It’s no secret for New York City’s attorneys-to-be that landing with a big-name firm after graduation will fare much better for their bank accounts than working in municipal government.
But as Brendan McGuire, who recently left a job with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to serve as City Hall’s chief counsel after the election of Mayor Eric Adams, notes in an interview with the Law Journal, the gap has grown larger in recent years as top firms offer increasingly large pay packages to young attorneys while compensation for working as a public defender or a government attorney remains firmly in the five figures.
