re: BR and Louisiana legal market question

I guess BR "big law" is Kean Miller, Jones Walker, the BR offices of Baker Donelson, Phelps Dunbar, and Adams & Reese and, and maybe Breazeale Sachse and Taylor Porter.

80-90 K sounds like the starting number I'd heard the past few years for those firms. New Orleans is surprisingly low considering the higher cost of living and larger offices. I might be wrong on this, but I think it's damn similar to BR. Maybe 5-10K higher (90-95, maybe 100). I believe Proskauer pays the highest, but they are a NYC firm (and I believe the only one in NOLA) and probably hire 1-2 new people a year since their office is tiny. Similar stature firms are hiring at 140 in Houston/Dallas, and as you know, 160K is the number for NYC. Not sure about DC or the CA markets.

No idea on the workloads. I assume someone like Hudson here will have a better idea, but my friend works at a top 10 firm in NYC and generally pulls 75 hours a week. My best friend's sister is at a similar firm and works either 60 hours or 80 hours a week.

I can't imagine the NOLA firms can be competitive paying 90K and expecting the same commitment but who knows? I have way fewer BR contacts, but they seem to work 50-55 hours/week. They are generally under 30.

I'm obviously not surprised Columbia career services is giving you nothing about the Louisiana job market. Most people heading to Louisiana after Columbia are usually the "save the world" types who want to work for a legal aid office for 45K.