This was the quote from years back - doesn't mention frontloaded what

'We increased our starting pay for newly called lawyers to $5,000 about two to three years ago, when the big firms were paying $4,600. We wanted to send a message that we would pay for top quality talent, and that we wanted the best,' TSMP joint managing director Stefanie Yuen Thio told BT.

'Whether we will be changing our pay is something we will have to continue to monitor. While we don't want our associates' monthly pay to be too different from what other firms are paying, philosophically, we have a different mentality on bonuses.

'One of our fundamental management principles is that we must be able to pay outperformers very well, without worrying that it will rock the boat as far as the other lawyers in that batch are concerned. We will therefore want to retain the ability to reward our top performers with an exceptional pay package, and hopefully incentivise others to up their game.