachtell) is perhaps the least "prestigious" outcome possible as far as markets go.

In your shoes, I would pick the FL job with no hesitation, but I also find NY vastly overrated, toxic in terms of work culture, and unappealing generally.

[nixy]

What is the alternative? Are you deciding between this offer and a NYC offer? If you are, then I’d think you have to identify what you want to do long term and which offer gives you the best opportunity to do that. What you want to do includes where you want to live your life as well as the kind of work, though.

If you’re not choosing between two offers, what does it matter if NYC is more “prestigious?”

In any case, if you do have two offers, prestige is in the eye of the beholder. Prestige doesn’t make up for hating where you live. There’s also no law that says you must strive for the maximum prestige. How are you actually harmed by being in a slightly less globally prestigious job within in a white collar high paid profession?

I guess I’d also ask: what actual specific real career opportunities do you think you’d be missing out on by not going to New York? Not generic “more sophisticated work” or “bigger deals,” but something more concrete.

(The main one I can think of from what you’ve said is getting paid more money, which is a reasonable concern, but given that NYC is so much more expensive than Florida, that could be a wash.)

[Anonymous User]

As others have indicated, it really is what you want, long-term. Is it more career opportunities, being able to easier go abroad, to CA, etc. than maybe do NY. I think financially speaking FL makes more sense. Maybe you won't make as much money later down the timeline, but FL is cheaper, so you'll probably still have more at the end of each year.

I honestly don't know how much more portable a NY job is compared to a FL job (like, maybe you want to go to DC later on and work there as a government litigator, and I honestly don't know how much harder that would be coming from FL), but maybe others can opine on this. But from my perspective, if you like FL, just stay: you'll probably work less hours, have more money at the end of it all, and again, you like it there.

[alawyer2018]

OP is also talking about a litigation position in FL vs. NY. Unless OP would be staying in NY for 10+ years, I highly doubt "business portability" would even be a consideration for the NY position, whereas in FL on that same time horizon, I suspect OP would actually have a real opportunity to start building a book of business. From my perspective this isn't a close call -- FL is the easy winner.

[Anonymous User]

.

[nixy]

I don’t think being paid less would prevent you from lateraling to a true market-paying firm later; that’s going to depend on what experience you get and what other firms need. If being paid less means you’re at a firm that wouldn’t get you the kind of experience you need to lateral later, that might be a concern, but that’s still going to be about the firm and the experience it gets you, not the pay.

If you definitely want to be in Florida long term and can’t identify any specific job that you need to go to NY to do to get the kind of job you want in Florida, I’d probably just go to Florida. A lot of success (especially for building a book of business) is based on who you get to know, and being in a community longer just helps in getting to know people. If you go to NYC for a few years and then go to Florida and want to make partner there (since you seem focused on firm work), you’ll have less time to build up the relationships you need to build, or will have to make up that lost time.

I mean, if you really wanted to go to NYC for a few years that would be fine too, but it sounds like you don’t want you. If you want to be in Florida long-term it’s totally defensible to start there and work on making yourself a big fish in that specific pond.

[alawyer2018]

Have you considered the fact that you'd have to take both the NY and FL bars if you start in NY? Generally speaking, you're also likely to get more substantive experience earlier on at the FL firm. If you know you want to be in FL long term, again, this is an easy decision.

[The Lsat Airbender]

If the only upside you can think of is maybe lateralling to full, uncompressed Milbank scale down the road, the question here isn't really "is it worth handicapping my career prospects to be in FL as soon as possible", but "is it worth handicapping my career prospects to maybe make somewhat more money several years in the future".

And no, few will agree. You want to be a lawyer in Florida, you have an offer in-hand from what sounds like one of the top firms in that market. Case closed.

[Wubbles]

There aren't that many v100 firms in Florida so you're already in with one of the top firms in the market, you don't want to be in NYC for any particular reason, and the other firm sounds to be a random v50 which even on paper doesn't seem like it would be as competitive or prestigious as a top FL firm. Easy choice, case closed, enjoy Florida

[drwatson2573]

There aren't that many v100 firms in Florida so you're already in with one of the top firms in the market, you don't want to be in NYC for any particular reason, and the other firm sounds to be a random v50 which even on paper doesn't seem like it would be as competitive or prestigious as a top FL firm. Easy choice, case closed, enjoy Florida

No state income tax and way better weather are also nice touches. Go with FL.

[2013]

Also, people didn’t touch upon this, but you could start at whatever firm you’re at (I’m assuming it is Foley) and apply to Holland & Knight next year. That way you will make DPW scale in Florida.

But agree with all of the above. It makes absolutely no sense to turn down a high paying V100 in Florida just because the NY job is marginally better. Firms may be skeptical when you try to come down later.