What is the best city to practice biglaw in?
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Anywhere that’s remote
For sure Houston, objectively speaking. All the firms pay NYC market but there is no state or local tax. A first year Texan making $235k has approximately the same take home pay after taxes as a New Yorker making $293k. A sixth year Texan making $475k has approximately the same take home pay after taxes as a New Yorker making $600k. Yes, property taxes are higher but (1) you still come out way ahead at our level of income (2) you self-select into those taxes by choosing your house and (3) the housing here is still super cheap even with property taxes.
Then, you take all that extra cash in your paycheck and spend way less of it because cost of living is the lowest of any major BigLaw market by a mile. This is true of Austin and Dallas too compared to the coasts, but even more dramatically in Houston. Cost of living is *62%* lower in Houston than NYC, yet you get paid MORE due to the taxes.
Houston also has way better commute times relatives to housing costs than most major BigLaw cities, so you can live in your big beautiful suburban house in your nice quiet neighborhood and still only have a 15-20 minute commute (and said house is so cheap that a first or second year can buy it).
Houston also has an absolutely fantastic food scene. As someone who has lived in other BigLaw markets, including NYC, I was shocked at how good the restaurants are.
If one is coming from the West Coast, the one shock would be the humidity levels. The more heat sensitive would hate the summers. While the West has earthquakes, Houston deals with potential hurricanes.
Chicago. It’s still a real city, but you make the same salary and it goes a lot farther than on the coasts (formerly practiced in SF and LA).
I’d say Houston too, for the same reasons.
Dallas. Great food, low cost of living, temperate, plenty to spend the cash on and actually enjoy life, middle of the road politics, good dating scene, major airport, great regional domestic-only airport very near downtown, reasonable climate with ability to easily escape the summer heat by either a 3-5 hour drive north into southeastern Oklahoma or Arkansas or a 3-5 hour flight anywhere in the contiguous 48, no income tax on the high income W-2 wage earner, some minor bible thumping but very manageable and typically only a soft thumping when encountered, has increasingly steered away from the good ol’ boys club and is increasingly welcoming of diverse backgrounds without tipping into territory where they’re falling all over themselves to erect a facade of inclusion.
Boston is fake inclusion with very ingrained racism/sexism/etc, expensive in a way far exceeding reason, a level of pride associated with being trash that is impossible to comprehend, shitty weather 11 months out of the year (sometimes all 12), serious drug problems and chronic societal ills caused by years of corruption and altruistic but ineffective social programs are on full display.
LA, basically west-Boston with better weather and hotter people who dress nicer (I’m talking normal people). The plastic people are not included in the “hotter people” category and are a knock against LA imo, but I recognize to each his own.
New York is expensive and will change the very core of your being, for better or worse. Competition is fierce. Tax to the max!
Chicago is cold, the physical city and vibe can be great and affordable, but the local government is a shit-show and crime-creep in excess of the norm is a real problem.
SanFran, meh, even if not actually breaking off into the Pacific, at this point it would be welcomed if only to cleanse the place. Is it still expensive or have all the homeowners vacated at this point?
No opinions on DC or Philly.
Houston humidity on top of the heat is oppressive, flooding, local government combatting state government is just sad to watch and worse to live through, you will find your car on blocks and/or find your catalytic converters have been removed more than once if you live there for more than a year, traffic is dreadful.
BigLaw has crept into other places in recent years, not to mention remote options, but for traditional partner track options, Dallas ticks the boxes.
Pro
@A5,
Which part of Chicago? Homelessness is a national problem. It has not looked worse in Chicago than any other city I’ve been too. I don’t want to disparage any cities. But Dallas has more homeless people (4k with a pop of 1.28m) by number despite having a smaller population than Chicago (3.8k with a pop of 2.6m). It’s crazy how you don’t notice it in a smaller city with a lower population and more homeless people. Btw, I think homelessness is a problem and we do need to work on rectifying it, though.
Also, which part of Chicago, around the Loop is filled with graffiti? Chicago is one of the cleanest cities I’ve been too—and I was there in early 2023 (after “BLM”).
NYC or nothing.
Nothing it is then.
Boys, BOYS!!! (or perhaps girls; it’s not clear)… You’re ALL correct!
I spent my entire 40-year career in NYC, at least 30 of those years in biglaw, paid taxes like nobody’s business and probably had a similar professional experience to my peers in other major cities. There are great things to be said about Chicago, DC, Philly, Miami, LA, Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio as places to start a legal career.
I can’t say that you won’t work as hard as you would in NYC, but you WILL take home meaningfully more money. I have nothing great to say about NYC (it’s dirty, dangerous and smelly), BUT we probably have the highest rodent population of any major US city. (Unless you are an exterminator that alone is not a good reason to be here.)
However, in defense of NYC, you WILL rub shoulders with the biggest and the best lawyers in the world and, on the whole, the biggest and the best transactions (real estate/corporate/IP) and disputes (litigations/arbitrations).
Now, before all you non-New Yorkers, get your panties in a bunch, I’m NOT saying that you won’t see big, complex and sophisticated matters outside of NYC. However, you will see consistently more of that stuff here than in other cities. So if you want to be a great lawyer and have the world come to you (which were my goals that, to some extent, I accomplished), you need to bite the bullet and come to NYC.
It’s a tougher and more competitive environment than anywhere else. But that’s why Frank and Liza famously said, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”
SF