NYC Jobs

[IluvNY37]

I am trying to decide where to go to law school and my main concern is employment... so I thought I'd see if any of you could help me. Obviously, since you all are farther down the path to finding a job, you'd know more about this.

I am dead set on working in Manhattan and want to work in a large firm... like the rest of the world, of course. Anyways, I am leaning toward NYLS because of location and a large # of people employed in the city, but am also considering St. John's, Seton Hall, and Rutgers-Newark.

What do you all think about NYLS as compared to these schools, in terms of getting a high-paying job in the city? The most important thing to me is that I work in Manhattan. The second most important thing is that my salary is as high as possible. I already know that Rutgers is better than Seton, but are any of these 3 schools better than NYLS in terms of what I'm looking for???

These are the stats that I have (from Martinadale):
# ppl employed in NYC from...
NYLS--2,389, median salary??? i've heard 95 private, i've also heard 75 and 83
St. John's--2,464, median salary 70 for private
Rutgers--958, median salary 101 for private
Seton--531, median salary 81 for private, also heard 74 and 95 (diff. years)

As you can see, no school takes the pack with both # employed and salary. Any comments would be helpful. Thanks!

[nycesq2005]

I am trying to decide where to go to law school and my main concern is employment... so I thought I'd see if any of you could help me. Obviously, since you all are farther down the path to finding a job, you'd know more about this.

I am dead set on working in Manhattan and want to work in a large firm... like the rest of the world, of course. Anyways, I am leaning toward NYLS because of location and a large # of people employed in the city, but am also considering St. John's, Seton Hall, and Rutgers-Newark.

What do you all think about NYLS as compared to these schools, in terms of getting a high-paying job in the city? The most important thing to me is that I work in Manhattan. The second most important thing is that my salary is as high as possible. I already know that Rutgers is better than Seton, but are any of these 3 schools better than NYLS in terms of what I'm looking for???

These are the stats that I have (from Martinadale):
# ppl employed in NYC from...
NYLS--2,389, median salary??? i've heard 95 private, i've also heard 75 and 83
St. John's--2,464, median salary 70 for private
Rutgers--958, median salary 101 for private
Seton--531, median salary 81 for private, also heard 74 and 95 (diff. years)

As you can see, no school takes the pack with both # employed and salary. Any comments would be helpful. Thanks!

Oh my goodness, where to begin. For starters, please PLEASE take the blinders off. Your message already assumes several things:

1. That you can find a job from NYLS that pays 95K and up at graduation (not true, only the top 1010-20% will earn 6 figures, the rest will compete cigorously for jobs paying 40-65K)

2. That theres a difference between Rutgers, S-H, and NYLS (the only schools that place very well with big firms in NYC are NYU and Columbia, with Fordham to a lesser extent - top 30% at Fordham can get into biglaw)

3. That lawyers make a lot of money (some do, but many don't. A NALP study revealed that about less than 15% of lawyers work in large private firms (the easiest way to pull in 140K+ a year out of LS), and the remainder that do make the big bucks, its because they are in business or exploited a profitable niche area of law). The average lawyer is a middle income blue collar worker. Some lawyers I know have never earned more than $100K in their LIFETIME. The average small firm pays about 40-60K to newly admitted attorneys, and even with 5+ years experience, these lawyers top out at around 90K.

4. That the career stats posted by the law schools themselves are accurate. (Newsflash: they are not. The realistic salary is more like 60K for all NYLS grads, same for other area schools of similar quality such as Cardozo-Yeshiva, Brooklyn, St. Johns, Hofstra, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Pace, et al.

I'm sure by now you have read other threads on this board, JdJive (www.jdjive.com) and Infirmation.com. There is a plethora of information on these boards that will be helpful as you meander the law school admissions process.

The short answer to your question: if you want to work for a large firm making the big $$, retake the LSAT and shoot for admission to NYU, Columbia or another Top 14 law school because the chances of getting a job from a local NYC area law school are very slim (need to be top of the class).