I'm glad you guys don't list Denver. :-)

Certainly, if you wanted to practice law at a high level, live in a great city, and have a quality of life that destroys either Coast or Chicago, then why would you want to live anywhere else.

Why is Texas always lumped together? Houston, Dallas and Austin are each very different and are competitive salary-wise with the rest of the country (pay is on par or higher than everywhere but NYC).

10:48 --

Is Denver really that great? I've been thinking about relocating there, but recently heard that, despite its proximity to the mountains, the city is somewhat dumpy.

for the life of me, i can't understand why TX commands such high salaries. the COL is low (no income tax, property is abundant). i guess MAYBE if you do oil/gas, you deserve a high salary since it's unique to TX.

and plus, you have to live in TX, where you run the risk of bubba running you over in his dualie-pickup and/or dick cheney shooting you up with his 12 gauge.

I gave up the chance to work in Denver, and now I'm stuck in NYC instead.

D'oh!!

11:11(1)

Your second paragraph explains "why TX commands such high salaries."

11:20--touche'.

i guess it's like why the feds pay big bucks to the contractors to send people to iraq. risks are roughly the same i figger.

McGuire Woos has been in Charlotte for awhile now. Perhaps you meant to say that they were growing in Charlotte since they just merged with Helms Mulliss?

McGuire Woods has been in Charlotte for awhile now. Perhaps you meant to say that they were growing in Charlotte since they just merged with Helms Mulliss?

11:04 --

No. It's dumpy and horrible. Stay away.

apparently MW charlotte merged with helms mulliss to take advantage of the booming market for banking work

I'd like to take this opportunity to express how much I think SEN should stop blogging.

A lot.

Shanghai should be included on the list.

Can ATL help expand upon BigTex's point about Texas? Would love to better understand the nuances and strategies of planning a legal career for Austin vs. Dallas vs. Houston. Can non-Texans succeed there, or is it a locals' club? Does having NYC biglaw experience help or does that make you a damn Yankee no one wants around? Thanks!

Denver is a fabulous place to live. Great cost of living, great weather, all four major sports, easy to get around the city, mountains (of course), great parks, and, of course, the green chili.

MW has been in Charlotte for 10 years, if you wanted to talk about firms "moving it" it would be more appropriate to name Winston, Sonnenshcein, Dewey, King & Spalding to name a few.

Also note that while there are more firms, there aren't actually more lawyers at these big firms, if anything, I'd say the total number of big firm lawyers is actually shrinking in charlotte, or at least not keeping up with traditional expansion, since pretty much every firm has a freeze on transactional hiring.

The type of law practiced in Austin v. Dallas v. Houston in very different. For example, most of the oil and gas law is practiced in Houston, while Austin has a lot of IP work.