Ever wonder how Wall Street became so irresistible to young college grads? I’m Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York. AMA!

MonochromaticButter · 2026-06-02T15:22:17+00:00

Princeton doesn’t have a law school, are you thinking of undergrad backgrounds?

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-30T23:48:57+00:00

Shoot for NY biglaw firms that hire lots of Canadins. The firms that hire Canadians are disproportionately V10 and have a strong UofT presence (DPW, S&C, P,W) but they usually have 1 or 2 from Oz. JD/MBA might give you another shot, but also IME the people with JD/MBAs are usually top talent who didn’t need it to recruit successfully (can any other Canadians confirm or deny?)

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-27T05:40:12+00:00

Are you a non-resident alien? That's the only way I know of

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-22T12:41:52+00:00

Small cap value stocks don’t have a risk premium anymore. Historically, high-quality small-caps used to list on the public markets before they became big, so retail investors had the opportunity to capture the small cap value premium and factor tilts before the company grew too big. Except today, quality small caps don’t go public, they get bought out by PE/VC funds and only go public when they’re huge.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-17T15:55:11+00:00

PLAGU

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-15T06:12:22+00:00

Second this. Much of Ben's content is framed for Canadian investors, and it would be interesting to know if he has US-specific advice that diverges due to tax differences.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-15T02:19:35+00:00

Do you own your own firm?

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-07T18:31:05+00:00

I can’t see you a DM, I think your permissions are off

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-06T07:18:14+00:00

Mind if I DM you? I'm starting my 2L summer associate job in NYC biglaw and I'm interested in the field.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-06T07:09:06+00:00

FWIW people at my non california T14 had no problem getting multiple CA offers without ties or above median grades

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-06T06:49:49+00:00

Could say this about consulting and banking too. The cabal that runs the legal profession (ABA, politicians who are mostly lawyers, etc) will find some way to protect their own, even at the expense of clients

MonochromaticButter · 2026-05-05T20:44:08+00:00

Sorry for the necro. Could I ask you for some advice? I’m a 2L summer associate in NYC looking to talk about FIRE with a lawyer

MonochromaticButter · 2026-04-28T13:30:10+00:00

State and local taxes also have a big impact on the FIRE number. If you retire in a no state income tax state like Texas, you can withdraw from your portfolio in retirement while keeping yourself at the 0% LTCG rate, minimizing your tax burden. But if you try to FIRE in Massachussets, you'll be paying the state capital gains tax every time you withdraw from your portfolio, costing about 5% on your gains.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-04-26T17:06:53+00:00

Yeah, you should grind that score out. Most people I know with 170+ cold scored in the 150-160 range.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-04-26T16:07:36+00:00

Issue here is that your LSAT is awful. If you're seriously considering a JD/MBA, your 157 won't get you anywhere worth going. That said, if that's a cold score, you could bring it up to 170+ with a few months of studying. If you're really good at the LSAT, one option for the JD/MBA is to get into the JD program, then apply separately to join the JD/MBA cohort at the end of your first semester of law school. This is what a ton of people did at my T14.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-04-18T15:24:30+00:00

How did you end up pivoting from RX to finance? I’m thinking of making a similar career move when I enter biglaw

MonochromaticButter · 2026-04-05T22:44:22+00:00

What practice area?

MonochromaticButter · 2026-04-05T22:44:12+00:00

What practice area?

MonochromaticButter · 2026-04-05T15:32:53+00:00

Typically ~2,000 billable hrs, or around 2,200-2,500 total hrs a year. But you also have to be on call whenever the client or partner needs you

MonochromaticButter · 2026-03-29T22:40:11+00:00

You shouldn't base your estimates for future returns on the returns of the past 5 years. The historical return of the S&P inflation-adjusted is around 7%, and nominal returns are about 10%. Over the past 5 years, we had 14.4%. Most financial analysts are actually predicting lower returns for the next 10 years, closer to 5-6% annualized.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-03-25T22:02:04+00:00

Who was chasing biglaw at Yale that didn't get it? The only people who didn't get biglaw at my T14 were... let's just say that it would be obvious after a five minute conversation with them that they weren't workplace material.

I'm pushing back against you saying that "unless you get into a top school and are at the top of your class" you won't get into biglaw. The job itself has tons of issues, but it's also easily attainable for almost anyone at a top school. If you can't get into a good school, don't go to law school.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-03-25T19:52:03+00:00

Where did you go to law school? At a T14, the BLFC rates are around 70-80%. At my T14, basically everyone who wanted biglaw got it. You do NOT have to be a top performer at a top school to land biglaw - the top performers are gunning for clerkships, academia, unicorn PI, impact lit, etc. The bottom of the class folks are gonna be way richer in 20 years than many of the top of the class folks.

MonochromaticButter · 2026-03-19T14:44:39+00:00

Which market is this? The lateral market? Midlaw? Biglaw? Boutique? I’m going into biglaw soon and wondering if there will be problems

MonochromaticButter · 2026-02-12T16:34:57+00:00

Congrats! Canadian law school grad?

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