How we compute the numbers

BigLaw Bear uses each verified office ZIP code to anchor the office to its local market, then maps it to a cost-of-living index normalized so the national average = 100. Reviewed city-level indices take priority. When a city is not yet in that table, the map uses the latest all-items Regional Price Parity for its state. U.S. territories outside the BEA state series use a clearly labeled national baseline. This ensures that every mapped U.S. office has a comparison while preserving more specific city data where available. The tables live in src/lib/cost-of-living.ts in our public repo.

Why we use a composite index: housing alone is the most-cited COL metric, but it underweights the day-to-day delta - groceries, transportation, and utilities are also meaningfully different across BigLaw markets. The composite index captures this.

What we don't model:

• Neighborhood-level variance within a market (Manhattan vs Brooklyn vs Queens for "New York").
• Lifestyle delta (how much you eat out, whether you own a car).
• Tax-advantaged housing (employer-provided housing, rent-stabilized leases).

Every tool that returns a "post-tax take-home" estimate uses the same progressive 2026 single-filer model for federal income tax, FICA, state tax, and applicable city tax.

Federal + FICA effective rate

Federal tax is calculated bracket by bracket after the 2026 single-filer standard deduction. FICA separately applies Social Security up to the 2026 wage base, Medicare, and Additional Medicare above its statutory threshold. Federal and payroll taxes do not vary by city, but they are not represented as one flat percentage.

State + city rates

Reviewed market rules show the combined state + city marginal band around first-year BigLaw pay. New York combines the 6.85% state band with NYC's 3.876% city band; California is in its 9.3% state band at this income, and Massachusetts remains 5% below its surtax threshold. WA, FL, TX, NV, and TN show 0% state income tax. For another U.S. city, the map applies a labeled state-rate approximation. Estimated take-home uses progressive federal and payroll calculations rather than multiplying pay by one flat national rate.

What we don't model:

• 401(k) and IRA contributions (which lower your effective federal rate).
• Married-filing-jointly or head-of-household scenarios.
• State-specific deductions (NY commuter benefit, CA SDI tax, etc.).
• Quarterly estimated tax timing (relevant if you're 1099, but BigLaw is W-2).

The retired salary calculator adjusted each firm's first-year salary for cost of living in its headquarters city; Pay and cost of living replaces it with the firm-by-firm pay scale and a city-to-city adjuster. The adjustment math is the same:

adjustedSalary = nominalSalary × (100 / colIndex[city])

Each firm's starting_salary is displayed as estimated first-year cash compensation, combining the published 2026 first-year base scale with the expected first-year bonus where the market bonus convention is known. Firms that haven't published a 2026 scale fall back to their most recent known scale; firms with no usable compensation signal are excluded from the ranked list.

Bonus structure (referenced but not summed)

The salary calculator surfaces published bonus structures (market scale, off-market scales, and above-market bonus conventions) per firm, but treats bonus assumptions as estimates because bonuses vary year-to-year and can mislead when presented as guaranteed pay.

The Cost-of-Living Adjuster takes one offer in market A and shows what it's worth in market B. The math is the inverse of the salary calculator:

equivalent = nominal × (toIndex / fromIndex)
takeHome = nominal × (1 - 0.28 - stateCityTax[market])

The "tax burden delta" surfaces the difference in state+city rate between the two markets - the federal piece cancels out. Take-home delta then surfaces what your bank account actually sees per market.

The Total Comp Comparison stacks up to four offers side-by-side. Total cash is the sum of:

• Base salary - the firm's 2026 first-year scale.
• Signing bonus - user input (firms vary widely; many publish a $40k-50k figure).
• Year-end bonus - user input, defaulted to ~8.5% of base (the first-year market bonus convention).
• Clerkship premium - user input, defaulted to $0; toggle up to $75k for federal clerks (a common bump). Some firms also credit state high-court clerkships.

COL-adjusted total cash uses the same formula as the salary calculator, applied to the summed total. Take-home is the same approximation as elsewhere.

What we don't model: retention bonuses, stock components (very rare in BigLaw), in-firm class-year jumps mid-year, or the tax timing on signing bonuses (which usually clear before December).

The Practice-Area Fit Quiz asks 20 this-or-that questions about the work and the people you like working with. Each pick maps to -2 (the left answer), 0 (a bit of both) or +2 (the right answer) and multiplies a per-practice-area weight (-3..+3). Scores are summed and normalized to a -100..+100 scale for each area, then compared across all areas to rank the best fits.

The quiz covers 26 BigLaw practice areas, from Corporate / M&A, Private Equity and Commercial Litigation to Tax, Antitrust, Life Sciences / FDA and National Security / CFIUS. Every area is informed by at least five questions. Your results show which of your own picks pointed toward each match, which pulled away from it, and why a runner-up did not come first. Full per-question weights live in src/lib/practice-area-quiz.ts.

How weights were chosen

Weights were seeded from BigLaw practice descriptions (Vault practice-area profiles + Chambers Associate Insider Reports + the firm-side recruiting collateral our partner firms publish), plus post-hoc legal-pedagogy literature on attorney work-style typologies. They're meant as a starting point for self-reflection, not a hiring recommendation.

What this quiz is NOT: predictive of where you'll actually be hired, comprehensive of every sub-specialty, or a substitute for talking to attorneys in the practice areas it surfaces.

BigLaw Bear shows each published ranking as its publisher released it, because each measures something different: revenue, headcount, prestige, associate life, pro bono or inclusion. Every rank on the site links to the list it came from.

When you sort the firms directory by "Chambers Band 1" or filter by practice, we use the most recent published Chambers data for the practice + market combination. When the firm has multiple offices ranked differently for the same practice, we surface the highest band.

Every formula on this page is implemented in our public repository at github.com/tjtags/biglaw-bear. If you spot an error, file an issue or send a PR. Specific files worth reading:

• src/lib/cost-of-living.ts - COL indices, tax rates, helpers.
• src/lib/practice-area-quiz.ts - quiz questions, per-PA weights, scoring.
• Offer-deadline computation and weekend rolling used by offer workflows.

This page reflects the BigLaw Bear platform as of July 2026. Reviewed city cost indices are Q4 2025, state fallback price levels are BEA 2024 Regional Price Parities released in February 2026, tax rates are 2026 tax year, salary scales are 2026 first-year, and Chambers bands are 2026 cycle. We rebuild the underlying lookup tables once a year and after a material salary-scale announcement.

If you're reading this in a future year and the numbers feel stale, check the file timestamps in the public repo or open an issue - we ship updates as data lands, but the docs sometimes lag a release or two.