Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Not uncommon. My friends say that the real distinguishing factor is the sensitive issue of pay. This is whether the firm recognises you and truly values your worth as an international side lawyer. The rest is all fluff and no substance i.e. money really talks.
As a corollary of pay, it is also inherent that there are in any tie-up that employs East and West Berlin pay structures, two strands of quality/merit. The international side drawing international pay where the hiring is selective ( NUS/overseas reputable FCH etc, international side pay at another outfit, B4 A&G or another T1 practice) or the local side that is less selective about hires and pays less (basically, less than 90K annual starting etc). Employers are not dumb, they pay you what you are worth until you make a better value proposition.
The 'holding out' is so that you can do more cheap labour on the international clients. Keep them happy so they do work for you while you pay them less money than your expensive hires. Second, most international firms I hear would like to represent to their counterparts and clients that they have local capabilities, which cld be why they hold them out as part of the structure.
Says nothing about pay (sensitive, but I think mostly accurate given my friends' accounts both from FLA SG side and international side). |
Thanks again for your detailed answer! So does this mean there is also no way to find out if the person is from the international or local side (because the international firms feature all the associates across the FLAs anyways).
I also know of some local hires (ie, those hired by local LFA partners) have gone to secondments. So it is abit perplexing to me. But yes I agree, perhaps the difference is the sensitive issue of pay and only them and their prospective employees would know.