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Old 26-01-2022, 10:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
A UK FCH is a dime a dozen nowadays, and as a trainee, don't expect to start on the UK scale.

The pecking order of firms in terms of pay for a junior is something like this:

1. US White Shoe Firms (eg Milbank, MoFo, LW, W&C) - these pay over 20k per month but only usually start taking in juniors at 2 PQE and beyond (SG scale)
2. Other US firms (e.g. Dechert) - less than White Shoe Firms but more than Magic/Silver Circle firms (not confirmed)
3. UK Magic or Silver Circle firms (e.g. CC, Links, HSF, A&O, Ashurst, Hogan Lowells - note, L&L side not counted) - these pay around 12-13k per month for 2 PQE (SG scale)
4. BMWL, NRF, Clyde - these pay around 8-10k for 2PQE (not sure about Ascendant though)
5. Big 4 - these pay about 7-8k for 2PQE
6. Firms like WKW, Dentons, TSMP, and other boutiques (e.g. Blackoak or the accounting-linked law firms) pay similar or slightly less than Big 4. These also include some JVs like MPillay and Morgan Lewis).
7. Then you have everyone else. Some of the JVs also fall in this tier like EHE or DMS.

Most of the JVs are scams, the only obviously integrated ones (i.e. where you aren't on local payscale and the place functions as one firm) are BMWL, Clyde, CC (not sure about about the smaller ones though).

TC wise, above the Big 4 only CC & BMWL offer TCs. Although A&O has a UK-linked TC and Ascendant is now offering TCs on behalf of NRF - don't know how integrated they are to NRF though. So if you wanna start as a trainee in Singapore and want to go "above" Big 4, you only have very few choices.
Is this "pecking order" still true?
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