From Lawyer Insider: Life is Glamorous but Unsatisfying
 

A lawyer posted a comment that gives us a more balanced perspective of the law profession.

I quote him/her:
As for benchmarking to lawyers' salaries, "insider" has this to say:
See the full comment here.

We thank "insider" for the informative comment.

http://www.salary.sg/2007/from-lawye...-unsatisfying/

I recently got a job interview as a fresh graduate. However, a firm doing civil lit wants me to work mon-sat with OT each day, and paying below market rate. If it was a corporate firm, i wouldn't mind as it would be easier to get into in house. Im still looking for other job alternatives at the mean time as being a lawyer is not my goal at the end of 10 years. Are there any other options for me?

Civil service?

ditch it. any firm that makes you work from Mon to Saturday is not worth your salt, and frankly, is full of ****.

you're a lawyer, not a call centre operator or a sweatshop worker in china

as a professional services firm, it is disgraceful for the firm to be stipulating that its employees work Saturdays.

sure, as a lawyer, hours are long. we get it. if that means staying until 3 am everyday for one month so that a deal is closed or a case goes to trial, so be it. you work for as long as required until the job is done.

but that does not mean they can extend official working hours until Sat.

we're members of a profession, not hourly wage workers

(No offence to hourly wage workers at all - my gripe is with exploitative firms like these who treat their associates like one).

Come on, you join a law firm as a freshie doing long OT is expected. Want a 8-5 job go join the civil service.

Also Singapore is suffering from massive oversupply of law grads, those without experience are now begging for proper lawyer jobs. Many are taking up paralegal and contract drafter type of jobs, that is what I call 'exploitative'.

I'm the poster you quoted.

Read carefully. Where did I say that he should only accept a 8 to 5 job as a lawyer?

I'm saying that the firm trying to enforce a Monday to Saturday work-week is stupid and pointless.

no professional firm puts Saturday as its OFFICIAL working hours. to do so smacks of primary school disciplinarianism.

so is he expected to come in on a Saturday when there's nothing really much for him to do?

working adults are capable of planning their own workflow and meeting their deadlines without being compelled to come back on Saturday. what's next, coming in at 7 am for flag raising ceremony too?

even the most brutal financial services firms or investment banks don't stipulate an official Saturday workday.

What difference does it make whether they include Saturday as "official"? Fact is it is expected in the industry for freshies to work 80+ hour work weeks without OT pay.

Does it make your balls feel song song if they tell you your workdays are Monday to Friday but everybody in the office knows you need to come back during Saturday or else means terminated?

You are just ranting on semantics that have no consequence. Market rules, nobody cares about what you think "should" be the reality. If you cannot accept it, just leave the industry and join a nice spot in the civil service.

I think lawyers are paid too much.

They don't need to be paid so much. As long as they can afford a 3 room hdb bto flat, they should be happy. Why need to buy condo?

Do you agree?

hello jackass. i'm not the OP and i have no beef in this game. I have pulled my weight in hours in this industry as an associate so this isn't about me.

what part of my posts is so difficult to understand?

If you think the difference between "officiall Monday to Friday" vs "official Monday to Saturday" is just a matter of semantics, then you clearly aren't a very good lawyer eh?


everybody knows that lawyers work far far longer hours than that and its part & parcel of the job. no one is disputing that here, so stop creating strawmans to argue about.

i'm saying that for a professional services firm to stipulate an official Saturday workday shows how shitty they are.

God I can't believe i'm repeating myself for the THIRD time here. is there something so cheem about this concept that you have problems grasping?

You WOT rant like a PMS emo boy and now claim you have "no beef in this game". Don't wayang lah, pretend to talk to yourself. So unhappy just quit loh, come here scold your employer got what use...

no really i don't have any stake in this. i just can't stand dim bulbs that's all. sigh my greatest weakness is putting too much effort in trying to make dullards understand simple things.

sreu sure. remember to be on time for work tomolo

Hi there, i am the original OP. Thank you for your kind remarks and I fully understand where you are coming from. I was not the appropriate candidate for the job in the end.

I notice in the law forums, there's always someone that sounds smart using rare words like 'dullards'. I just checked Google's usage statistics of the word and it's usage peaked in 1990 and then drop by 50%.

Should I learn to use the word 'dullard' so I can communicate better with lawyers?

Yes

Use it in your email address caption so we can recognise you.

Thanks!

Again, ask lawyer simple question still can't get simple answer. So what exactly does email address caption mean? Lol. I understand email address but apparently there must be some secret hand shake to send captions when lawyers use email. I Googled 'email address caption' but found Instagram caption, which I get.

Do you mean:

1. My email is [email protected]

or

2. When signing off an email,

My email: [email protected]
'I'm a dullard'

I don't know. Maybe get better at English?

So are you asking me to get better at English by using rare words like 'dullard'?

It seems that lawyers carry a certain level of elitism that only resonates with those who use words like 'dullard'. Lol. Great, I'll see whether my lawyer friends see me differently once I introduce the word 'dullard' in my conversation.

Ha ha ha ha! If they give me more attention, that'll be super funny.

Or you could get better at English.

Lol, is that your best comback?

Let's analyze my previous response:

So are you asking me to get better at English by using rare words like 'dullard'?
- My English seems to be correct here.

It seems that lawyers carry ...
- 'lawyers' (plural), so I wrote 'carry' (plural verb). Correct.

... a certain level of elitism that only resonates ...
- 'level' (singular), so I wrote 'resonates' (singular verb). Correct.

... with those who use words like 'dullard'. ...
- 'those' (plural), so I wrote 'use' (plural verb). Correct.

Lol.
- Short form of 'laughing out loud'. Hmmm, I think in legal contracts I'll write the full 'laughing out loud'. Lol to the client. Haha!

... my lawyer friends see me differently ...
- 'lawyer' (plural), so I wrote 'see' (plural verb). Correct.

... I introduce ...
- 'I' (singular), so I wrote 'introduce' (singular verb). Correct.

I was expecting a better comeback. Lol. Am I still the dullard?

Correction: 'friends' (plural), so I wrote 'see' (plural verb). Correct.

I need a better comeback from you.

Looks like some legal training will also help.

Lol. Your comeback will have more impact if it's obvious, rather than one that requires me to understand why what I said before requires legal training. Unless, I'm the dullard.

Here's an idea. Maybe you could have said that my defense was about 'correct' English, not about 'better' English.

I'll wake up tomorrow expecting to hear another comeback from you.

It's like you're talking to yourself. Brilliant.

Please don't feed the twat

That's a good comeback. I checked the Google statistics on the word 'twat' and to my amazement, it's usage has continually increased since the 1950.

So it seems that I'm really a dullard for initially not knowing the word twat. Lol.

Nice comeback pal. The initial commentor should learn from you. Well done.

Can someone answer me. Am I a dullard or twat?

Actually you're a loser. Now that's a word for which usage has continually increased since the 1960s too.

Please don't feed the wanker

Lest he provides another detailed summary of word usage for "loser" or "wanker".

These fkn lawyers are way too free.

"it's usage has continually increased since the 1950."

It is usage has continually increased since the 1950?

Not the person you've been arguing with, but your grammar is hilarious.