The top 1% will get to work there. The next 4% will work in a US firm. The next 5% will work in a UK magic circle or other firm.

In all, roughly around 10% of Singaporean lawyers will work in an international firm. I'm not talking about those fake tie ups.

Objectively speaking, 1 out of 10 isn't good odds. you may think you're good or a very good lawyer, but it probably isn't good enough for the top 10 percentile. And the vast majority are average lawyers - that's why it's called an average.

Most of us lawyers think we're fairly bright and very hardworking. But firstly, the top among us are even brighter and work harder than you can fathom. And secondly, being smart and working hard in itself isn't even enough without the other X factors.

The reality for most of us is that we will be stuck practising law on mediocre salaries doing mediocre work. The stuff that even the big 4 law firms do in Singapore isn't at the cutting edge of litigation or finance