Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How's working at rht like? They were quite high profile last time for a mid tier firm. Now very quiet n don't hear much news.

Coz Bo lui liao. Low liquidity, too sg focused, partner has little intent and money to hire and retain juniors. Also no high profile case to show off, let alone talking about the Russian invasion and how it will affect XXXXXXX. They did not convert any of the trainees when covid struck. Also prolly no achievement in legal500. Other firms also played orchestra and rallied a war cry on social media when the firms or the partners were listed. Doesn't this tell you enough?

It is just a matter of time it regresses into some Chinatown firm

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm earning $6.5k gross (before employer CPF) in a smallish firm. 2020 called. 2 other associates of varying seniority but not really sure what their pay is and not comfortable to ask.

Bonus wise, roughly 1+ months so far, including for 2020 which was based on pro-rated calculation.

Wanted to know how I am doing relative to other small and mid size firms?

You need to ask yourself a number of questions.

(1) How much do you bring in to the firm on a monthly basis? Apply the 1/3 rule. One part for firm profits, one part for bills and one part to you. The fact is if you're in a firm that specialises in "community law", then what you bring in on a monthly basis may not justify a higher salary. This is simple math and you should be able to do the sums quite quickly. I work for a small firm and pretty much have a running account of all the files I handle in my head and at my fingertips. This is an essential skill.

(2) If you feel that you are worth more than you are paid, then you need to renegotiate your pay package. Most lawyers working in small law firms very quickly transition into a profit-sharing model based on each file they handle/bring in. This can be very profitable because how much you earn depends on how hard you want to work and how many files you can bring in by your own efforts. You will realize very quickly that the hustle is real. Many start off with 30% (see 1 above) and then over the years progress to 40%, 50% and 60%.

(3) While it may be uncomfortable to speak to your seniors about how much you earn, you can speak to them about more general things, like if they are purely salaried or if they earn a cut of the files. These are conversations that are neither controversial nor particularly private.

(4) If you are not given the option to transition to a profit sharing model by year 3 or at least given an indication of when you can transition into a profit-sharing model, you are unlikely to progress within the firm. You need to move.

s://mothership.sg/2022/03/ang-wei-neng-time-stamp-university-degrees/?fbclid=IwAR0XcK0bbgb9oHJs0BvybOwd4L3qotqL7MVzGJW6 dSXpdcwgdbMmWWfmgXc

What are your firm’s billable hour or collection targets, if any? How does it affect your pay/increment/bonus?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You need to ask yourself a number of questions.

(1) How much do you bring in to the firm on a monthly basis? Apply the 1/3 rule. One part for firm profits, one part for bills and one part to you. The fact is if you're in a firm that specialises in "community law", then what you bring in on a monthly basis may not justify a higher salary. This is simple math and you should be able to do the sums quite quickly. I work for a small firm and pretty much have a running account of all the files I handle in my head and at my fingertips. This is an essential skill.

(2) If you feel that you are worth more than you are paid, then you need to renegotiate your pay package. Most lawyers working in small law firms very quickly transition into a profit-sharing model based on each file they handle/bring in. This can be very profitable because how much you earn depends on how hard you want to work and how many files you can bring in by your own efforts. You will realize very quickly that the hustle is real. Many start off with 30% (see 1 above) and then over the years progress to 40%, 50% and 60%.

(3) While it may be uncomfortable to speak to your seniors about how much you earn, you can speak to them about more general things, like if they are purely salaried or if they earn a cut of the files. These are conversations that are neither controversial nor particularly private.

(4) If you are not given the option to transition to a profit sharing model by year 3 or at least given an indication of when you can transition into a profit-sharing model, you are unlikely to progress within the firm. You need to move.

Thank you very much! I wasn't the person who asked the question. But this is one of the most enlightening responses I've seen in 100s of pages here. I hope we can maintain this level of quality in our discussions here

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Coz Bo lui liao. Low liquidity, too sg focused, partner has little intent and money to hire and retain juniors. Also no high profile case to show off, let alone talking about the Russian invasion and how it will affect XXXXXXX. They did not convert any of the trainees when covid struck. Also prolly no achievement in legal500. Other firms also played orchestra and rallied a war cry on social media when the firms or the partners were listed. Doesn't this tell you enough?

It is just a matter of time it regresses into some Chinatown firm

Got so cham? RHT recently moved into new premises so I thought they should be doing OK. But yeah the zero trainees retained during covid is a red flag. Industry and especially law grads do not forget this kind of negative news... It Will prolly take some time to shake off the impact on their reputation for a while.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How's working at rht like? They were quite high profile last time for a mid tier firm. Now very quiet n don't hear much news.

Read the reviews on glassdoor, some of which r quite scathing but very elucidative lol.

The main gripe seems to be with top management's leadership, and the firm's obsession and strategy in trying to be seen as a one stop shop with too many disparate spinoff businesses/services (supposedly with mixed results), rather than focussing on the core competencies of a law firm.

many red flags

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Read the reviews on glassdoor, some of which r quite scathing but very elucidative lol.

The main gripe seems to be with top management's leadership, and the firm's obsession and strategy in trying to be seen as a one stop shop with too many disparate spinoff businesses/services (supposedly with mixed results), rather than focussing on the core competencies of a law firm.

When you see their Glassdoor has an average of 1+ star out of 5 stars, it tells u alot. Eh even placed like NOC and Shopre got more stars than rht.

After they split up with Taylor wessing, everything goes a downward spiral. The managing partner needs to wake up la. Old geezer

I am a FCH grad from a delisted school.

Have around 1+ PQE. Been in medium sized firms, but finding huge difficulty applying to the bigger firms.

Getting really sick of practice and thinking of LLMs for a career break.

Would an LLM/BCL from Cambridge/Oxford boost prospects? How about doing an LLM in top civil law school or in the US?

What about New York Bar over masters?