SMU Law (JD) Job prospects
 

Hi all,

I am seeking the opinion of folks (or folks who know others) who are graduating from SMU's pioneer batch of Law graduates, either the LLB or JD.

Am especially interested in knowing how the starting pay and placement rate is like for SMU Law grads in the big local firms (Drew and Napier, Allen Gledhill etc) and foreign magic circle firms like Linkslaters and Allen and Overy, compared to their NUS counterparts.

Just yesterday I received an acceptance email for SMU's JD programme. Also applied to NUS Graduate entry, interview and essay went well last weekend methinks.

However, the dateline for SMU acceptance is next week which is before NUS makes their offer. Although I have a reasonable shot at NUS I will have to decline SMU to do so. My Dad suggests that I drop SMU because its not brand name. For this years intake the SMU JD had 173 applicants for 35 places.

Would like to hear the law grads weigh in on employment prospects.

Btw Im age 26 with a masters degree in chemistry, decided for an early career switch into intellectual property and competition law as an advocate.

Kevin

just accept SMU's offer first and then wait for NUS's GLP to get back to you. it's not like SMU can put you in jail for rejecting after accepting.

IP is a gd choice. ur scientific knowledge will be very handy

i suggest u find out whether foreign firms r allowed to advise on IP issues here. The pay is much better afterall. I say this on the assumption that you love money and are very ambitious and don't care about work-life balance (or the lack thereof)

it is hard to say whether smu grads will get a higher/lower starting pay than their nus colleagues (1st batch is only graduating this summer), but i suspect that the answer is 'no'. there shld not be any disparity

SMU JD allows you to accelerate. time is money. pretty sure NUS doesn't allow you to do so. caveat: don't accelerate unless u know that you can manage the workload. your ultimate aim should to get at least a 2nd upper.

More imptly however, you must compare the breadth of electives on offer at both schools. NUS wins this round hands down.

Note that u only get to do 4 electives at SMU. If u r set on IP, i think i can guess which electives you'll be doing :) On the other hand, u get to do 32 credits worth of electives at NUS. That's a maximum of 8 modules. Now compare the IP electives between the 2 schools. It shld be evident that NUS offers a wider range of IP electives. This leads me to another point for u to consider.

Are you 100% sure that u want to be an IP lawyer? Suppose u go to SMU and take all the IP electives they have, but decide in the course of ur study that IP law is boring as hell. Should you decide to go into some other area of law, u might struggle in the beginning due to a lack of knowledge since u were only able to do 4 electives

are you sure an IP lawyer is what you really want to do. I can already see you buried under piles of paperowrk specifying the uniqueness of the invent and drafting patent applications, after applications. very sad life

did you accept the SMU JD?

where did you do your first degree and masters? Local uni?

Wow, you must have parents who are filthy rich!! Can afford to give you another 40k to burn and get your 3rd degree!?! Some guys have all the luck.. A lot of poorer Singaporeans don't even have the mean to get their first degree...

There's a difference between an IP lawyer and a patent attorney drafting patent specificaitons.

Hi learned friends (esp for those who are familiar with SMU JD and NUS GLB)

Has anyone done the price comparison between the two courses esp without government subsidy? From what I understand, SMU JD IS $70K++ while NUS GLB without subsidy is about a little less than $100K ($30-40+K with subsidy)

For most of us who have already done a local uni degree, we would already have utilised the subsidy right, so we are looking at $100K for NUS?

Who knows if He intends to do another MD after his JD/grad LLB.
Then shall upgrade his chem masters to Phd where he left off.



JD, MD, PhD

Seems around this price range
But for GLB, it’s considered undergraduate and eligible for tuition fee loan
If I understand correctly from the FAQ