Frankly, law is not for everyone. As a prerequisite, one must have the tenacity and interest to last in this line.

Fresh graduate starting at any of the local big 4 (A&G, R&T. WongP and D&N) should be looking to get about 6K monthly. Yearly increments should amount to about 12k i.e. increment of 1k/month right until junior partner level where the next bump occurs. I believe this has been the case since July 2013. The catch is, this amount often includes a front-loaded component of the year end discretionary bonus, which would effectively dwindle the bonus amount received in real terms. It is not uncommon to hear of complains during year end that a 3 to 4 month bonus effective gets reduced to less than a month in real terms due to front loading. You could argue that a Singapore law firm provides firm grounding in local law and hence you are 'paying' for your education vis-a-vis a foreign firm.

If you're one of the luckier SG qualified lawyers starting at any of the QFLPs (i.e. one of the UK or US firms awarded a qualifying foreign law practice license), you could be starting anywhere from 130k to 140K per annum. That works out to about 10k to 11k monthly, excluding bonus. Yearly increments should be about 20k on average i.e. about 1.6k/month. Of late, QFLPs have started offering training contracts directly and may become serious competitors for graduates right out of school with any of the local big 4. We are in the midst of re-shaping the legal employment sector here. There are however, usually less Singapore qualified lawyers and the stress at some of the QFLPs could be tremendous, given that less mentoring may occur. Giving a few years ahead though, one could speculate that the QFLPs may have built up for themselves a critical mass of SG qualified lawyers to rival the mentoring at local law firms. This remains to be seen admittedly.

That much being said, no amount of money can keep you in law unless you have as mentioned, the tenacity or interest. It is telling that the profession has one of the highest attrition rate around.