Quote:
Originally Posted by Pippa
i found it weird that they would all be singing the same tune. thank goodness im not close minded and that i've set my sights on gaining work in the UK. I get to keep my pink IC, enjoy life in the UK which has a really good work/family balance and get to live and breathe democracy, UK styled.
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Most SG law students in local unis have no interest to read around the subject let alone read 'lots of academic commentaries criticising the SG system'. All they want to do is get their hands on suggested answers so that they can replicate and regurgitate it in the exams. many of them want to go into finance after they graduate. they couldn't care less about representing ordinary citizens for free especially in areas of civil liberties and so on.
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but the UK law syllabus is different. in areas of constitutional law, everything is out in the open. it's such an eye-opener and very rewarding in terms gaining the knowledge contained within the british syllabus. you will learn several new mind boggling concepts and you will ask yourself repeatedly till you go hoarse 'what the hell is happening in singapore'.
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This is insanely idealistic. Seriously, good luck with that.
I graduated a few years back from a university in the UK that's arguably considered prestigious (it remains on the approved list, so make an educated guess) and I know of no more than 10 classmates from my batch who made it as solicitors / barristers. They were:
(1) mostly British - locals are definitely favoured over international applicants.
(2) graduated with first class honours (those who did with 2:1 were all outstanding, award-winning mooters, wrote for the law review, etc.)
(3) aggressively networking from the first year of law school and marketing themselves to representatives from law firms.
(4) very nice, friendly, and personable in general (at least that was my impression of them)
If you're looking for a place in the UK I'd say the odds are stacked against you because first, statistically as a Singaporean, you are basically up against talented and qualified British graduates; you need to be more outstanding than them. I don't know you but from your language skills and the way you put your points across (I'll elaborate on this below) - I don't think that this is the case here. I also don't think you know how much worse the market in the UK is, there are many, many more law schools and only so few places in law firms. What makes you think that anyone will hire you?
More importantly you sound like your head is up in the clouds and I'd make an educated guess - even if you do manage to squeeze into a law firm nobody would really like you there. It's not just your view on the UK syllabus vs. the Singapore syllabus - it's the way you put your opinion across - you put on an air of self-righteousness which is definitely unwarranted considering the fact that you are only a university student with little experience in the real world. It's okay to have a differing view, but it should be put across thoughtfully and not in the sarcastic, condescending tone that you have adopted that has pissed so many people off.
I don't purport to be an expert in life (I'm currently only a second-year associate... What do I know? Lol) but I've seen trainees and associates come and go because the partners in the firm thought they were arrogant dicks. Believe me, it matters a lot more than you think it is.
But anyway, if your UK dreams fall apart (which I'm quite sure they will) you sound like you can come to Singapore and be a constitutional lawyer whose best argument is "THE COURTS ARE BIASED! WHAT A KANGAROO COURT! LOOK AT THE UK! DICEY DICEY DICEY! WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A LEGAL SYSTEM LIKE THE UK! THE
PAP SUCKS!"
You get my drift.