Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
These firms you speak about are probably doing low end work.
Law, like many other industries, is a stratified sector which is divided into firms doing top tier work (funds, M&A, equity / debt capital markets, asset financing, international disputes etc) and those doing the low end work (personal injury, conveyancing, debt collection etc).
Top tier firms will never employ pinoys or indians fresh out of the Subcontinent. Those bottom tier ones will, but then again the client gets what he pays for.
The difference is that the legal profession is still very much a closed fraternity of local Singaporeans. Unlike say a an Indian national who is in the middle to top level management in a bank who will pull in his own kind, the top lawyers in the top law firms will not induct someone other than a Singaporean into the ranks of the partnership.
Retention is bad, but is no worse than other years. The bottle neck is the law students getting a TC.
Assuming an aspiring young lawyer successfully crosses the hurdles of TC and retention and slog it out for a couple of years, their career options increase dramatically (international firms, banks, in house, other big firms or even non-legal posiitions like in civil service).
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Uhm... Are you aware that quite a few lawyers in the big4 firms are non Singaporean? At last count, I know of at least 10 EPs in A&G who come from across the causeway, and another few who herald from other parts of the world, such as Laos and Myanmar. R&T has a similar number as well.
In fact, opening foreign law offices naturally involves the managing partners over in those branches holding dual partnerships - both in the Singapore head office firm and in the foreign branch firm. As such, you could safely say that any big4 which has affiliate offices overseas would almost invariably have non-Singaporean partners inducted as partners in the singapore office.
I therefore wouldn't agree on the point about only Singaporeans being inducted. If you're a rainmaker who's capable of originating millions in fees every year, your nationality doesn't quite matter yes?