A sassy, smoke-free, carb-free, cab-honking, cosmopolitan-drinking, style-conscious, your-name's-not-on-the-list kinda of town. At least, it is if you're doing it right… but even if you are, none of it comes cheap. This isn't the most economical overseas seat, not least because everyone needs tipping; however if you’re not prepared to $$$$pend big and make the most of everything the city has to offer, then why go in the first place? From Broadway to the Guggenheim, from Wall Street to the Empire State Building, from Ground Zero to Central Park, from Taxi Driver to Sex and the City, New York has a unique place in the world's cultural, political and imaginative makeup, so most visitors rightly live a life NY to the max. Little wonder it can feel “like you’re in a movie” as you walk a few blocks to work with your morning coffee. A word to the wise though, the ultra-muggy extremes of summer and occasionally snow-bound, always-freezing winters mean the best time to visit is in the fall, when New York is “absolutely beautiful.”

Work: Wall Street feeds the legal market in New York, and the ‘white shoe’ law firms service the needs of the world's biggest lenders. Unquestionably seen as a premier city in which to do both banking and corporate deals, the Big Apple was well and truly chewed up and spat out by the global recession. Indeed it was the fall of the likes of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns that triggered the rapid collapse in confidence and global meltdown. Even before the events of 2008, new York was an “extremely popular and competitive” overseas seat option for UK trainees, and it has since become even harder to secure a posting here as a number of firms have reduced the number of available slots due to a dearth of work. Even the graduates of America’s elite law schools are finding it much tougher to find jobs. To be precise, there were only half the usual number of openings in the fall of 2009. So is there any silver lining? Well, yes. For one, the number of bankruptcy-related mergers and acquisitions has soared, and litigation has seen a bump in business. According to our sources, structured finance did not entirely collapse and there has been business coming through from Asia, where markets like China managed to stay afloat. And finally, towards the middle of 2009, there were significant signs of progress; for example some major transactions popped up, such as eBay selling a majority stake in Skype and the sale of Procter & Gamble’s prescription drugs business to Warner Chilcott.

If you come to work for a US firm on its home turf, then you’ll be exposed to New York’s famously long hours and high expectations. Remember: US firms do not have trainees - once someone is hired out of law school they’re a fully fledged associate. Visiting trainees are usually pleasantly surprised: “In NY you’ll be expected to do the same sort of tasks as a first year.” Another source agreed: “You get treated more like an associate than in the UK, whereas as a trainee you can be involved in discrete tasks on bigger things, here you see things through from beginning to end.” In transactional seats like M&A, banking/finance and capital markets, trainees are expected to “hit the ground running.” Bankruptcy and a limited range of litigation matters can also be on the menu, as both have seen an uptick of late. It really sounds as if UK visitors are welcomed: “After I went through a training process I really felt like member of the group.” Another positive can be the greater emphasis in pro bono work, so if Keanu Reeves in The Devil’s Advocate is your only frame of reference, rest assured that the major law firms do endeavour to give back to the community through efficiently structured pro bono programmes.

Rest and play: Your ideal New York experience won't be complete without an apartment from which to live out your Carrie Bradshaw/Gordon Gekko fantasies. Most apartments are either within walking distance of the office or “are brilliant for transport connections.” Some trainees even reported having a leisurely walk through Central Park on their way to the office. One told us: “My apartment was amazing… on the Upper East Side in a building overlooking the East River.” A subway that runs 24 hours a day is just one reason why the Big Apple is known as the city that never sleeps. Sustaining oneself with a potent mix of cwaffee and cocktails seems to be the only option, though you're likely to be exhausted long before the possibilities are.

The city proper is split into five areas: Queens, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan. The sights, sounds, social hot spots, parks, museums, theatres, clubs, restaurants and diverse cultural locales on offer mean there is something for every day and night of the year. In fact, you could do far worse than pick up a copy of the Zagat Guide - the New Yorker's bible of restaurants and social must-be-seen-ats - and work your way through it as far as your pocket will allow. Culturally, New York has masses to offer: the Whitney, the Met, the Guggenheim and the MoMA as well as a myriad of hipster galleries on the lower East Side. If warbling is to your tastes, don't forget the big musicals on Broadway, as well as a decent selection of theatre work off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway and off-off-off Broadway. Yankees. Giants. Knicks (short for Knickerbockers). Three teams that will keep you well occupied and give you a window into the psyche of American sports, though it is perhaps better to assess the state of office loyalties before picking a side. For one trainee, making new acquaintances in the office was as easy as pie: they simply had to respond to the comment - "Oh, you’re the new English guy. Great!" Beyond the daily cost of living, your main expense will be weekend travel, be it for skiing upstate in the winter or trips to the Hamptons in the summer.