Was thinking of BCL but Mr smartypants just made me want to compete with him for his job even more

Bump bump.

Baker didn't retain me. I think less than 65percent retained

A certain team in one of the B4. All trainees retained; 5.8k.

Got retained but asked to work as legal exec. What does it mean? Should I renege and apply Tc elsewhere?

How do you renege on a TC that has already been performed...?

Retained as a legal executive = not retained unless there is a concrete plan

Means they want to con you into doing the work but not paying you associate salary lah. Don't forget, apart from a lower base salary right now , you're also probably not going to get an annual increment on the same salary scale as a real legal associate, and most likely a crap bonus too

There's no such thing as renege. You don't owe them anything to stay. Leave the moment you find a real LA offer elsewhere

And he or she doesn't get PQE, I assume. Which really sucks.

It is worse than being a real LA with a pay cut. Even if you got retained with a pay cut which subsequently is bumped up when a real position is available, it is a real struggle explaining to anywhere else why you were not retained as a lawyer.

I'd rather go elsewhere.

Bad advice. In this kind of market, you want to argue for LA when you’ve been given an Exec job? Be realistic. The economy will take years to recover. As a LA, your job is easily replaceable by AI, new tech, in-house counsels, etc.

Titles matter. I'd either negotiate for that title but take a pay cut for now.