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Old 04-02-2022, 01:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
So in 2008 you were in primary school. How young and innocent.
That’s besides the point.
Your chinatown lawyers will continue to have a job bcos there will still be divorce and conveyancing transactions, albeit in lesser volume.
What makes you think that a small-mid size local firm will want to employ an international firm lawyer in an economic crisis. People in the small-mid size will be looking at keeping their own jobs, not splitting the pot with others.
International firm lawyers and the nature of international law firm work depends on the financial markets. They do not do your personal law stuff, bankruptcy, probate, divorce, crime.
In a crisis, nothing can sustain the lawyer’s $20k salary in an international law firm when you cannot even collect/bill your client US rates.
Granted 1-2 out of 10 lawyers will survive. But it’s hunger games all over again.
An international firm lawyer is not attractive to the small-mid size firms doing your personal law work such as POHA. Don’t believe go ask around.
The flaw in your argument is that you're assuming there's (1) international firm work, and (2) everybody else does personal law stuff like divorce, conveyancing, small claims liti, POHA, crim etc.

(2) is untrue. The majority of lawyers not doing small-time personal law, are working in midsize firms (or even local Big 4) doing the same work as (1), except that their clients are not Goldman Sachs or BlackRock but local corporates, OCBC or DBS. Let's call this category of mid-tier corp lawyers category (3).

It is lawyers in this category of (3) who are drawing your so-called idea of "sustainable salary" i.e. grinding 90+ hour weeks for $9.5-10k per month as 4PQE.

A major economic downturn will affect (3) as much as (1). All the run-on effects which you claim of corporate lawyers being shut out from "man-in-the-street" work in a crisis, will equally apply to category (3).

Given the above, why the heck would I not chose (1) over a "sustainable salary" in (3).

It seems what you're really saying is that we should all quit servicing corporate clients and do work only for HDB auntie and uncles.
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