Top Law Schools

SO, I visited NYC for the fifth time a few days ago, and I just cannot see myself wanting to live or work there. Everyone keeps saying it's the best place to start a career. How true is this?

Also, I really have no ties to anywhere to speak of as my family moved around a lot. Does this mean that for better or worse, it's NYC for me?

Are you a current law student? It depends on your school...you haven't given us enough information to work with.

Its retarded to go there if you don't want to. But it's the center of the law in the U.S.. The top 8 Vault firms are headquartered there, and probably something like 30 of the top 40 firms have their HQ there. But there are plenty of lawyers making huge $, doing interesting work, and doing things much harder to do in NYC than other places (become a judge, open your own firm) elsewhere.

californiauser wrote:Are you a current law student? It depends on your school...you haven't given us enough information to work with.

I will be starting Northwestern this fall.

So you can target Chicago and anywhere you can demonstrate ties, like undergrad.

If you'd be miserable in New York, it doesn't make sense to torture yourself -- your unhappiness would probably be reflected in your work anyway.

Hutz_and_Goodman wrote:Its retarded to go there if you don't want to. But it's the center of the law in the U.S.. The top 8 Vault firms are headquartered there, and probably something like 30 of the top 40 firms have their HQ there. But there are plenty of lawyers making huge $, doing interesting work, and doing things much harder to do in NYC than other places (become a judge, open your own firm) elsewhere.

Without getting into a discussion on Vault rankings, NYC is the epicenter for transactional work, and if you want that, not liking NY will not limit your career, but will narrow your opportunities. On the other hand, Chicago (or any major market) is no slouch either, so it's not the end of the world.
With respect to litigation, NY is a lot less important (though still #1)

Now if you were interested in Ibanking, that'd be a different story

Purplebook wrote:SO, I visited NYC for the fifth time a few days ago, and I just cannot see myself wanting to live or work there. Everyone keeps saying it's the best place to start a career. How true is this?

Also, I really have no ties to anywhere to speak of as my family moved around a lot. Does this mean that for better or worse, it's NYC for me?

What is it you don't like about New York?

Working in New York is different than visiting.

Because New York is the largest employer by far you should consider that you may have no choice but to live in New York. Legal hiring is tough even from Northwestern. You would be foolish to ignore your best shot of getting a job.

NYstate wrote:Working in New York is different than visiting.

Because New York is the largest employer by far you should consider that you may have no choice but to live in New York. Legal hiring is tough even from Northwestern. You would be foolish to ignore your best shot of getting a job.

I'll definitely apply to jobs in NYC; it's just that I would prefer not to live there. I am going to explore whether living in Long Island or somewhere similar, but working in NYC would make the prospect less distasteful to me.

If you get good grades and can spin why you want to work in Chi (or another major market) then it shouldn't matter.

If you end up at median and prefer biglaw over not wanting to work in NYC you'd be foolish not to bid heavily on NYC.

If you have offers in multiple cities I'm not sure how true it is that it's the best place to start a career. It really comes down to the differences in firms and what practice area you want to be in.

PMan99 wrote:If you get good grades and can spin why you want to work in Chi (or another major market) then it shouldn't matter.

If you end up at median and prefer biglaw over not wanting to work in NYC you'd be foolish not to bid heavily on NYC.

If you have offers in multiple cities I'm not sure how true it is that it's the best place to start a career. It really comes down to the differences in firms and what practice area you want to be in.

Sounds good. Thanks.

PMan99 wrote:If you get good grades and can spin why you want to work in Chi (or another major market) then it shouldn't matter.

If you end up at median and prefer biglaw over not wanting to work in NYC you'd be foolish not to bid heavily on NYC.

If you have offers in multiple cities I'm not sure how true it is that it's the best place to start a career. It really comes down to the differences in firms and what practice area you want to be in.

As an example, don't go to NY if you want to target oil & gas

Purplebook wrote:

NYstate wrote:Working in New York is different than visiting.

Because New York is the largest employer by far you should consider that you may have no choice but to live in New York. Legal hiring is tough even from Northwestern. You would be foolish to ignore your best shot of getting a job.

I'll definitely apply to jobs in NYC; it's just that I would prefer not to live there. I am going to explore whether living in Long Island or somewhere similar, but working in NYC would make the prospect less distasteful to me.

There are major legal markets in other cities. Apply for jobs in Chicago, Boston, etc.

If you do decide to work in NYC, live outside the city, as you suggested yourself. You can live in NJ, on Long Island, in Westchester, in CT, and still be in the city by train in 30-45 minutes.