[skydiver]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

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.

I'm a 3rd year PQE in a Big 4 law firm. I'll be hitting Senior Associate within the next 3 months. I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify the salary structure within local firms. Here goes:

(1) Salary Culture Whilst local firms tend to set a low basic monthly salary, the annual remuneration is by no means unattractive. The annual remuneration mechanism is a very, very bonus-centric one, which involves a bonus component which pushes up the base wage by a minimum of 50%. A minimum 6 month bonus is given to flat-out average performers. Better performers typically get 7-8 months, while star performers (very rare) may get up to 9 or more. Anything less than a 6 month bonus is typically the firm’s signal telling an associate to leave.

In order to bring monthly take-home paychecks more in line with those offered by offshore firms, part of the 6 month bonus is set aside, divided by 12 and "front-loaded" into monthly paychecks. These are set out below in Paragraph (3).

The easiest way to calculate your annual pay is to take the following formula: (12 + no. of months bonus) * Basic Salary. Typical annual packages based on a ballpark average performance are set out below in Paragrapsh (3).

(2) Basic Salary schedule for the first 4.5 years:
Year 1 (NQ, 1st 5 months) - $4,000
Year 2 - $5,000
Year 3 - $6,000
Year 4 (SA1) - $7,200
Year 5 (SA2) - $8,500

(3) Take-home Salary schedule for the first 4.5 years (pre-CPF):
Year 1 (NQ, 1st 5 months) - $5,800
Year 2 - $6,800
Year 3 - $7,800
Year 4 (SA1) - $9,000
Year 5 (SA2) - $10,500

(4) Aggregate Annual Salary schedule (based on 6-8 months bonus, ie 18-20 months basic salary)
Year 1 - $30,000 over 5 mths.
Year 2 - $90,000 to $100,000
Year 3 - $108,000 to $120,000
Year 4 - $129,600 to $144,000
Year 5 - $153,000 to $170,000

It is thus clear that the yearly increment in annual pay is not $12,000. Since local firms pay typically 18-20 months of the basic wage within a year, the true average annual increment ranges from $18,000 (years 1-3) to $24,000 (year 4-5 increase), often outstripping the annual increment offered by offshore firms. As a result, the income gap between a Big 4 associate and ann offshore associate shrinks every year, and by the time a local Big 4 associate hits Year 5, his annual pay really isn't too far below what his peers in the offshore firms are taking. Furthermore, the move to offshore firms starts looking less and less attractive, given the better prospects of making partner within the next 3 years.

Final Note: These figures exclude the monthly S$650 employer CPF contribution as these are useless funds that go into your Medisave and Special Account. They can't be used to pay for housing (or anything for that matter), and in most cases, you will only smell these funds when you're way too close to your deathbed... Nevertheless if you wish to include this, you can add about $12,000 to each of the annual income figures stated above.