Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can explain what the range means? Is it the variable component after accounting for frontload?

A few of the big firms now do a tiered system, where lawyers from certain more profitable departments are paid higher salaries to reflect higher workload and higher fees. Apparently R&T and Drew do the same, so Dentons is not the only one.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

A few of the big firms now do a tiered system, where lawyers from certain more profitable departments are paid higher salaries to reflect higher workload and higher fees. Apparently R&T and Drew do the same, so Dentons is not the only one.

Does anyone know what's the current pay for D&N (if you qualified last Aug)?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What is rodyk’s latest salary for NQ to 3pqe?

pqe3 - 8200-9500
pqe2 - 7600-8200
pqe1 - 6600-7000
nq - 6000

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You’re totally wrong, newbie.

I bet you googled “staff attorney”. Rofl. Gibson Dunn’s Staff Attorneys are abit different mind you. The people who moved over (see bottom 2 names in the sg office) are FCH from NUS law. They are on SG scale of salary (approx 11k - 14k for NQ).

Sadly you’re not in the know, and not rubbing shoulders w the right friends in right places. Talk about what “encik”??? Hahahahahahahahahhahahaa stay Big4 bro, good for you

Not sure where you got the random numbers from, these folks are paid MC-comparable salaries with a runway to the full US scale. The threshold for getting is still very high and unlike other firms, no prejudice against giving local uni grads a chance.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

pqe3 - 8200-9500
pqe2 - 7600-8200
pqe1 - 6600-7000
nq - 6000

Why is there a discrepancy from the numbers around 1 page back, which someone posted was:
pqe3 - 8800-9800
pqe2 - 7800-8400
pqe1 - 6600-7000
nq - 6000

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hey my learned friend. Just wanted to message to say sorry for your difficult circumstances - your work place sounds toxic. Not sure if there is any recourse via LawSoc, so may be best to hop to another firm/leave. May I ask though, why did you leave your first firm if you didn't suffer abuse there?

The older firm couldn’t afford me anymore, remuneration wise. It was well below market rate and there wasn’t much work coming in. Practically all the partners are semi retired. Remuneration was slightly more over at my present place and it had links commercially. The rosy picture was well a false facade. I’ve learnt that Associates don’t last past 6mth-1yr.

The current firm encourages file bidding, and you get accused of being non pro active if you don’t get involved in volunteering yourself. This gets inextricably linked to bonuses.

I’ve been sabotaged by my fellow Associates over minor things, which they do in their bid to please the Partners. These Partners love bootlickers and favoritism. Associates have sabotaged trainees too to prevent them from surpassing them.

Partners turn a blind eye to behind the scenes, exercise favourite am, while they fill their rich pockets with profits, nice cars and big homes, I’ve not had a week since a joined the firm without abuse.

As mentioned, been singled out by one Partner all the time. Im tired of the accusations which pains me everyday. They are unsubstantiated and this Partner has tried to force me to confess things that I have never done. Partner does not give me a chance to speak and interrupts when I try to contribute.

As I post this, I am so genuinely disheartened. I doubt my ownself everyday. Never felt like this as TC or in my previous place.

Helpless and hopeless. Why did I join law?

Associates have sabotaged trainees too to prevent them from surpassing them. >>> can anyone advise if this is common?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Associates have sabotaged trainees too to prevent them from surpassing them. >>> can anyone advise if this is common?

Not common la don't overthink things.

It's more that some Associates don't really want to "waste" time teaching or helping trainees and will tell them "go figure out yourself", because these Associates want to slack or think they too busy. This becomes a pattern because when those trainees become associates they will do the same thing "last time also nobody helped me".

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The older firm couldn’t afford me anymore, remuneration wise. It was well below market rate and there wasn’t much work coming in. Practically all the partners are semi retired. Remuneration was slightly more over at my present place and it had links commercially. The rosy picture was well a false facade. I’ve learnt that Associates don’t last past 6mth-1yr.

The current firm encourages file bidding, and you get accused of being non pro active if you don’t get involved in volunteering yourself. This gets inextricably linked to bonuses.

I’ve been sabotaged by my fellow Associates over minor things, which they do in their bid to please the Partners. These Partners love bootlickers and favoritism. Associates have sabotaged trainees too to prevent them from surpassing them.

Partners turn a blind eye to behind the scenes, exercise favourite am, while they fill their rich pockets with profits, nice cars and big homes, I’ve not had a week since a joined the firm without abuse.

As mentioned, been singled out by one Partner all the time. Im tired of the accusations which pains me everyday. They are unsubstantiated and this Partner has tried to force me to confess things that I have never done. Partner does not give me a chance to speak and interrupts when I try to contribute.

As I post this, I am so genuinely disheartened. I doubt my ownself everyday. Never felt like this as TC or in my previous place.

Helpless and hopeless. Why did I join law?

Seems like it's a small firm problem. Not to be unsympathetic but you might do better in a larger firm. The prospects of landing an environment where you can thrive in practice increase exponentially in larger firms. So I'd hesitate to tar the whole profession with the same brush. Your experiences are not representative of the industry as a whole.

The sad reality is, life at the low end of the legal industry value-chain sucks balls. This is generally true of most industries, but accentuated in law given the demanding nature of practice (no matter how small value your firm's cases/deals are) and how closely you work with practitioners. Law is all about individual experts delivering intellectual services (which is the product itself) to clients. So if your principal is shi tty, it really sucks.

I'm going to be blunt here to suggest that fresh grads & newbie lawyers who can't make it to larger firms (whether due to poor grades or other reasons making u an uncompetitive candidate), should strongly consider quitting law entirely and doing something else. While you're still young and it's easy to pivot your career.

Don't waste time working in small law firms dealing with small low-value cases & petty egoistical bosses (who made their decent money in earlier times when law was still easily lucrative even just doing Chinatown work or HDB conveyancing-type work).

The effort-to-reward ratio is absolutely not worth it at the bottom end of law. For the amount of effort/hours you put into the grind, and your intellect (I'd assume that you're generally bright enough to get thru law school and pass the Bar), you would do much better in some other less demanding or competitive industries. Who knows, you may do very well and outshine non-law people in these less intense industries.

Think about it seriously.

anyone has a list of the starting salaries for fresh grad at law firms for this coming batch? this year's offer increased?